How do you go about Vacuming your gravel with plants around?

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Franco7

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 2, 2005
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119
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I'm big into plants, but i do think they make the tank look nice and create great hiding places for fish. My only question is how do you guys clean your gravel if you have plants all around your tank, i mean for me i would say just go around it, but you have to clean the gravel near the plants at some point? So whats the best solution i guess you could say to vacuming gravel in a tank with some plants in it?

Thanks in advanced.
Frank
 
i've been told that you don't really want to gravel vac around the plants, because it takes away some of their nutrients. it also depends on your stock--i have tons of bottom feeders, so i pretty much leave my substrate alone now and count on them to keep it reasonably clean. when i do water changes, i just remove water and not detritus.
 
when i vac around my plants at the base, i just hover over the gravel to get the loose mulm on top, i don't dig deep because im afraid of cutting roots or making the plant come loose
 
crazycat said:
i've been told that you don't really want to gravel vac around the plants, because it takes away some of their nutrients. it also depends on your stock--i have tons of bottom feeders, so i pretty much leave my substrate alone now and count on them to keep it reasonably clean. when i do water changes, i just remove water and not detritus.

Very true. I would just add that if you have large areas where no plants are, you can skim over the substrate picking up the loose stuff as mentioned also.
 
yes.. because you actually want the junk in the substrate right??? Basically its fertilizer for your plants!!! And the best part about having plants is not having to worry about gravel vacuuming!! LOL>
 
I was worried about that too, when I first got into planted tanks. I keep a couple of Cory cats as part of my normal livestock and I never vacuum my tank at all. While I cant be sure that the cory cats are the key here, I do know they do a better job of bottom cleaning than any other fish Ive had. I also use sand for a substrate in my planted tanks so nothing really gets trapped on the bottom. You might look into some decent bottom feeding fish for your planted tanks to help do a lot of the work for you.
 
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