Old Tank Syndrome and Planted Tanks.

[Mulla]

Hi all,

I was reading an article supplied by RTR about OTS and substrate renewal for planted tanks.

http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/oldtanksyndrome.shtml

The last 3 paragraphs describes the situation for planted tanks. I was wondering how many of you actually do that here? The procedures there wasn't that clear. What excatly does he mean by a 'stand' of plants? Do I pull out all pants and vac the substrate every few years??? Sounds like a lot of work to me.

What are your opinions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tempest]

I'm not sure how many of us have kept a tank going as long as he describes.(3 to 5 years.) My first planted tank isn't yet two years old and it hasn't exactly stayed the same.. When I remove a overly large plant or a *stand* of plants, I do end up digging round in the substrate some to clean up. Periodically things like sagitarria just plain seem to get too thick to grow well so I thin it out and clean up the substrate some. If I ever feel like I need to go all the way to the bottom cleaning, I'm gonna be in a mess.. I made the mistake of putting perlite on the bottom of the flourite and every time I remove something large like an amazon sword, I have a lot of floating. I'd never do it that way again but I had the excuse of ignorance.

 

[RTR]

Old stands (=clumps) of Val, Crypts, rhizome or runner-spreading swords, even non-spreading swords after years, like plants in the flower garden borders, can choke themslves out by simple overgrowth and during the same inverval leave excessive organics in the substrate.

Planted tank folk routinely lift and divide old stands of plants to keep the plants and the substrate and the tank healthy.

In low-light non-supplemented tanks, the growth and so the the requirement for renewal is slower, but still present. Gardens, whether indoors in tanks or outside in soil are not static. They do need periodic renewal to stay healthy.

Tempest: Don't attempt to do the whole tank at once, divide the tank mentally into quarters or such and tackle one area at a time with month(s) between areas. This keeps you having the whole thing act like a new tank. Renewal depends on the plants. Val I try to do yearly or nearly so, Crypts about 2-3 years, Sag subulata is likely close to Val, big swords are less often - they are a PITA.

LOL! I have tanks in their teens.

HTH

 

[anonapersona]

Seems like years

I have broken down each of my tanks at least once or twice in the year+ I have been doing planted tanks. That is, either a total uprooting of everything, or nearly so.

If all goes well, in about a year things are overgrown. Or else they haven't grown and you have spots to fill. I've torn out a big stand of crypts -- actually one single pot of crypts that had been divided at first planting into 3 tiny groups, then moved to the back as they grew too tall. Some plants come and go, like Apongetons, others just get moved for the sake of change.

I can see that in the bigger tanks it might take longer to get around to totally tearing something out, but rearrangeing happens every few months.

 

[Mulla]

Thanks for the replies people. Never knew this before now, just another task to add to the list of things to do

If I do perform cleanup, vac, uprooting + replanting every now and then. Won't I be removing some of those brown looking 'ferts' that I put under the gravel?? Sorry for not using the correct term I should be replacing them each time I do this vac? Maybe on a biannually basis.

 

[RTR]

"Mulm" is the common term, and it is to planted tanks what compost is to the outdoor garden. You can do without it, but life is better and easier with it.

You should not be digging in to gravel vac in a planted tank other than when resetting a clump/stand of overcrowded plants. The most you do with routine vacuuming is getting excess fish poop and plant debris out from between plants. If you do stagger the intervals at which plants are reset, you will never get all the mulm out and will be fine.

 

[Mulla]

Mulm eh? Don't think I can remember this terms kinda sounds weird Guess it sounds a bit like my alias so will try to remember this way!

Thanks again RTR. I know I shouldn't be vac'ing in the gravel where plants are. I was just a bit concerned about excessive removal of mulm when I do gravel renewal. Already put in my fish diary to do that renewal every 2 years!