How often ... in my planted tank??

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

Hi & thanks for reading this

I want to set myself up a schedule for regular tank maintenance.
I know to make 25% water changes weekly but I have a question:

Should I vacuum the gravel every time I make a water change weekly??
& if I do, won't that be bad for my plant roots? or is it ok to uproot the plants to vacuum once a week?
OR
Is it ok if I just up root them every other water change to do a good vacuum??
I couldn't find any info to answer my questions, so I thought maybe you could help

If I meerly vacuum around the plants, there wouldn't be much gravel to vacuum as I do have alot of plants.

I have a 55 gallon , it's not heavily planted as in over crowed, but I pretty much have a lot of plants in there.

Hornworts
Swords
grasses
moss
a few others that I dont' know the name of..

Thanks

 

[Silly me]

I have some eco complete and sera soil, and a 1inch layer of gravel over it in my planted tank, so there is noway for me to ever vacuum the gravel.. almost three years running, so I dont see a reason for vacuuming the gravel in my planted tank..

But when it come to cleaning , I do about a 20% waterchange twice a week.. I currently have a automatic waterchange kit from sera on both my tanks.. One is a discus tank and need to be cleaned alot. but I connected the outlet valve to both tanks, and the planted tank seems to be doing better than ever..

 

[Dubby]

Maya~4Ix12chen:

Its better to vacuum the gravel with every water change. But if you are worried about the roots, vacuum close to the roots atleast once or twice a month depending on the amount of muck being created by your fish. Do NOT uproot the plants, just stick the gravel cleaner gently into the gravel near the base of the plants.

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

If up rooting them is not a good idea, then how can I get a good vacuum?? there is'nt much floor space in the tank. (my tank is in my sig but the growth has since been much more) I need to update my sig picture.

Will it hurt to uproot them only every so often?? the only thing I am using for substrate is regular med sized gravel.

Perhaps if I just gently scooped the plants out with the surrounding gravel they would be ok?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Just keep the vac higher off the substrate to avoid sucking up plants or gravel/sand. Planted tanks can get a lot of gunk stuck in the plants and I find I vaccum my plants more than my gravel. I have a Hot Magnum that serves as my gravel vac. It lets me vac slowly and carefully over a long time w/o emptying the tank and w/o pulling up any plants even the delicate ones like baby tears or glosso.

 

[Dubby]

If up rooting them is not a good idea, then how can I get a good vacuum?? there is'nt much floor space in the tank. (my tank is in my sig but the growth has since been much more) I need to update my sig picture.

Will it hurt to uproot them only every so often?? the only thing I am using for substrate is regular med sized gravel.

Perhaps if I just gently scooped the plants out with the surrounding gravel they would be ok?

I dont understand why its so difficult?? What are you using to vacuum the gravel? I have always used a regular syphon kind of device which when stuck into the gravel sucks up the muck but lets go the gravel.

Uprooting the plants is definitely NOT a good idea. Some plants will tolerate but others wont (eg.Crypts). Since you are using gravel, taking out plants along with surrounding gravel will not work in quite the same way as if it were soil where the roots would have held a lot of it together.

If you find it very difficult I would suggest you change to sand. I have changed to sand last year (for a different reason) and I have no regrets.

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

Thaks, I will think about it
In the mean time, I plan to buy a nicer vac like that hot magnum that was mentioned & try that.

 

[pahansen]

I was having the same problem when I first set up my tank. How wide is the tube on the siphon you're currently using? I ended up getting a very basic and cheap (but perfectly good) siphon simply because it was skinnier than anything else I could find. I think that the diameter of the tube is only about 3/4". It takes longer to clean the tank -- and requires me to get my hand (arm!) pretty wet -- but it makes it much easier to maneuver between all of the plants and wood in there! And it was an inexpensive solution to the problem. A bonus is that I don't think that it's sucking up water at the same rate as a larger siphon would (could be wrong here), so it's easier not to suck up the plants along with the grime.

Good luck!

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

My husband went out and got me an awesome syphon. It's a Marina brand " Easy Clean gravel cleaner. It's 24"/ 60 cm with a gravel guard and came with a bucket clip that adjusts the flow. I can even close the flow to empty my bucket.
I used it once so far and it works great!! What a cool invention

 

[Yenko]

Never, ever clean the gravel in a planted tank. NEVER!

Nothing is worse for your plants than a clean substrate. If you have large spaces with nothing planted, vaccum those if you must but leave a 4" border around the planted areas.

Edit: Buy Diana Walstad's book Ecology of The Planted Aquarium. Do it now!