I stumbled upon a great article on aquarium water change by americanaquariumproducts.com (Yes, they want to sell you stuff, but they also have some lengthy and detailed articles): http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_cleaning.html. The article goes into great detail on how you should clean the aquarium and change the water. One thing that caught by eye was the bit about vacuuming the gravel and the bacteria living in it:
Contrary to some information thrown around without much research, vacuuming the layers of gravel that contain aerobic (nitrifying) bacteria will NOT destroy the bacterial colonies as research (that really is not that new) has shown these bacteria to secrete a glue like substance to the media they cling to and a gravel vacuum will NOT dislodge these bacteria.
I too had heard about this, from my local aquarium dealer I guess. Also the book by Mr. Markku Varjo talks about the good bacteria living the gravel and that you should be careful not to vacuum too much and too often. I guess this again shows the point that there are as many advice on aquarium maintenance as there are people giving them 😉 In any case, last week when I did change the water, I followed the old advice and didn’t vacuum the gravel too much. So today I measured the nitrite levels and they were up, although I’ve done all I can to avoid nitrite (not feed fish too much, take care of the plants…).I think the elevated nitrate levels are related to my too careful vacuuming of the gravel because there was really a lot of feces in the bottom of the tank.
So I think what American Aquarium Products talks about makes sense and vacuuming the gravel from all loose material is important. You will not loose the good bacteria when vacuuming and by vacuuming the gravel the excess dirt is removed and you will have lower nitrite levels. I cannot imagine leaving the feces there can be good for anything. And as long as you don’t clean your water pump at the same time, there will be enough good bacteria in the tank anyway.
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