Eliminating need to gravel vac?

[xDestro]

Iv heard cory from aquarium co op talk about eartheaters and some catfish such as giraffe catfish eliminating the need to gravel vac and the fish do it for you by sifting through the substrate... is this true?

Reason I ask is because if I get a bigger tank I would like to add a group of geophagus and maybe a group of dwarf giraffe catfish to sift.

 

[skjl47]

talk about eartheaters and some catfish such as giraffe catfish eliminating the need to gravel vac and the fish do it for you by sifting through the substrate... is this true?

Hello; No this is not true, at least in my experience and my understanding of how things work.

I built up the interior of a small tank many years ago with the goal of forcing the detritus into the pickup of a HOB. The tank has several levels of gravel substrate held in place by glass panels. The layers step down from the highest in a back corner to a point at the opposite end of the tank with the HOB pickup. The arrangement was very good at moving the normal build up of detritus/mulm into the filter pickup.
I also have the tank well planted and with snails to root around in the gravel. The bottom line is that I still have to do a gravel vac every week or so.

There is also the fact that fish, even catfish, can only get a portion of value from foods. There are some things in foods that cannot be further utilized by fish and snails. This stuff with no food is part of what is eliminated as waste. There will eventually be a build up of this waste in the substrate.

So no I do not think you will find a type of fish to get rid of all the detritus.

 

[dan518]

+1 to the above, the only way to eliminate gravel vac from what I have heard is the 'Walstad’ method.

 

[Hendre]

Nope. Walstad is simply a very "basic" aquarium in the way that it's understocked with very little to no powered filtration or plant dosing. So you need the sediment

I just use sand and it stays fairly clean

 

[dan518]

There's alot more to the Walstad’ method than that if done properly, it's very popular with channa breeder's in main land Europe

 

[Hendre]

There's alot more to the Walstad’ method than that if done properly, it's very popular with channa breeder's in main land Europe

I'm not super versed in it but that's the basic Idea I think, using manageable input for very low maintenance.

Could work for woodcats since apparently they also breed in aged water like channa

 

[dan518]

The main idea behind it is having a thick layer of topsoil with a thin layer of gravel over the top, the top soil holds nutrients for the plants and harbours bacteria that help break down solid fish waste. If you get the balance of fish/plants/oxygen/light right you end up with a tank that doesn't need water changes or gravel vacs on a regular basis just needs dosing with calcium to keep the water hardness up.
The pic isn't my tank

 

[Hendre]

Ah thanks for clearing it up

convict360 has a small one with RCS actually

 

[nzafi]

The way I've seen folks get rid of gravel vac is by going bare bottom, tile, or something similar and then running the intake if the filter multiple places at the bottom. The intakes if powerful enough will suck everything up.

 

[krichardson]

The way I've seen folks get rid of gravel vac is by going bare bottom, tile, or something similar and then running the intake if the filter multiple places at the bottom. The intakes if powerful enough will suck everything up.

This seems to be the only true way to eliminate the need to vac aquarium gravel.....don't have substrate in the first place lol....and have enough water movement that very little of anything has a chance to settle on the bottom before the filter system draws it in.