dust on my plants.

[FishyMatty]

I added some new sand to one of my tanks last night and the tank clouded up with dust and this morning when it settled there was a film of dust on everything. Would it be best to just let the current take care of removing it or will the dust choke the plants out? If I dust everything with my hand I think I will end up with a tank full of dust again and it will just settle back on the plants. What would be the best to do in this situation?

 

[UCF-Planted]

gravel vac the leaves?

 

[Plecosterone]

I just vacuum them. I use a 1/2" rigid clear pipe with soft hose attached. It is the best vaccum I know of for a planted tank. It allows it to be very selective on what it picks up and gets right into the thick of the plants if want to. Just need to watch out for any fry hiding in the plants....:headshake2:

 

[geofied]

I just vacuum them. I use a 1/2" rigid clear pipe with soft hose attached. It is the best vaccum I know of for a planted tank. It allows it to be very selective on what it picks up and gets right into the thick of the plants if want to. Just need to watch out for any fry hiding in the plants....:headshake2:

Hmm, I have a long piece of acrylic tubing that I've been saving to use for something. This might be the thing. What kind of hose did you use, and how did you attach it?

 

[Plecosterone]

I heated the rigid acrylic (not necessary) and just stuck a piece of hose onto the end.

 

[mellowvision]

I use a syringe to blast the leaves with water, clears most of the dust back into the water column, which will get sucked up into the filter, or settle back onto the plants and substrate, but over time it works. I also just rub leaves with my fingers... and I also comb thinner plants with my tweezers, fairly often, to keep debris from settling in

 

[FishyMatty]

I don't know if the dust got stuck on some algae or what bit no matter what I do I can't get the rocks or the hair grass clean. The hair grass is rooted really well so I go over it back and forth with the 1/2" hose and it barely gets clean. I just figure I will let it grow out and hope it eventually looks clean.
You don't think the dust will smother the plants do you

 

[mellowvision]

it will limit the light the plant gets... could create spotting possibly, depending on how thick it is.

 

[geofied]

I don't know why I didn't think of this, I use a turkey baster for stuff like this in my betta tanks. You could try suction, or blasting as mellow mentioned.