Those with heavily planted tank and fish...

[Hholly]

Do you do gravel vacs? If so, how? I have plants but not very many. When I gravel vac, I always end up uprooting my plants. Just wondering how you "keep house" with a lot of plants.
Thanks!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I don't vac my planted tanks. My 70g has never been vacuumed.

 

[Donkey Gun]

I still use my gravel vac in my 10 gallon, which is heavily planted.

I try to keep the vacuum about 2 inches above my pool filter sand to avoid sucking up the sand or uprooting my delicate ground cover. It still seems to suck up any of the waste I'm going for. I'll also wave the vacuum at the sand to get things mixed up a little while sucking. But there's always a couple loose pieces of baby tears that get vacuumed up and need replanting.

I'm not sure if this helps, but I also have the bucket I'm syphoning into raised off the ground a couple of feet. This may lower the power of the syphon/vacuum.

 

[BBradbury]

Vacuuming Planted Tanks

Do you do gravel vacs? If so, how? I have plants but not very many. When I gravel vac, I always end up uprooting my plants. Just wondering how you "keep house" with a lot of plants.
Thanks!

Hello H...

Vacuuming a planted tank will remove nutrients from the gravel your plants use for food.

You can still use your gravel vac, just cover the end with a flat piece of filter sponge and attach it with a rubber band. That way you just vacuum up the dirty water and nothing that needs to stay in the tank.

B

 

[Hholly]

Thanks for the replies! So fish poop is good for the plants?

 

[Donkey Gun]

Thanks for the replies! So fish poop is good for the plants?

I would say yes of course! natural ferts!

I still vacuum my planted tank for now though because I'm using white pool filter sand. I like the clean look at least until my ground cover fully grows in.

 

[Hholly]

Ok, cool! Thanks!

 

[jcolon]

Thanks for the replies! So fish poop is good for the plants?

Fish waste produces ammonia which plants can use as a nutrient. The more planted a tank, the less vacuuming. I only vacuum along the back 1/3 of my tank that's just gravel / sand. The forward 2/3 I leave alone.

 

[blackmolly]

i vacuum the clearings in my tanks... but i don't like to vacuum the super heavy planted areas for reasons listed above.