cleaning with plants...

[Venus_Spirit]

Ok one more question.. What is the best way to clean the tank when it is fully planted without damaging the plants or their roots? Before I always do small weekly cleans.. get any died leaves out, brushing/scrubing the glass, etc. Then every 3-4 weeks do a 1/4 to 1/3 water change and vacum the gravel. But with a fully planted tank wouldn't you do more damage to the plants and their roots?

Thanks for any help.. my tanks before only had a couple of plants so I could just work around them..

Venus

[djlen]

If you do a very light (and gentle) gravel vac you should be able to siphon off the gunk that collects in most planted tanks without much problem. You don't have to go deep at all into the gravel to do a nice job on clean up.
Where I have heavy concentrations of plants I sometimes go with a siphon tube that is just a bit less than 1/2" to get into the tight spots.

Len