Cleaning Substrate With A Carpet Of Plants?

[phlawed]

Once my tank takes off and starts making a carpet of microsword, how do i clean the substrate under it? i dont want have to replant it every week or ever other week, is there any good tips that might help?

 

[craynerd]

Great question!

My tank is heavily planted and 4 weeks old...i can see loads of fish poo on the white sand and don`t know how to remove it. Best i do is create a current and suck it up at water changes but it isn`t very succesful!

Are there anything that would eat it? snails or something..just a thought!!

Chris

 

[gagaliya]

there is no need to vaccuum the substrate like you do with a nonplanted tank. The rotten food / fish poo is a good fertizer for the plants. Just hover your vaccum cleaner slightly above the carpet plants and grab whatever comes up. But do make sure you grab any dead fish if one happens to die in the carpet.

Also cherry red shrimps in a planted tank is a must, a lot of planted tanks keep an army of them. They will keep the substate nicely clean and also very efficient algae cleaners.

Snails are the most efficient cleaners in a planted tank, but of course they have a tendency to take over your tank. I personally dont mind as they are part of a nature (and a planted tank is tryin to take a section of nature), but some people absolutely hate snails.../shrug

If you dont overfeed to the extreme, this is fine.