Tips on cleaning a tank with Plantings

D

donfenk

AC Members
Jan 4, 2007
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New Jersey
i have always used fake plants but am interested in starting to get some live plants in my 90Gal tank - my question is - how do you vacuum the gravel with plantings?

right now my plant is in a little plastic pot - however roots have started to grow into the gravel. Do you guys remove the plants to clean the tank? or just clean around the plants and leave the gravel around the plants dirty? I see some great looking planted tanks and just wanted to know how they are kept clean.

Thanks
 
Yeah I have a similar problem with my 5.5G - whenever I try to clean around the plants I uproot them accidentally since I don't have rocks weighing them down. I would also appreciate some tips on this matter.
 
It depends. If the tank only has a few plants then I vaccuum around the plants and try to leave the plants in tact. If the tank is densley planted then, I do not vaccuum the substrate at all and just let the plants have the fish waste and such for fertilizer.

Marinemom
 
Nitrate level issue?

I guess letting the plants have the extra nutients would not be an issue in a tank without fish or very lightly populated - but think there woudl be big issues in a 90 Gal tank with 20+ fish. I clean the tank every two weeks and there is alot of fish waste.

Nitrate levels would go through the roof if i did not remove all the Poop
 
What about water changes to control the nitrates? I just storm the subtrate a little before I remove my 20% every two weeks. Not too much though bc the fish might hate it (and die).
 
jmkeuning said:
What about water changes to control the nitrates? I just storm the subtrate a little before I remove my 20% every two weeks. Not too much though bc the fish might hate it (and die).
Click to expand...

my fish always love water changes. unless your not adding dechlorinator like prime i dont see why they die. i do 50% water change every week.
 
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