Gravel washing in planted 5 gallon?

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onebettanewbie

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
88
Location
Northern Virginia
Okay so now my planted 5.5 gallon tank with one betta is getting a better light and Flourish (thanks Purrbox). Up until now I've been gravel washing with each water change, which is difficult because I have to take most of the plants and pots out to do a decent job. I just planted Microsword, which is the first plant actually buried in the gravel. The anubia is attached to rocks and the wisteria is weighted down with bits of a terracotta pot and is only starting to put its roots in the gravel.

So now what? Do I continue to gravel wash? I don't want to disturb the Microsword, especially while it's getting established. A friend who keeps fish recommended I stop gravel washing anyway because he says it just add nitrates to the water column (not sure what a "water column" is). Can I stop gravel washing or should I just avoid the Microsword or perhaps just gravel wash less often? The tank has a Duetto 50 filter (and also a big biological filter which is coming out in a couple of weeks, I hope).

Thanks for the advice!
 
How do you like the Duetto now after you've had it for awhile?

What kind of substrate do you have? In a planted tank you generally don't burrow down in the gravel with the gravel vac. Just hover it near the substrate and it will pick up the extra detritus.

I use this gravel vac from Petsmart in the mini size: Top Fin® Gravel Vacuums - Aquarium Maintenance - PetSmart

When you say gravel wash, do you mean you removed the plants in the pots and then some of the gravel and rinsed it? You don't have to do that much work. Most of your biological bacteria resides in the filter media, but some can reside in the gravel and on the plants, so washing/rinsing the gravel frequently is not a good idea because it can harm the biological bacteria. The bacteria needs a surface to adhere to. It doesn't reside in the water column, which means large quantities of the bacteria are not free-floating in the tank water. Just use the gravel vac to siphon up the bigger/unsightly detritus, and the smaller stuff will fall under the gravel and nourish the plant roots over time.
 
So far I like the Duetto. I'll report back once the biological filter is out of the tank and I see how the Duetto does on its own. The water looks pretty clear. It may be my imagination, since I know it doesn't filter as fast as the Whisper, but the water doesn't look quite as clear as before. My betta ignores it which is fine.

My gravel looks exactly like Krackle's. Same size and color: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-5-gallon-journal-101228.html
When I say "gravel wash" I mean using a small gravel washer. I let it hover over the gravel and it picks up some of the gravel and puts it back as I move the tube. I don't see anything except gravel. The water that comes out looks pretty clean with just some silt. In fact, I'm afraid what it is picking up is laterite.
 
That's what I do now with my Eco-Complete substrate. I just hover it over the substrate and some pieces go up the tube and then come back down. That is fine. I do get a fine silt at the bottom of the bucket when I'm done. I don't try to put that back in the tank. I just dump the whole bucket - old water and silt - down the toilet or laundry tub.
 
Just do your regular gravel vacs, avoiding any live plants. Don't dig in deep in the substrate, but some gravel silt (depending on your substrate) getting siphoned up is unavoidable.

We moved last fall to a new house, new construction. The developer didn't leave the yard in very good shape. In fact, half the back yard is waist-high weeds! So I want to get rid of them, not fertilize them! We haven't put in any outdoor plants yet and I miss that. We have a lot to do this spring-summer!
 
Okay, I'll do my best. It seems like eventually there won't be that much uncovered gravel to wash though.

Sounds like a big job! But in the end you get to plan out all of your landscaping from scratch.
 
For planted aquariums the mulm (fish waste, etc. in the gravel) is beneficial to plants. You just need to remove any excess that the vac can easily pick up around the plants, and limit the gravel vaccing (what you're calling gravel washing) to the unplanted areas.
 
Okay. With one betta, not much excess! To tell the truth, I've never seen his poo. The color blends in too much with the gravel. I use a turkey baster & my fingers to pick up any plant matter I see floating around.
 
I don't see betta poop either. They are not big waste producers like goldfish. The only time I've really seen it was lately when I transferred both bettas to 10 gallon tanks and they had to wait in a bucket for a while. So it's not going to be a huge factor in dirtying the tank, and it's small so it will go down into the gravel to nourish the plant roots. But it still is a good idea to lightly gravel vac. In one tank, I seemed to get a lot of waste sucked up behind the java fern. It was probably bits of plant matter too.

And yes, when we looked at this house, I thought, "Oh no...not a single thing done to the yard". Then the light bulb came on, lol...and I realized I could do whatever I wanted!! Like maybe a pond someday!
 
I will do that. I can avoid the microsword since it is in the front and, of course, low growing so nothing will fall behind it that I can't easily see. I still think that, if it grows as I hope it will, there will be less to vac over time.

I'll fix my terminology too, gravel vac not gravel wash. Got it :)
 
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