How do you clean your planted tank?

[ewurm]

I have a heavily planted tank, it looks great, everything is where I want it. I want to do a gravel vac but I am worried that I won't do an effective job without tearing down the tank. What do you think?

 

[dougall]

I vote for letting it go unless it looks ugly..

all it's gonna do is help the plants.

 

[ewurm]

Thanks for the advice, welcome to MFK!

 

[ewurm]

The tank looks great, very little debris showing on the bottom.

 

[dougall]

As far as I know, normally the issues with gravel vacuuming are aesthetics of the tank, and the buildup of nitrogen compounds, primarily ammonia and/or nitrate.

As the plants will happily use the Nitrogen, especially if they're root feeders, then you're left with the question of seeing fish poop.


And I certainly don't profess to be an expert.. really..

 

[WyldFya]

All I do is pull the excessive amounts of pleco poop out, and do water changes. The plants will feed on the excess nitrogen. Don't tear the tank down, as that will disrupt the roots of all of you plants.

 

[ewurm]

Thanks for the advice. Should I vacuum the gravel I can get to?

 

[TankBuster]

I used to hover the vac over the base of the plants and that would pick up the big peices of pleco poop

 

[danepatrick]

I used to hover the vac over the base of the plants and that would pick up the big peices of pleco poop

sounds good! i think i'll try this once my tank gets a little older (still a new tank so it's not dirty enough to clean).

 

[ewurm]

Thats pretty much what I do, except I will dig into spaces of open gravel, at least clean some of it.