Gravel Vac Heavy Poop... not working.

[lordgreggreg]

Hi there, I just put in a sand substrate for my loaches, and the all love it, etc.

I did this to help keep a cleaner environment in my fish tank.

One big problem though... My pump i'snt strong enough to lift up all the poop so it can get into the filter...

So after one day's sleep, I wake up to find the tank littered with large string of waste from my common pleco. He is a little bigger than the size of my hand.

So I decided to get my gravel vac and suction it out... But that didn't work, they were too big and heavy to be able to be picked up.

I ended up having to pick them all out by hand, but I really don't want to make that part of my daily routine.

Any suggestions?

[shari2]

I had the same problem with my pleco. Get a bigger gravel vac. Bigger vac=stronger suction=poop is gone and water changes are faster. Just watch you don't suck up the sand. Wave it over the surface and the poop goes up the tube.

[helen nightingale]

i got a pooper scooper on a long pole as part of the kit that came with my glass scraper. i havent really used it, but something like that could be worth a try??

[Tinman]

A cannister with more suction will do wonders like a Rena xp3 but big poop can be netted without to much trouble.

Like your sand???? Are your water parameters better now???

[lordgreggreg]

hmm, a bigger gravel vac...

i supose that should work, mine is already prety big i thought..
ill see what the fish stores have.

and yeah, the net worked ok, but not all of that sand was small enough to filter out of it, so mabey a better net would work.

thanks for you help guys,


water params are better.. nitrates droped 10 down to 30ppm.

we bought 10 moss balls that we are going to throw in there to help.

We are also moving the tetras and the gold barbs and angel to another tank.

[Diana]

If you already have a pretty good sized GV, then lower the outlet tube to increase the water flow.

[lordgreggreg]

ok, so there wasnt a bigger gravel vacume really ,,, and i already had the nozel as low as it could go to the gorund.

now, i forget acatly how sucktion works, but i know it has something to do with a diferences in pressures, and trying to reach an equilibrium...

and so im thinking.. ok, presure has to do with area... and that i am loosing sucktion because i have such a large diameter on the intput of my gravel vac.

and so i decided to just get rid of that part.. and tru it into nothing but a hose.

and that worked great my tank is completly clean i love sand, you can see and get everyhting /.

anyhow.. one of my big loaches somehow found a way to get out of the tnak this morning... it was a very dramtic half hour of holding him upright in the curent so his gills would get lots of oxygen.

but compared to the first five minutes of him in the tank, not moving, stiff, eyes glazed over, and no gill movements, i almost cryed when he kicked his fin tryig to get out of my hand.