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Hi all. I have had my tanks running several months now and just recently added some live plants. One question I have is should I be vacuuming the gravel just lightly, or going deeper into the substrate to get whats down there. I know that before, when I was starting out I just did a light vacuuming due to the large gravel in the tank. When I started going deeper into the rocks I found a whole lot of stuff I was missing. Do I want to get the stuff out, or would it be better for the plants and tank in general to just go lightly over the top?

Hi,
I dont know if I am correct but I always try to vac as deep as possable being careful not to disturbe the roots or the plants. Be sure that you vac the tank in sections so as to lessen the chance of removing too many of the good bacteria that live down there. I usually do a section each time I do a water change BUT never clean out the filter & vac at the same time.

It will be good to get other opinions on this one...

DASHMAN :88)


Last edited by dashman at 27-Jan-2005 04:46

Its better to be hated for who you are...
Than loved for who you are not

The stuff, or mulm, coming up out of the gravel is useful to your plants. However, if you are pulling up a LOT of it, it will be better to get some of it out to control the nitrates in your tank because your plants won't be able to use it all.

As dashman said, be aware that you can damage roots by gravel vacs, so be careful near the plants.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I third the opinons stated!
(wow that sounded legal didnt it ).
The plants will like whats down there; the fish, not so much. If the tank is heavily planted all over then just a light bit of gravel vac. If you have open spaces make the effort to go all the way down in the spaces where you wont run into plant roots.
And if you didnt know already, using the nutrient rich water change water on houseplants or outside works wonderfully .

^_^
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what babel said. in the open areas go down into the gravel, but around the plants, it's ok to just get the surface. oh, and also about dumping the tank water on your plants

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Thanks all, that's pretty much what I expected. Actually, since planting, the parameters of the water have all been excellent. pH=7.0, ammonia=0, nitrite=0 and also nitrate=0. Going to do another test this am so I'll let you know what happens.

ps.Oh, btw any ideas why the water has a greenish tint to it now? it just started a few days after I planted. hmmm

Hmmm greenish tint to the water is generally the well known "green water" not something you normally see after planting a tank....since I've never had to deal with it I'll let others step in but reducing your photoperiod may help.

You will want to make sure that you keep your nitrAte levels in the 10-20ppm range. Low nitrAtes is an open invitation to Cynobacteria (AKA blue green algae) which is a mess to get rid of and as annoying as anything.
IME anyway .

^_^
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Thanks Babel, I just tested again and the new parameters are: pH=7.2, ammonia=0, nitrite=0 and nitrate=10. Maybe the water just looks green cause of all the plants, Oh I forgot to mention. My wife has a mormyrid in the tank, like a miniature, flat dolphin. She heard he needs dimmer lighting than normal, so she put these two floating lily pads(artificial) on top. mebbe there's a link.
Also, I had an algae growth before, and the girl at petsmart told me to cut the light to 4 hours a day. Since the tank is already in a pretty well lit room, Its like getting double the light for most of the day.

Last edited by divertran at 27-Jan-2005 12:37