Well you will need the right equipment, the most basic being,
•
Bucket for waste water.
•
Tubing or gravel Vacuum.
Now you just need practice. Follow the steps below and you will get it, no problem.
1.) unplug heater ( unless you have a fully submerged heater or substrate heater ).
2.) Look down on your tank from the top, mentally divide the tank into 5 sections.
3.) Place waste water bucket ( container ) below tank.
4.) Place larger opening of vacuum in tank and push straight down in to substrate ( do not move it side to side ), in section number 1 of the 5 you have the mental picture of.
5.) Provide some means of vacuum so that water starts to flow from the tank, through the tube into the bucket. Easiest way is to simply suck on the end of the tube that is outside the tank until the water begins to flow.
6.) Wait 5-15 seconds, then pick the tube straight up out of the gravel ( about 2 inches ).
7.) While out of the gravel move the tube over about 1 to 1-1/2 inches.
8.) Press the tube straight down back into the gravel.
9.) Repeat steps 6-8 until 1/5 th of the tank has been cleaned or 15-20% of your total water volume ( 1.5-2 gallons for each 10 of your tanks volume ) has been reached.
10.) Replace the water back into the tank with aged or treated water if needed.
11.) Plug your heater back in.
12.) Wait 7 days and repeat the entire process but this time, instead of doing the first section of 5, do the second section. Then in another 7 days do the third, and so on until the 6th time you do this you are doing the first section over again.
