Aquascaping And Tropical Fish

[Marclau]

First question is how do you keep the tank clean if you have both or will the plants eat up and use most of the fish poo?
Do you still try and gravel vac and if so, how often??

Reason I ask is that I have seen some amazing tanks where the owner spent the first 6 -12 months setting up the aquascaping before introducing fish........

cheers

 

[SuperColey1]

When I rescape the fish are out of the tank for a few hours (sometimes a day.)

I am a bad example because I don't clean the substrate. I have very high turnover flow rate at 17.6x tank ovlume per hour and most of the poop and crap goes through the filter nicely. I also have Purigen in the filter which removes ammonia.

Others will clean at their water changes etc.

AC

 

[aaronnorth]

the plants dont use the poo directly, however when the waste rots it provides nutrients for plants.

As fas as gravel vaccing goes if you see any waste laying around then suck it up, but it doesnt matter about pushing the syphon into the substrate,

 

[vinylman]

As fas as gravel vaccing goes if you see any waste laying around then suck it up, but it doesnt matter about pushing the syphon into the substrate,

Even if you keep Corys?.

 

[aaronnorth]

As fas as gravel vaccing goes if you see any waste laying around then suck it up, but it doesnt matter about pushing the syphon into the substrate,

Even if you keep Corys?.

what difference do cory's make?

 

[JenCliBee]

As fas as gravel vaccing goes if you see any waste laying around then suck it up, but it doesnt matter about pushing the syphon into the substrate,

Even if you keep Corys?.

what difference do cory's make?

I think he's reffering to cory's been susceptible to infections with waste left on the bottom due to them been bottom dwellers.

 

[aaronnorth]

As fas as gravel vaccing goes if you see any waste laying around then suck it up, but it doesnt matter about pushing the syphon into the substrate,

Even if you keep Corys?.

what difference do cory's make?

I think he's reffering to cory's been susceptible to infections with waste left on the bottom due to them been bottom dwellers.

Ok, well any organic matter that falls into the substrate will be consumed by the plant roots, only with gravel though. It just sits on top with sand, but like i said above, any on top of the substrate should be siphoned.

I used to keep cory's, and i only vacced the substrate once a month - if that. I only hadd a small "bare" patch.

lots of planted tank folk keep cories, but most do not vacuum.

 

[SuperColey1]

I will just say as per my previous post. I don't syphon or vac. I let the water out from my filter....Oh and I have a breeding group of black Corys

If they aer going to get bacterial infections from your substrate then they will get it from a 'cleaned' substrate just as they will from an uncleaned substrate (within reason.)

Gravel vaccing only removes the loose stuff. Not the stuff that sticks to gravel or sand. That is where most of the bacteria will be.

Flow keeps my substrate clean

AC

 

[Truck]

in my tank, when it was planted, i had 15x turn over and i never had detritus.

 

[nosoup4you]

I don't do much vacuuming at all. I find that if there is any debris on the top of the gravel, a quick swirling of the siphon over the top of the gravel will stir it up so that it is sucked out by the siphon.

 

[vinylman]

Cheers all; always felt a little uneasy digging into the substrate - I have Tetra Complete Substrate under fine gravel. If you get it wrong while vaccing, it tends to give the water a muddy quality........

 

[SuperColey1]

Just remove loose stuff i wanted and let the good bacteria in the substrate break down the rest.

AC