Caring/maintaining clean substrate (questions)

[Finthusiast]

Hi everyone! Its been a while since I have posted anything here and things are going real well in my 75 gallon tank thanks to the help of many members’ advice here at MFK!
I have a some questions about caring for substrate like to make sure it doesnt build up too much nasty stuff.
There is quite a bit of algae growing on the surface basically carpeting the gravel, is it ok to sift this around carefully to “clean” it up a bit or will that make for a toxic leak into the water? I mean if it is just algae and if I clean up all the waste first. I have not used a gravel vac yet and there is obviously a bunch of fish waste that I need to get rid of first before moving any of the gravel around. Thanks for any advice any and all thoughts welcome please!

 

[twentyleagues]

Gravel vac it.

 

[deeda]

Can you post a pic of the algae carpeting the gravel? It sounds more like cyanobacteria rather than plain algae especially if it appears in sheets.

 

[Finthusiast]

I will post a pic when I get home thanks for the fast replys I also will get a gravel vac and do that for sure maybe this is all that I will need to do?

 

[twentyleagues]

Doesnt really matter what it is. There is nutrients in the gravel causing it, remove the nutrients.

 

[Finthusiast]

Heres a picture of the algae this is just one section of the gravel but all is pretty much like this. None is showing up underneath rocks where no light can get etc.

 

[Finthusiast]

Another picture of algae and a how it didnt grow past a certain point due to a shady spot

 

[Zanzag]

To me it looks more like mulm buildup

 

[Fat Homer]

If you can use a gravel vac, that would be your best option...

However, if your substrate is too light and gets sucked up into the gravel vac itself, you can try attaching a turkey baster to a manual siphon device using zip ties.

Then when doing water changes, first use the turkey baster siphon to blow air directly into the substrate layer by aiming the nozzle end just above the substrate (thereby stirring it), while vacuuming the buildup out...

 

[Finthusiast]

hi it’s been a while since I posted this and I have further questions regarding the same topic.
I now have quite a bit of green algae growing over my gravel and I was wondering is it OK to just leave this or do I need to gravel vac?
Nitrates are around 10 ppm currently so seems like safe as is but wanted to be sure to ask in case you guys have experience with this being an issue.
Here are some pictures. Thanks for reading!