Waterchange question

[RainbowGeek]

I just got a 150 gallon of craigs list. 

I keep mostly 10-30 gallons, so waterchanges dont seem to be that much of an issue as I just use a gravel vac. But thats gonna take real long if I use a gravel vac on a 150. I have seen online of people using their canister filter to back wash or a water pump to pump out the water to do a waterchange, but it doesnt seem that they vaccume their gravel with their weekly waterchange. I would like to use the pump or canister filter idea for my 150. My question is do I HAVE to vacume the substrate or can I just take out 25% or something of the water each week?

[lefty o]

there are folks that almost never gravel vac. i do, but try not to surgically clean the substrate, just suck out the bulk of crud. i use a python hooked to the sink on my 120.

[JettsPapa]

As @lefty osaid, regular substrate vacuuming isn't generally required.  I know I rarely bother, and many places in my tanks are so heavily planted that I couldn't get to them anyway.  It's probably more important if you have gravel, since you probably need to suck up leftover food that falls down in the cracks, but I have sand in all my tanks, and they all have snails, along with corys and/or shrimp, so leftover food isn't an issue for me.

Edited January 5, 2021 by JettsPapa

[FishyThoughts]

Like most things with fish keeping, it comes down to setup and preference. I try to set my tanks up to require minimal maintenance. I don’t do weekly/bi-weekly/monthly water changes. I monitor to water and do changes when I see nitrates, GH, KH or other issue that needs a water change. And I pretty much never vac the substrate, only spot vac if nitrates are getting high and see area with a lot of buildup. For the most part my regular maintenance is only cleaning the prefilter sponge. With the periodic rinsing of the canister media/sponge being occasionally needed. 
 

[Aqua junky]

I have run an FX6 and it makes water changes easy! It's got a drain on the bottom that had a barbed fitting on it that I attach a hose to and run from there to my sink. I kill the power to it and my heater and close the return line and let gravity do the rest! And as far as gravel vac I only do it when I need to. I've actually got two power heads I'll let run for a few hours to A-Give my fish some exercise and B-Stir up all the debris which usually settles it a certain area of the tank when power heads are on than just suck it up!  But that only happens maybe once every couple months!