Gravel vac with eco and plants?

[Posivated]

Whats the best way to clean my eco complete around my plants? Or is it not needed?

 

[Convict2161]

Whats the best way to clean my eco complete around my plants? Or is it not needed?

I'm extremely new to the planted side but from what I've read. You don't vacuum your planted substrate, with something like Eco Complete I think you would do larger weekly water changes rather then vacuum, especially if its heavily planted. I could be wrong though so.... I'll wait for more experienced members to chime in.

EDIT:

Correction. I think with any well planted tank if doing ferts your gonna want to do larger weekly water changes. Not just with Eco Complete like I stated above.

 

[Posivated]

Alright, well my tank is almost done being cycled and I've only had my plants for about a week. I've been using API leaf zone so far, so I should just do larger water changes than normal? How much larger?

 

[Convict2161]

Would love to see some pics!! What size tank? I have a 27 gallon cube and I plan on doing up to a 75% weekly water change. I don't think a 50% would be good enough. But... I also have several ferts I'm dosing the tank with.

 

[Posivated]

Mines only a 20g long, not heavily planted yet. Waiting on finding a nice piece of driftwood or two before I commit heavily to anything (Hard to find around my area).

 

[Sharpchick]

With densely planted tanks, you don't vacuum the substrate as that can damage roots systems. As I start a water change, I wave my hand over and through groups of plants to loosen up any debris - uneaten food, loose pieces of leaves, decaying leaves, etc. - and then you can get those with the vac or let the filter tank smaller debris out.

And I don't do as large a water change as Convict is talking about - only on my goldfish tank. IMO if you need to do a 50-75% water change to get ferts out, you overdosed. Otherwise at proper doses, the plants used the ferts.

 

[Posivated]

Any tips of keeping my plants in the ground during a water change? Just did about a 70% to help my pH out during my cycle and some of them lifted up out of the gravel.

 

[Rivercats]

I do a 50% WC weekly on all my tanks. It's for removing dissolved organic and inorganics from the water not for removing ferts unless your dosing El method. My 220g is now 100% planted and both plants and fish really seem to thrive with the large WC's.

What kind of plants came loose during the WC? Also did they come loose because you dumped water back into the tank too hard and quickly? Stem plants can be just planted deeper but swords and crypts can be anchored alittle using rocks around them or thesee plant anchors... Professional Plant Anchors (on sale)(reg. $2.29). Personally I only use these in my goldie tanks but they work in any tank. You probably just need to be alittle slower in adding water back to the tank IMO.

 

[Posivated]

I have x1 Wisteria, x3 Anacharis, and x3 cabomba. They all came in bunches so its hard for me to get them to stay in the eco complete.

 

[Rivercats]

So you planted them in a bunch? With stem plants you should remove them from their bundle and plant each stem individually with each stems leaves almost touching the leaves of the stems around them. Also plant them in groups, not a stem here and one there as groups look better in a tank IMO. When you plant each stem push it well down into the substrate and you shouldn't have issues with it staying down.

 

[Posivated]

I have them planted separate and pretty close to each other, I guess I just don't have them deep enough. I have about 3 inches of eco complete, should I just push them down maybe like 2 inches?

 

[Rivercats]

With those plants you can push them down as far as needed to keep them in place.

 

[Posivated]

Alright cool, thanks.