Dwarf hair grass & cleaning the tank bottom

[BoiseNoise]

I saw a plant called "dwarf hair grass" listed for freshwater tanks. It is about 4" tall and is said to quickly cover the bottom of the tank. What I'm wondering is, then how would you go about cleaning the bottom of the tank? Would you not even need to clean it anymore, since the plant would be making use of whatever settles to the bottom?

(Currently I use a vacuum to clean the gravel in my tank, and I don't see how that would work if the bottom were covered with plants.)

 

[SCGeordie]

In the areas of my planted tank which are covered with Brazilian micro sword I just wave the siphon around in the top inch or so of 'grass' to disturb any crud that's caught in it - my rainbows gather in the corner and watch mesmerized as food magically appears from the 'grass', ready to pounce on any that doesn't make it into the siphon. I use a 'medium' size siphon as the large one tends to suck the 'grass' out of the substrate.

 

[Andrewtfw]

With dwarf hairgrass, you place the siphon through the grass to the surface of the gravel to remove filth that has collected at the base of the plants. Dwarf hairgrass will grow quicklyw ith high light and co2. I have not been able to get it to grow without these factors. It is common for dhg to get a fine, string algae caught within it. At one point, I was combing it like hair on a weekly basis.

 

[BoiseNoise]

Thanks!

I liked the idea of having this on the bottom of the tank, but wasn't sure how it would work. I'd be afraid of injuring any tiny fish if I had to still siphon through the grass all the way to the gravel surface, so maybe it's best used with only slightly larger fish (probably like SCGeordie's rainbows).

Sounds as if it probably wouldn't grow well for me anyway, and might not be worth the cleaning hassle if it did.