I'm wondering what people with a planted tank do about this. I notice that a decent amount of poop builds up quick in there, but I hate tearing up all my plants and my cichlids' little caves and such where they breed every time I do a water change. Is there anything to be done about the poop?
Fish Poop in Planted Tank
- Thread starter tears2
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I have to pull the plants out every time I do a WC. It sucks but it's the only way to get the poop out. You don't want it sitting in there so you've got to do what you've got to do to remove it. Sometimes disturbing the tank is the only way to keep the water healthy.
I generally leave it alone, as part of the natural process of a planted tank . . . when I do a water-change, I mainly change just the water, plus any floating debris from the plants, but I don't vaccuum the substrate or re-arrange the plants . . .
I think it depends on how heavily planted your tank is, if your talking about 4 or 5 plants that managed to survive then yea you probably need to get around them the best you can. If you have a heavily planted tank then odds are there arent a whole lot of BIG waste makers in there, allowing the plants to naturally keep the water clean. I had 5 discus, 6 panda coreys and a dozen or so rummy nose tetras in a planted 75 and I had to dose that tank with nitrates b/c the fish waste couldnt keep up with the plants. Depends on what your plant/waste ratio is.