I've been trying to sort out all of this information that I have been reading on here about whether it necessary to vacuum your substrate in a planted/ semi-planted tank, and whether or not that is dependent on the type of substrate you have. I am interested in this because, like many of you, I vacuum my tank quite often (at least twice a week), and would not be too upset if I didn't have to do it so much. I also am interested in changing my substrate from gravel to Fluorite or Eco-complete soon(leaning toward Fluorite), and planting even more (I posted a thread on this before, so we don't necessarily have to re-visit the best substrate debate).
Here are the conclusions/observations that I have come up with about all of this:
It seems like those tanks that don't get vacuumed a lot are those planted tanks that have a very small bio-load. For example a 20 Gal, heavily planted with 8-10 neon/rummynose tetra-size fish or so. With that type of scenario, am I right that the waste being produced by the fish is being completely used up by the plants, eliminating the need to vacuum regularly?
It seems like the ones that do need frequent vacuuming are those with much bigger bio-loads (or even those that house bigger fish), meaning that the plants can't consume all of the fish waste. I haven't yet heard of a large Cichlid, Arowanna or other big fish keeper saying that they don't have to vacuum their tank. I think mine is in this catagory: I have a 92 Gallon tank with a three med-large fish (2 severums and a barbus filamentosus), and the rest are small-med size fish (3 rainbows, 3 cories, 3 neons, 2 tetras,2 rams and a BN).
Does type of substrate play into this at all? It seems that it's convenient to vacuum Floruite and Eco-complete size substrates, but I've read many posts about people being concerned about vacuuming sand substrates, because they don't want to suck all of the sand up. The successful sand substrate/non-vacuum tanks seem to be the smaller bio-load tanks that don't need to be disturbed often.
So it seems that what I'm getting at is: If you have a tank with a large bio-load from a full stock, or just from bigger fish that poop a lot (especially carnivorous ones), you may always have to vacuum your gravel frequently, and there is probably no number of plants that you could have to use up the fish waste in a large enough amount or timely enough manner to keep the tank in balance. It also seems that sand substrates are inconvenient in tanks that need to be vacuumed more frequently.
Any Thoughts?:huh:
Here are the conclusions/observations that I have come up with about all of this:
It seems like those tanks that don't get vacuumed a lot are those planted tanks that have a very small bio-load. For example a 20 Gal, heavily planted with 8-10 neon/rummynose tetra-size fish or so. With that type of scenario, am I right that the waste being produced by the fish is being completely used up by the plants, eliminating the need to vacuum regularly?
It seems like the ones that do need frequent vacuuming are those with much bigger bio-loads (or even those that house bigger fish), meaning that the plants can't consume all of the fish waste. I haven't yet heard of a large Cichlid, Arowanna or other big fish keeper saying that they don't have to vacuum their tank. I think mine is in this catagory: I have a 92 Gallon tank with a three med-large fish (2 severums and a barbus filamentosus), and the rest are small-med size fish (3 rainbows, 3 cories, 3 neons, 2 tetras,2 rams and a BN).
Does type of substrate play into this at all? It seems that it's convenient to vacuum Floruite and Eco-complete size substrates, but I've read many posts about people being concerned about vacuuming sand substrates, because they don't want to suck all of the sand up. The successful sand substrate/non-vacuum tanks seem to be the smaller bio-load tanks that don't need to be disturbed often.
So it seems that what I'm getting at is: If you have a tank with a large bio-load from a full stock, or just from bigger fish that poop a lot (especially carnivorous ones), you may always have to vacuum your gravel frequently, and there is probably no number of plants that you could have to use up the fish waste in a large enough amount or timely enough manner to keep the tank in balance. It also seems that sand substrates are inconvenient in tanks that need to be vacuumed more frequently.
Any Thoughts?:huh: