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How far do I go with gravel vac for a planted tank?
I remove dead matter and leaves by hand..were always going to get some right..
some I get with vaccum..So I just do surface?..
what about the debris that gets in between the plant leaves at the base..Ive been lightly touching plant and it sucks up..is this a good idea or not?
how mush is too much for the tank and plants..
thanks
Sue

Hi,
In a planted tank, we divide the non planted areas into
say, four sections, and then once a week while doing our
tank maintenance (water changes, cleaning the glass inside,
and vacuuming the gravel, etc.) we clean a
different section each week.
That way, over the period of a month, the
entire, non planted tank is cleaned. In the planted
sections just swirl your and around over and through the
plants to raise any loose detritus up into the water
column where the filter and/or water changes will remove
it.

A heavily plant is defined as one with either no, or next
to no non planted areas. Most have plants along the back
or in an arc ranging from one side around the back and
back out to the front, leaving an open area for the
fish. It is the open areas that you will want to gravel
vac.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

cool thanks Frank.. basically what Im doing now..

I try not to stir things up. there isnt much there anyway.

Ive been told that if its dirty and mucks the tank..it will promote algae growth..this is true?

Hi Sue,
Yah, its right. Algae is a very opportunistic critter.
With our aquariums we all walk a very fine line between
beautiful and terrible.

The amount of "organics" in the tank ( the waste products
of the fish, the dead and dying leaves, any excess foods,
and the "age" of the water [one week since a change,
or one month between changes] all favor the growth
of algae. Add to that the lighting.
There is algae that will grow in the dark all
the way up to algae that will grow in the brightest
sunlight. You can clean your tank weekly along with
water changes, and suddenly within a week, have an algae
outbreak because your lighting has aged, and is now putting
out light at just the right frequency or right brightness
to favor some form of algae. You can decide to toss out
one species of plant, add a different one, and find out the
plants you tossed were taking up certain nutrients that
prevented the growth of a type of algae and now you have
some.

There should always be currents within the tank and you
should be sure that there are no "dead spots", areas free
of currents. The dead spots act as sumps or
collection areas where the detritus will settle out to
the bottom and create small areas of pollution where
algae will grow.

The best thing is to keep the tank understocked, change out
water every week, clean the non planted parts of the
tank regularly, and change out the bulbs in your hood
on an annual basis.
One should really stagger the changing of the bulbs.
Over time, the bulbs age and as they age they give off
less light, and the frequency of the light also changes.
The change is so slow, that we humans cannot detect it.
However, the plants can. If you change all the tubes at
the same time, it is as if you walked from indoors with
just a few windows, into the blazing sunlight at noon.
We would squint and shade our eyes until they adjusted.
Plants and fish cannot do that. The fish hide under or
among the plants and the plants will turn pale and die off.
Crypts are famous for this.
One should set up a schedule that allows you to
change them out a bulb at a time, roughly a week
or preferably two weeks apart. That gives
the tank a chance to adjust to the new light.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--