suck it up, or leave it???

[Magnum Man]

so, I'll admit, I like the look of a tidy, natural looking aquarium... I might put an almond leaf or two n a tank, but don't put another in, until the other for the most part has disappeared...
the tank that I've recollected my silver dollars into , was heavily overgrown with pothos roots... I was planning on a major hair cut, cutting and removing most, but ai was curious how the silver dollars would sculpt them naturally... well they are going at them pretty heavy, and I'm thinking I'm going to let them finish what they started... I'm sure it's good for the fish... however, they don't eat everything ( at least so far ) leaving what looks like leaf litter, along the back edge, on the bottom... I have sand for a substrate in this tank, so gravel vacuum is not really the answer... then this morning I saw 3 different fish pick through this litter, for snacks... I guess I'm going to have to live with the look of the litter on the bottom, and suppose at some point it'll be broken down to mulm, and then at that point I'm guessing the pest snails ( there is not very many, in this tank, but they have been known to migrate between my tanks ), will move in and eat the plant mulm, if I leave it there... It shouldn't be bad, to let this go naturally???

a couple pictures of what is piling up, after only a few days...

problems loading pictures again... I'll add them as I can

 

[GaryE]

I'm back with the same old statement - it depends on the fish species. I seem to have a bunch of detritivores, so I'll allow some debris for them to root through. But I still remove the powdery mulm.

I also have quite soft water though, and that means if Oodinium parasites get in, they thrive with mulm around. You buy a lot of new fish so the chance of a parasite being present is pretty solid. That influences things.