Carpet Plant Cleaning

[catfish4ever]

I am looking to buy a carpet moss for my aquarium, however if the floor was covered in plants or moss how do I clean the gravel without the syphon disturbing the plants?

 

[DrRob]

Firstly, moss isn't all that good as a carpet for substrates, it tends to compact and die back in places or simply refuse to spread in that fashion. If you're going for low tech carpeting then the dwarf saggitarius types are often the best bet.
 
Secondly, you don't clean the gravel in a carpet, the carpet will tend to trap a little debris which interferes with the flow, and then the nutrients, so it'll need cleaning a hell of a lot to keep the nutrients moving through the carpet or to have good enough flow through the carpet to keep the debris moving into the filter, which makes cleaning relatively less useful.

 

[catfish4ever]

Firstly, moss isn't all that good as a carpet for substrates, it tends to compact and die back in places or simply refuse to spread in that fashion. If you're going for low tech carpeting then the dwarf saggitarius types are often the best bet.
 
Secondly, you don't clean the gravel in a carpet, the carpet will tend to trap a little debris which interferes with the flow, and then the nutrients, so it'll need cleaning a hell of a lot to keep the nutrients moving through the carpet or to have good enough flow through the carpet to keep the debris moving into the filter, which makes cleaning relatively less useful.

So it is difficult to clean then? Would it be better to Tue moss to bogwood instead?

 

[DrRob]

Aye, tie moss to bog wood, it's not a great carpet on substrate.

 

[catfish4ever]

Aye, tie moss to bog wood, it's not a great carpet on substrate.

So I finally got some dwarf saggitarius, so I basically can't clean the substrate without disturbing them?