Planted tank cleaning

[ArkyLady]

I've seen some heavily planted tanks that you could barely even see the substrate in most places. What do you do about cleaning in these tanks? Seems a normal gravel cleaner would uproot or damage the plants if you started poking it around there much.

I don't use live plants yet, but will be using them in my next aquarium and I'm just curious :)

[Richer]

I just do a surface skim of any exposed gravel mostly for looks. Other than that, I leave the substrate alone.

HTH
-Richer

[Slappy*McFish]

I never disturb the substrate in my planted tanks either..all I do is clean the glass if needed, do my water changes, and clean the filter...oh yeah, and prune and trim the plants too.

[gcvt]

Same here. My gravel vacuum hasn't actually touched the sustrate in well over a year. I have strong current and a sand substrate, so nothing really has a chance to settle - everything just gets picked up by the filters.

[Tom.E]

I have a 1 inch thick ‘ring around the tank’ of debris under the substrates of my older plant tanks. Even if you don’t start off with an organic substrate, it soon becomes one. :)


Tom