I have one planted tank with gravel and lots of cherry shrimp so I vac very carefully. I also have malaysian trumpet snails that help stir up the gravel. My other tank is planted with Eco-Complete so I don't vac that at all. I also have MTS in that tank.
How do you clean a planted aquarium?
- Thread starter Nickatron86
- Start date
BettaFishMommy
finkids make me happy :-)
i stir up the un-planted areas of substrate of my planted tank, but with my crypts thickening up and continuous addition of new plants (like today! woot!) it's just becoming unnecessary to gravel vac. the plants 'eat' the poo, lol.
If you stop gravel vacuuming then you should watch for H2S pockets in the substrate. Just take a chop stick and poke a bunch of holes in the substrate every once in a while. If any places go anearobic bacteria can grow that make H2S and that is a poisonous gas.
I don't gravel vac and my substrate looks like soil after 6 months of over feeding. But I have to prune double handfulls of plants every week to make room for fish to swim. I use no fertz and no CO2.
I don't gravel vac and my substrate looks like soil after 6 months of over feeding. But I have to prune double handfulls of plants every week to make room for fish to swim. I use no fertz and no CO2.
I use a plastic stick intended for use in holding back trailing plants in gardens. It's 2.5ft long- perfect length to be used in the tank.
i figure that my myriads of snails and my kuhlis stir things up enough. i leave the crud for them and the plants to eat, and once every month or two i stir things up real good and let my filter do its best. other than that, i just clean up the top bit of gravel that isn't obstructed every now and then.
