when you do water changes on a planted aquarium, do you just not vacuum the gravel? i figured this would disturb the roots and plants. can anyone tell me how to gravel a planted aquarium, how much, and how often?
water change question
- Thread starter danepatrick
- Start date
you can use an equipment call the gravel cleaner to do the job it'll help to clean up ur gravels you can do it for once in a mth or so
I don't do gravel vacs for my planted tanks. If there is a lot of poop, like in my pleco tank I do, but otherwise don't. Just do a normal water change. Keep in mind that plants need nitrogen in order to survive, which is also why it is important to carefully monitor you tanks that you fertilize. If you add too much fertilizer you can end up with a nitrite spike. If you gravel vac all your sludge away, your plants will not do too well. Plants will take care of water conditions pretty well. I find my tanks often malnourished in nitrogen.
You just skim the surface,deeper and youll wreck the roots.some folks do less than that the mulm is good for the plants
not to worry of sludge... theres where your biological filter comes in! to much of sludge is not good to the plant roots too so a clean of the substartes not just cleaning the dirt but also to lossen the compact substrate you have so as to create a flow of circulation under the gravel for the roots to grow better thats what i've encounter...
the mulms are actually good for the water too cos it's the main contruibtion to the maturing of the water biological system..
If you remove about 1/3 of your water for a water change you will be able to dilute any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate you have in your tank. Regular changes are more important than actually removing the mulm or sludge.
so should i just skim water out (like the uneducated water changers out there) rather than getting stuff off of the bottom with my vacuum? is this what everyone is saying?
i do once aweek water changes and make sure i get the poop out of the gravel and aafter i finish i add plant food. all my plants are know growing better and have stronger root growth in the sand and on my driftwood.
danepatrick said:
I would still remove excessive amounts of excrement, but not all of it. In a planted aquarium you need to have this as a source of nutrients for the plants themselves. As with non-planted tanks it is bad to have excessive amounts of nitrogen.