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hi guys

I did a water change last night (i did a 15% change) and today i have been doing some work in my tank i have removed a fair bit of carpeting plant and there is a lot of waste under it that i would like to suck the waste out the thing is it has only been 18 hrs since the last water change is this to little amount of time or should i not remove the waste at all. Thanks

Hi,
I would definitely vacuum up the area that had been covered
by the plant. You would not want that stuff, suddenly,
freed and floating about the tank exposed to light.

As far as when to do a water change is concerned, it is up
to you. Generally we tell folks that it depends upon the
bio load of their tanks, and their spare time, but it should
be done weekly. There are those with specialized tanks
that never do water changes and, conversely, there are those
that have their tanks set up with an automatic drip system
that changes their water daily. Its up to you, your fish,
and the bio load.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

18hours is fine. Sometimes just a couple hours is fine so long as you aren't changing a large amount of water and the tank isn't behind on water changes. With just 15% so long as the tank isn't weeks behind on water changes or there isn't something odd with your tapwater you could keep doing water changes every hour until your satisfied.

thanks for the help guys i just finished cleaning the gravel and looks a lot better and have just re-planted any of the good plants that were there befor. Thanks again