So here is my tank, Its not they way I want it to be but its a start. My question is how do I clean it? It the past I've just done gavel vacs but this tank has quite a lot of plants and I don't want to damage them. My substrate is fluorite with gravel on top. Do I just not gravel vac now? Hard to imagine not vacuuming.
Cleaning the tank
- Thread starter Dizzydea
- Start date
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I have a very heavily planted tank, as of now 100% substrate coverage, and I don't do gravel vac's. If you try to gravel vac it is very possible to damage plant roots. Just do your 50% weekly WC and don't over feed your fish and it will be fine.
Super_Blueberry
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Any open areas you can easily access without disturbing your stems/roots you can still swirl your vac over to help pick up the waste, but the rest is fine to let settle into the gravel. Poo is a mild-descent fertilizer, so you don't have to worry about it settling. Just keep an eye on your parameters to make sure that they stay in check.
Convict2161
Aquarium Advice Addict
Looks like you got your answers just wanted to say nice tank.
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
The only time I ever do a vac, it's just to get any excess crud that's floating around on the surface of the substrate, tidying it up. Don't vac down into the gravel. Other than that, it's minimal maintenance. Just water changes, cleaning the glass if needed, and filters.
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Thanks! I'm working on it I have high hopes
Well I don't have a filter,I have a sump which I'm hesitant about cleaning. I don't want to wash precious bacteria away
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
Once your tank becomes established, then doing some maintenance on the sump won't be an issue. I do regular maintenance on my canister filter regularly, with no issues, since my tank is very well established, been running since 2006.
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
Other than that, the tank is looking great so far.
I love the sump! Keeps the water very clean and gives me a place to put the uglies like heaters and cords and filters. The only drawback I've come across is the co2 issue and my loach found his way in there through the over flow and luckily I happened to catch a glimpse at him and tore the sump apart to catch him before he ended up in the pump which would have been the end for him! I think I fixed the area he got through but I got some smarts and put some mesh over the pump in take so if it does happen again I won't find him in bits! And thanks for the tank comment! I hope the plants take off when I get the co2 hooked up. But I just got a peacock eel today so that might be counter productive for the plants
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
My worry about the CO2 would be the overflow. But I was just thinking, if you used a fine bubbler for the CO2 in the sump, just under the pump input that takes the water from the sump back to the tank, as long as your output in the tank is under the surface and doesn't create surface agitation, you may be fine. But you will still lose a portion of the CO2 that was injected in the water at the overflow.
