How do you maintain a fully scaped tank

[Emeraldtarpon]

Hi guys,
i was doing a water change and a vac yesterday,which is quite easy with my tank as the gravel isnt planted and i can literally remove everything in my tank as its all Anubias on driftwood.

Serious question....
how the hell do you guys vac and clean a fully scaped tank?
I mean,some of the designs ive seen would be almost impossible to vac/clean as they are so intricate with many inaccessible areas.
What methods do you use to maintain these incredible aquascapes?
Id be really interested in hearing how you go about this (it would have to be more involved than just gettin' the old vac out etc LOL).
Cheers TFF's and a thank you in advance

 

[sharkweek178]

Pretty simple. I don't worry about vacuuming the mulm under the plants. It's just food for the plants

 

[kiko]

well...I'd say it all depends on how you scape it...your flow
some tanks have so much flow they don't even need to vac...just blow it from the substrate and it'll end up in the filter...
I'd say the worst would have to be garden soil...no matter how you gravel..you'll just gravel the soil away
then you have volcanic type of soils like the fluval stratum which is like soil pebbles
and volcanic black sand which can be found in beaches near volcanoes..
regular sand...pool filter etc...
whenever you gravel vac make sure you have a tube connected to the hose so whenever your soil reaches about half you can just cut the flow and let the soil fall back down
you just want to make sure you keep the soil in the area you took it from...
your plants will get some soil on top and it looks ugly...you can just use your hand to move the water near the plants and it'll just fall down
for those hard to reach spots...you don't gravel vac...you just blow water into it...you can use one of those manual syphons
and when it almost reaches the top...let it fall back down and this will push water through those hard to get spots

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

well...I'd say it all depends on how you scape it...your flow
some tanks have so much flow they don't even need to vac...just blow it from the substrate and it'll end up in the filter...
I'd say the worst would have to be garden soil...no matter how you gravel..you'll just gravel the soil away
then you have volcanic type of soils like the fluval stratum which is like soil pebbles
and volcanic black sand which can be found in beaches near volcanoes..
regular sand...pool filter etc...
whenever you gravel vac make sure you have a tube connected to the hose so whenever your soil reaches about half you can just cut the flow and let the soil fall back down
you just want to make sure you keep the soil in the area you took it from...
your plants will get some soil on top and it looks ugly...you can just use your hand to move the water near the plants and it'll just fall down
for those hard to reach spots...you don't gravel vac...you just blow water into it...you can use one of those manual syphons
and when it almost reaches the top...let it fall back down and this will push water through those hard to get spots

Very interesting,thank you kiko.
When i vac, i dont go very deep, probably a couple of centimetres.
But then again,im really only cleaning up fish shite as my Anubias dont tend to drop leaves etc very often.
Due to the flow in my tank,most of the shite ends up mostly in one area so its easy to remove.
My biggest job is water changes.I need a pump to get the buckets of clean water back in my tank quicker.
Im currently doing it with a 2 litre bottle, one at a time (yeah,thats right...and its a pain in the arse).

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

Pretty simple. I don't worry about vacuuming the mulm under the plants. It's just food for the plants

I didnt think about that.
Exactly like deciduous trees in nature.Whatever falls from a tree, leaves,bark,wood etc breaks down and supplies the tree with extra nutrients etc.
The cycle of life

 

[seangee]

Yep - plain old sand for me and I don't vac.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I'm also a non-vaccer....my tank is full of plants so I don't bother, and quite frankly I'm cak-handed so I make a right mess of it. So I don't! I've got good water flow going so it picks up the muck and what's left is plant food...I have coconut caves and some tiny pieces of wood with anubias attached, muck can gather under those areas so every now and then I lift them and give the space a good wafting I don't believe in spotless aquariums, especially when you've got livestock...its not natural! A decent amount of algae and a bit of crud is good for maintaining tank health

 

[Wills]

Agree with a lot of whats said here I vac the top layer of my sand to keep it clean and then waft around the plants to release any detritus into the water column and then the syphon pulls it out.

Pristine aquariums are a noble ambition but not natural and the more natural processes you can allow in your tank (with water changes) is personally the best solution.

Wills

 

[GaryE]

There was a thing a few years back for exquisitely scaped Japanese tanks. Most lasted a few weeks after they were photographed. The life in the tanks is too dynamic to freeze into perfection for long. Nature seems to think perfection is very imperfect, and goes about fixing things very quickly.

I have scaped tanks after a fashion - very thick plant growth in several. I never gravel vaccuum. I'll get the worst of the mulm out by hovering over collection areas, maybe 2-3 centimetres above with the vac attachment. Most goes into @Emeraldtarpon 's nice image of the deciduous forest. If it's in the gravel, the plants will deal. As well, I generally have a few fish that are detritivores, rooters through the mulm for added leftover nutrition,. You'd be surprised at how many fish live that way. People wrongly expect insect eating Corydoras to be the cleanup crew, but it's Apistogramma (small members of the Geophagine eartheater family) or Pelvicachromis and their relatives that do the best job with debris. They're evolved to graze on it and in so doing, break it down.

The basic statement the botanicals crowd like to make is that nature is very dirty, and some dirt isn't bad. Messy isn't toxic, and nature is messy. Go to a stream or look at video of tropical habitats and your gravel vaccuum will give up. I don't let my tanks get thqat wild, but you have to give a little room for growth.

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

I havnt gotten over the anal stupidity of trying to constantly get rid of algae,yet.
I totally understand what everyone's saying about keeping it as natural as poss' and one day,i'll get there LOL.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Algae is beneficial for your fish, a tasty and nutrious snack between feedings!

 

[kiko]

My biggest job is water changes.I need a pump to get the buckets of clean water back in my tank quicker.
Im currently doing it with a 2 litre bottle, one at a time (yeah,thats right...and its a pain in the arse).

nothing like a python hose...
you can use it to gravel vac..and if you close the valve on it...you can use it to refill your tank...
if you pinch the hose it'll cut the flow with soils stratum to allow the soil to fall back down...
no reason to be carrying buckets these days
hose doesn't reach? cut it and attach another one to make it longer...still doesn't? attach another one xD
if you have access to a drain from your tank and it's a house...nothing like a drilled tank and an auto water changing system
you can use a built-in sump...on the return partition have the hole...if the water reaches it...goes straight into the drain....
then for the automatic water..it depends on your water...if its just chlorine you can use a multi stage setup...

I havnt gotten over the anal stupidity of trying to constantly get rid of algae,yet.
I totally understand what everyone's saying about keeping it as natural as poss' and one day,i'll get there LOL.

as for constantly fighting algae...that just means an imbalance...or like in many cases...more than one xD
either too much food...too much light..too much flow or too much fertilizer...
I could literally talk all day about this one and people would still get algae as they're set in stone their ways

 

[sharkweek178]

I didnt think about that.
Exactly like deciduous trees in nature.Whatever falls from a tree, leaves,bark,wood etc breaks down and supplies the tree with extra nutrients etc.
The cycle of life

Clearing mulm is really for our benefit. Mulm is natural and doesn't hurt the fish. It's just a little unsightly. When a tank matures, the mulm breaks down faster so it's even less of an issue. I use dried leaf litter in my tanks which creates even more mulm. But that mulm produces infusoria which is something my pygmy corys can eat.
I do vacuum the open areas of the tank. Sometimes I stir the sand up a bit so that it's easier for the mulm to get to the roots.