What Is The Best Way To Clean A Planted Aquarium?

[stardust2me]

Hi,
I am new to the hobby and I have had my aquarium for about 4 months and have been successful so far.

I was just wondering what is the best way to clean a planted aquarium without damaging the plants?

Do I have to use a fertilizer to keep plants looking healthy?

What plants are best for a begginer?

 

[Splatter]

Hey, funny you asked that cause I'm in the process of cleaning mine right now! Well, I say cleaning - more so doing plant matience and stuff. I'm not sure what you mean by 'cleaning' could you elaborate at all?

as for ferts, you don't have to use it, but it does make the plants look a whole lot better, they grow faster and look more green, it's good stuff(!) but no, you do not have to use it Although if you have alot of plants I would reccomend using ferts to replace the nutrients the plant uses in between water changes ^^

And there are plently of plants suitable for the beginniner! Of the top of my head -

Java fern,
vallis,
Most (if not all?)Anubias species,
Most (if not all?) Cryptocoryene species - however they're heavy root feeders.

Hope that helped!

 

[stardust2me]

Cool thanks for the advice.

By cleaning I meant is it ok to use the gravel cleaner with a planted aquarium?

 

[Shrimper]

In my small tank I have normal gravel and vac around the plants, but i do have a rescape every few months and give it a good vac all over.

In my big tank I have eco-complete and a sandy area. The eco complete is almost totally planted and I don't vac it at all, this is what the makers recommend. The sandy part is unplanted and i do vac that. I only have a small vac so although it is quite slow it isn't strong enough to suck up too much sand.

 

[aaronnorth]

Just clean in open spaces, the plants will use aa lot of the waste for fertilzer.