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my tank is quite heavily planted but i am now having troble to clean the gravel as so much of it is covered by plants. how does every one come round this problem
Any comments would be helpful

juwel,

I don't know why nobody answered this question yet, but I will give it a shot.

When a tank becomes so dense with plants that there is no access to the subsrate anymore then you most certainly cannot vacuum it. What you can do is to hold the vacuum as close as possible above the plants (the lower plants of the foreground in particular) and wiggle it (or wave with your other hand back and forth). This will stirr up some of the gunk on top of the substrate and while it floats into the water column you will be able to suck it up with the vacuum.

A densly planted tank, with healthy plant growth, does not rely on gravel vacuuming in the classic sense (digging into the gravel). The dead matter that collects on the substrate will be converted to ammonia and phosphates which then in turn will be sucked up by the plants as food. Nevertheless, if your plants are not all that healthy and your tank is only dense because of constant replanting then you are looking for trouble. With no healthy plants to suck up these nutrients an algae outbreak is just waiting to happen.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

thanks for the help little fish