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when you plant real plants in your aquarium then how do you exactly clean your aquarium?

when i clean my aquarium i take all my plastic plants out and then use the syphon to dig in the gravel to clean out the poop. i was wondering because i might want to someday switch it to all real plants.

would it hurt the fish if i were to buy new gravel and take the fish out and clean out all the old gravel and dump the new stuff in after it has been cleaned and then put plants in and put the fish back into the tank. then i would slowly add real plants to my tank.

if anyone knows how to do this or has done it before then please let me know. i am not even sure i am going to do this anyone, i would have to get my parents approval and get the $$$.

if anybody has any other suggestions then i could use them.



[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-15 20:05][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-17 20:57][/span]

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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You actually want alot of that waste when you're doing live plants, well the plants want it ...not you . The "waste" is exactly what they live off of. Some people don't really do gravel vacs in the traditional sense. Others hover over the gravel and just get what's on the surface.

As for changing or cleaning the gravel....that's something you don't really want to do unless your tank has had some serious illnesses and it needs to be steralized. After all the gravel is where alot of your benifical bacteria grows .

^_^

so cleaning the gravel would not be needed but i could easily syphon near the top to clean excess waste of the top and in the aquarium. right?

i had a feeling that it would not be good to switch the gravel since it holds some of the bacteria. but i was checking because my gravel is light blue, light green and a bright pink since i was going for a tropical look. but then i saw pictures of other tanks and thought it would have been neat to do a tank that looked like a river scene and have it be more natural.

how exactly do you plant, arrange and maintain a fully planted aquarium anyway??? because i would like to do that.

can anyone tell me how to start a planted tank????? you would have to tell me everything though, but anyones help is much appreciated!!!

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-15 20:04][/span]

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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kj fishy-finn

Here is an old photo of my 5ft tank a lot more plants have been added also a Eheim Canister. It is totally impossible to Vac this tank. Or work behind all of the plants

The narrow space at the front is where I put the gravel vac to the bottom to do a 20% weekly water change.

Also see My Profile to give you an idea what is in the tank

Keith

[span class="edited"][Edited by keithgh 2004-07-16 01:57][/span]
keithgh attached this image:
[img]http://www.fishprofiles.net/attachments/397429.jpg"]

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&lt;HIJACK]That is one great looking tank keithgh! Very nice! &lt;/HIJACK]

so basically all i have to do is vac the water out every once in a while to clean it. i do a 50% water change every two weeks.

just wondering but does anyone think my 20 gallon is overstocked????? because in a other topic someone said it was. but my angels are 1.5 inches long and the LFS store person said they should be fine with the fish i have and they seem to be very happy. they are always asking for more food!!!

but how do you exactly start a planted tank and is there anything else that i would need???

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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Read this FAQ on plants as a starting point, and read some of the threads in the planted forum. You need to consider everything from the substrate to the type of filtration and temperature, ph, nitrAtes ect, ect, ect.

Yes I'd agree that it's overstocked. When you consider stocking you need to take into account adultsize. People who plan on 'moving the fish once they outgrow the tank' more often than not end up stunting the fish. Angels need tall tanks, and their rule of thumb is 1 per 10gallons.

Also you need fill out your schools. Corys and tetras both should be kept in schools of 6 or more...not sure on the rest but I assume guppies and platies are as well.
HTH a bit .

^_^

[/font]

well on the stocking of my schools i did have another bandit cory nut sadly he died about a week ago for some reason. the cardinal tetras were in a group of four but one died after i cleaned the tank once and the other died not too long ago but they were not in the best of shape when they came from the store either.

could you please tell me the exact size of the adults of these fish because everywhere i look it says something different. this is usually what i go buy:
Angelfish - 3in
Bandit Cory - 2in
Guppy - 1in
Platy - 2in
Clown Pleco - 3/5in
Cardinals - 1in

is this about right??? and i will get back to you after i read the plant section over!!!

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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