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I believe you're trying to get the tank too clean. I've never taken the gravel out of my tank in 3 1/2 yrs. I use a mini gravel vac, available at wally-world for about 5 bucks. Make sure, (really sure, look at it twice), that the hose is in the bucket , then submerge the vac in the water so it fills up, then raise the end high enough so the water starts flowing, then stick the end back down in the water. This would be a good time to make sure the hose is still in the bucket. Just take out about 2.5 gals of water though. It would be better to do this twice a week than 5g at once. 3 corydoras would live happily in 5g. What type of filtration do you/are you planning on using?

29g - 5 Head and Tail Light Tetras, 1 Black Phantom Tetra, 1 melanistius cory, 1 Featherfin Synodontis, 1 otto
29g - 14 harlequin rasboras, 5 albino corys, 3 ottos
10g - 1 glowlight tetra, 2 Black phantom tetras, 1 red betta on entertainment center

Ok some people don't seem to think my water conditions are very good, so here are my parameters:
amonia: 0-0.25 mg (can't tell what shade that yellow is )
Nitrite: 0 ppm
I don't have a Nitrate testing kit, as I have never seen a point to them, but my water seems fine?

i just submerge the water vacume in the water, then hold it up so it starts going down then i completely submerge it again with the part closest to the syphon tube down lower, and then it just sucks and sucks (lol)