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I just wanted to know how do you do a gravel vac if your tank is heavily planted?
I think it's not good to do a deep gravel clean because of the roots,but some say it can be good to aerate roots..
Someone here who has a heavily planted tank and whant to shear his/her gravel vac methods?
Bensaf and Keithgh you must have some good methods

Robby


Last edited by Robby1619 at 20-Oct-2005 06:52

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

Use can use something to stir up the gravel while holding the vac just above the gravel surface, then the dirty water/mess is sucked away but the roots arent badly affected.

i use the handle from my net to do this.

Last edited by cols at 20-Oct-2005 07:00

all my tanks r heavily planted but i still do deep vac...i just make sure that those plants that easily uprooted r not vac too deeply...i just grind/ swoosh around the upper portion of the gravel and the dirt comes out.

hm tankie,

You made me curious. How do you deep vacuum a heavily planted tank? There should be no space where your vacuum can reach the gravel without seriously interfering with your plants.

The only spots where I even touch the gravel with the vacuum are where there is no plant cover at all. This is not the case anymore in my 29G at all and only in a few spots in the new 125. Once the plants are growing a little more there will be no space left. In these cases I simply hold my vacuum over the plants and suck up whatever comes up. While doing so, I might move the vac a little back and forth to stir it up a little.

I believe that gravel vacuuming in a densely planted tank is useless. What would it do for me except disturb my plants? Suck up the ammonia that is created by decaying food and poop? Ammonia is the preferred source of nutrient (over nitrate) for plants and I feed only as much as the fish can eat. The amount of beneficial bacteria in a heavily planted tank is also much higher as they tend to attach themselves to the plants.

But maybe I am wrong, so feel free to convince me otherwise.

Thanks,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Stir up the water & the dirt will come off the gravel & suck it up with your gravel vacuum.
Don't go deep in the gravel, as you can damage the plant roots.


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I do the same as Ingo. I only vacuum the areas where there are no plants or plant roots. On the other areas (and in tanks where I have sand as substrate) I just hover the gravel vac about an inch over the plants (depending on the suction of the vac) and suck up the bits of gunk that accumulate on the plants.

-P

Call me a plant philistine, but I tend to lift out bigger plants while im vacuuming anyway, depends on the species you have, but generally I have few problems. Gives you a good chance to get fish poo off the leaves and gunk out of rootballs too.

here are a link on this topic..
[link=http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/54887.html]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/54887.html" style="COLOR: #E69A23[/link]

frank says it all.
cheers

Hey philistine ,

I am wondering what bigger plants you are taking out when vacuuming and what the few problems are that you get (because I get none when not vacuuming). Why disturb the root system? What kind of gunk on the rootballs are you talking about? No need to remove the plant in order to get poop of the leaves though.

r0b3y – yep, Frank says it all, in particular the part “not do that in the areas immediately around the plant”.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

lol ingo, I have some really massive plants in some huge tanks, some of the echinodas are over 2 feet high and the roots are nearly 12 inches across, when you lift them up you can have about quarter of a pound of crud around the roots, I dont like to leave it in there for the fish to dig up. I use fertiliser anyway so they dont really need the gunk in there. Im just eliminating a pollution hazard.

I usually just vacuum around them but about once every couple of months I like to really find out whats in my substrate. Prevents those "mystery" pollution issues other people seem to get, like trapped rotting food etc.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 31-Oct-2005 20:33

I do gravel vacs during water changes(obviously). I do have a heavily planted tank. I leave the filters running and after the first bucket is full I simply use my hand to stir up the gravel and the filters will get allot of it. I then continue with the water change.

Last edited by lowlight at 31-Oct-2005 21:17