How do you guys siphon heavily planted tanks?

M

Mooch28

AC Members
Dec 24, 2004
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Toronto (Brampton)
Or do you just not?

I always thought that getting out as much waste as possible is good, but i guess when heavily planted you cant to this because of the limites space for getting the siphon in. Is it just used up by the plants as nutrients?

I ask because my lighting and CO2 injection kit are both arriving next week, and i plan on heavily planting from the start with some easy growing, high nutrient intake plants.
 
Just use the syphon pipe and not the attatchment should be ok...
 
I have a few bare spots in my tank... mostly for the benefit of my cory, who likes to have some open gravel... I press the syphon onto the gravel, stir it up just lightly to get any debris. Other than that, I just drain water out and add more.
 
For getting in and around my heavy planted parts I took some 3/4“ PVC and put a short chunk of hose on the end with a female garden hose fitting. I try not to stir up the gravel but can get into the tighter spots.
 
I use a Pyhton, and granted, my tank is not "heavily planted" yet, but as it grows in and I start propagating and such, it will fill in rather quickly. I leave quite a bit of open space in the middle of the tank because I stock fish that enjoy a good swim. In the corners where it gets extremely tight, I suck up as much as I can, moving around plants. I have also taken off the big gravel sucker in the past and just used the smaller end of the hose to suck out between root clusters and leaves and such. If one had fry, small fish or ghost shrimp (which I do) they would have to be careful not to suck any in, since the valve to close the Python is on the part you are using to vacuum. HTH.

Out of curiosity, do you have gravel or sand? I use sand and the debris I wish to vacuum generally stays closer to the surface. I suppose with gravel it gets tricker, but still sounds feasible to me.
 
Harlock said:
I use a Pyhton, and granted, my tank is not "heavily planted" yet, but as it grows in and I start propagating and such, it will fill in rather quickly. I leave quite a bit of open space in the middle of the tank because I stock fish that enjoy a good swim. In the corners where it gets extremely tight, I suck up as much as I can, moving around plants. I have also taken off the big gravel sucker in the past and just used the smaller end of the hose to suck out between root clusters and leaves and such. If one had fry, small fish or ghost shrimp (which I do) they would have to be careful not to suck any in, since the valve to close the Python is on the part you are using to vacuum. HTH.

Out of curiosity, do you have gravel or sand? I use sand and the debris I wish to vacuum generally stays closer to the surface. I suppose with gravel it gets tricker, but still sounds feasible to me.
Click to expand...


I use gravel.

thanks guys....
 
I just lightly vac over the surface of any open areas, and the spots that are thick with vegetation are pretty much left alone. I do run the vaccum through my thick stand of rotala however, where debris tends to get trapped in the leaves.
 
I use either my Python without the big attachment thingy or just a length of hose. Scoot around the plants picking up whatever debris needs hoovering. Run it through around over and into various plants to clean off debris, algae.

I don't use it to stir up the substrate. Just to hoover. Kind of like hover. Just bouncing along the surface. Sucking up the debris.
 
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