dirty plastic plants

[Spiderman]

i have a 2 month old tank and the plastic plants have accumulated lots of gunk. should i clean it outside the aquarium? or should i clean it days after i have my scheduled 20% water change this weekend?

should i buy real plants - what kind should i get? will these be useful in the long-run?

thanks!

 

[lando]

Is this a SW tank? I would clean them outside of the tank.

 

[Spiderman]

Yes, it's a SW tank. Do I clean it after I change the water 20% tomorrow? Or should I clean it a few days after so some beneficial bacteria remains in the tank?

 

[lando]

You can go ahead and clean them when you do a water change. You may want to add more LR and look at live plants. Grape calupera are nice and help with biofiltration to.

 

[Spiderman]

hi lando,
won't it be risky to the fish if i add more live rock? i assume it should be cured? if ammonia levels spike, it might wipe out my system. i only have 4 fish and a bunch of inverts in a 25G tank. i have around 7.5 lbs of live rock....right now my ammonia and nitrites are 0, and nitrates around 12.5....
thanks for your help, man

 

[lando]

It is not risky to add cured LR to your tank. Fully cured LR will not casue an amonia spike. If you order from liverocks.com, they say to not re-cure the rock, just put it in the tank. If you do this you may see a slight amonia spike but it should be short-lived. Just be prepared to do a water change if needed. I added 30 lbs to my 72 gal which already had about 90 lbs of LR in it and had no noticeable change in water parameters.