Polys and leaf litter?

[Experiment397]

i used to always coat the bottoms of my tanks in leaf litter but since getting back into monsters haven't really been doing it anymore, would this be beneficial to polys at all? i know my pictus and loaches always seemed to love it and my polys are always chilling at the bases of my larger plants so im curious if they would enjoy foraging in a leaf litter bed. any thoughts?

 

[Polyaddict86]

Shouldn't be a problem, it will look nice, but my only concern is when its cleaning it, but im sure a poly can smell the food even its undeneat the leafs.

 

[Experiment397]

okay. i know some people would lose their minds but i actually dont do any substrate cleaning, just water changes from the top strata. I prefer to keep my enclosures, reptiles included, as natural as possible and have yet to have any issues. my tank bottom is a layered mix of soils, sands and DG with lots of organic matter that has accumulated over time. the plants seem to flourish and i have never had any water quality issues from it. i was mainly concerned with them being able to find food in the litter but if they will be able to sniff it out then i wont worry.

 

[jaws7777]

okay. i know some people would lose their minds but i actually dont do any substrate cleaning, just water changes from the top strata. I prefer to keep my enclosures, reptiles included, as natural as possible and have yet to have any issues. my tank bottom is a layered mix of soils, sands and DG with lots of organic matter that has accumulated over time. the plants seem to flourish and i have never had any water quality issues from it. i was mainly concerned with them being able to find food in the litter but if they will be able to sniff it out then i wont worry.

I dont "gravel vac" often either. Everything ends up in the sump. I also never did it with planted tanks

 

[magpie]

I stopped using leaves because my pH was tanking in my super soft water, but I would think they'd be into it. I love the way it looks, and all of my fish seemed to like them when I had them. It would add a bit of a mental challenge too.

 

[Experiment397]

anything to soften water tends to just help me. the water is insanely hard and alkaline around here.

 

[Zilch]

I dont "gravel vac" often either. Everything ends up in the sump. I also never did it with planted tanks

Same boat here, the Rid-X breaks down the waste... unless it's from the lungfish, then you need a net D:

 

[thefredpit]

I didn't know rid-x was safe for the fish how do you use it

 

[Zilch]

I didn't know rid-x was safe for the fish how do you use it

You have to use the powdered stuff but there's a megathread about it here, it's a really long, but good read:
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/the-use-of-probiotics-in-aquaculture-read.536737/

Plenty of us use it with polys with great results!

 

[Polyaddict86]

I didn't know rid-x was safe for the fish how do you use it