I don’t generally pull out dead plants… thoughts???

[Magnum Man48 162]

I will occasionally remove dead leaves from the plants growing out of my tanks, if there is getting to be excessive shading, but once they hit the water, I typically leave them be… I still have a bundle of Indian almond leaves, but rarely add them anymore… I’m guessing almond leaves being “famous”, add something good to the water… my south American tetra tank is highly shaded, and there is a large dead peace lily leaf that has worked it’s way into the water… my silver dollar tank was overgrown with pothos roots, that they have been grazing on, and opening up the tank again, but this leaves discarded bite size root pieces floating around, and eventually piling up in places… these seem like likely places to grow micro foods, and doesn’t seem to be doing anything negative to the tanks… is there anything to look out for, that could be bad???

in the silver dollar tank, it’s beginning to look like seasonal flooded areas…

 

[Tomsfish6 5]

I pulled out dead plant leaves and mulm.
When I had my fish room running I would occasionally have a fishless tank that had plants in it.
All my tanks were bare bottom.
I often found after two weeks of no fish I still had build up and crap on the floor of my tank that required vacuuming.
Somewhere in that process, spending lots of time alone in the fish room I came to the conclusion that plants create waste just like fish.
Is it the same, I don't know but I treated it like it was unwanted.
I can't say I ever tested to see if it was a problem, but I thought it funny having to 'clean' a tank that had no fish in it.

 

[Jennet27 85]

@tomfish I like your bottom tagline. I have never come across that before, but I have to say that I have always held the thought that people who always measure everone by their net worth in money are a waste of my breath.

 

[GaryE8 6]

I remove plant leaves, dead plants and built up mulm in there, and I add in the equivalent with dried seaweed and other staples for the plant and fibre crew. I like to make the choice, as I don't know the nutritional value of what dies in there, and debris harbours oodinium parasites in soft water. They have gotten into my 'system', and I can get flare ups with certain species that are susceptible to them. They pop up every few years, but I don't like giving them any aid or support...

If you keep Anabantoids/gouramies, or East African annual killies, you have to monitor for oodinium ("velvet disease"), as it seems to persist in tank set ups without going wild unless you let things get out of hand.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford47 162]

My thought is why add dissolving organics if you don't have to? I would remove as much debris as possible. Get it out of the tank before it rots.