Gravel Cleaning

[happybarry]

Just throwing this one open for opinions. A friend of mine has a large heavily planted tank, that is stocked quite heavily. He never cleans the gravel, his argumeent is that cleaning the gravel disturbs the roots and slows down the plant growth, plants feed on fish waste, break it down and produce oxygen. His stats are normal and this fish don't die, he has a clean up squad of catfish,cories and amano shrimps. I on the other hand clean my gravel every week and although my tank is quite heavily planted, I have to admit that his plants look better and very healthy.
Just looking for opinions.

 

[fluttermoth]

In very heavily planted tanks your friend is right; they don't really need gravel cleaning (although you should still syphon lose waste up from the bottom).

As long as it's not made up of bits of rotting food, mulm is not a problem.