Gravel vac in planted tank

I have another annoying question, but I think it might be useful to others starting out with plants as well.

How often, if at all, should I vacuum the substrate in a planted tank? Is it better to just let mulm & other waste accumulate and sift down to be absorbed by the roots, or will this eventually lead to problems like anaerobic bacteria? I personally use a medium-rough sand and some medium black sand, but I would be interested to hear of your experiences with larger gravel or finer sand as well.

So far, I find that if I have a good cleanup crew (once again Cory thanks for this important knowledge, from your blog) there doesn't seem to be much visible waste accumulating, but I have done a couple gravel vacs and there is definitely material making its way down through the sand over time. I think this should be beneficial for plant growth to a certain extent, but is there a point where the substrate can get "clogged" with muck and it begins to hurt growth? I have heard of Malaysian Trumpet Snails being good for turning the sand up, but I don't really want to add a bunch more snails to this tank right now.

Here's a pic of my substrate for reference, i'd say it averages about 1mm grain size, and is slightly irregular, so it seems to have decent room between grains.

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What is your practice on cleaning gravel in a planted tank?

I only gravel vac areas where plant are not in a planted tank.

i just drag a finger thru in between the plants (to keep the gravel/sand stirred) and i will just create a little turbulence to move any waste that may have collected around the plants themselves.

Yeah, I think there has probably been enough stirring up the sand from me just moving things around so far. I guess the lack of oxygen would only be a problem in really fine sand or with a very tick layer of substrate?

I never cleaned the gravel near plants in my 55g cichlid tank and the plants grew just fine. My wife had a 29g community tank that she never gravel vac'ed, period. We had some good bottom feeders and it was heavily planted. Eventually sold it to some friend who still have it and do the same maintenance. It's been running for 6-7 years or so that way with no problems or losses from illness.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:I only gravel vac areas where plant are not in a planted tank.

 

This is a good question! Once a tank completely fills out its impossible to gravel vac. All organic material breaks down & will eventually settle into the substrate. Plants do use this as food. Malaysian snails help with the natural process of renewal within the substrate, and are another aquatic element one must learn to control, (snail population).

If the siphon is too powerful (sucking up the sand), you can either change to a smaller diamiter hose or slightly kink the hose to lessen flow. The frequency is determined by many factors. A tank like yours I may just stick the siphon hose in a few spots everytime a water change is done which I assume is one a week

I vac all my tanks, gravel and sand. I probably don't need to, but I like to keep an average I've part in cleaning my tanks. If you have a lot of plants, that are just littering the floor, you probably don't need to vac. Or if you can't get to the gravel due to the tank being overgrown, don't bother doing a vac.

I use airline tubing + syringe to start a siphon and suck out fish poo that collects in my overcrowded tanks. I just cleaned my pleco tank that is covered in Java moss and guppy grass, did it twice for good measure.

CrazedAce wrote:I use airline tubing + syringe to start a siphon and suck out fish poo that collects in my overcrowded tanks. I just cleaned my pleco tank that is covered in Java moss and guppy grass, did it twice for good measure.

That's a good idea, I may use this in the future. I sometimes have a hard time getting my gravel vac to just suck up the surface crud, because it sucks so hard I usually get a big chunk of sand as soon as I get near the bottom. Smaller tubing would give me a lot more control, and I can get any large bits that I see. Although, since I have been feeding about 1/2 as much as I have been this week, I have noticed the bottom is a lot more clean- thank you Amano Shrimp!

Thanks again CrazedAce for the advice on smaller tubing, I used it to get rid of BGA in my tank and it worked like a charm. I still haven't vacuumed my 20 gallon since this post, and other than some high nitrates (usually 40 or so), the tank is doing really well. The plants really seem to appreciate the nutrients, and the other living inhabitants don't seem to mind it too much either.

I don't know if I mentioned originally, but I have some fairly coarse sand (you could almost call it very fine gravel), so this is probably a huge factor in whether vacuuming is needed or not. With finer substrate, waste might not be able to penetrate down through it, so vacuuming might be necessary. Rougher substrate might need it as well, maybe because it's too easy for waste to fall down through, and then rot and release tons of nitrates back up into the water. I think the sand I have is the perfect consistency, to where waste can sift down through, but then is almost trapped down below the surface and can't rot as quickly.

I also have a massive load of snails in the tank, which help to clean up the surface of the substrate. Now that I understand a little more about how tanks work, I would not recommend the no gravel vac approach, but it really has been working well for me.

LuminousAphid wrote:I have another annoying question, but I think it might be useful to others starting out with plants as well.

How often, if at all, should I vacuum the substrate in a planted tank? Is it better to just let mulm & other waste accumulate and sift down to be absorbed by the roots, or will this eventually lead to problems like anaerobic bacteria? I personally use a medium-rough sand and some medium black sand, but I would be interested to hear of your experiences with larger gravel or finer sand as well.

So far, I find that if I have a good cleanup crew (once again Cory thanks for this important knowledge, from your blog) there doesn't seem to be much visible waste accumulating, but I have done a couple gravel vacs and there is definitely material making its way down through the sand over time. I think this should be beneficial for plant growth to a certain extent, but is there a point where the substrate can get "clogged" with muck and it begins to hurt growth? I have heard of Malaysian Trumpet Snails being good for turning the sand up, but I don't really want to add a bunch more snails to this tank right now.

Here's a pic of my substrate for reference, i'd say it averages about 1mm grain size, and is slightly irregular, so it seems to have decent room between grains.

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What is your practice on cleaning gravel in a planted tank?

Hi LuminousAphid,

I never gravel vac.  I have at least 1 Corydoras per 5 gallons, 1 Siamese Algae Eater (SAE) per tank, and 1 Otocinclus per 10 gallons in each of my tanks along with sufficient filtration for a GPH of 8X or more the tank volume.  I do a 33% - 50% weekly water change and siphon out any detritus on the substrate at that time.  If I have a 'mulm line' show up along the front glass like you see in your picture I use a finger or a sponge to clean it off.

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Looking good Roy, that's an amazing Wendii that you have there! Bronze or Red? I can never tell, especially in pictures, but I really like the look of yours. I haven't had good luck keeping mine happy, but of course I keep having to move it so I'm sure that's the main reason. It's also pretty small so it hasn't gotten to that "critical mass" point that most plants have where it just starts going crazy.

Hi LuminousAphid,

Thank you; yes that is a C. wendtii (Bronze). I use Seachem Flourish tabs under my Cryptocorynes when they are first planted since they are heavy root feeders.

I never do a traditional gravel vac on my planted tanks. 3 of my 4 are dirt with a sand cap. To get the milm/detrius off the sand I use a DIY air powered vac. I molded it after the one Joey set up on DIYFK. It creates a nice vacuum and by holding it over the sand it allows me to pick up all the muck on the bottom while leaving the substrate on the deck. I try to do this about once a month or as needed. If I am lazy I will stir the muck up before my weekly water change and try to rid it that way.

I find with the amount of snails I have in the tank, I don't even get very much mulm building up on the surface... i think they eat it all! (gross)

LuminousAphid wrote:I find with the amount of snails I have in the tank, I don't even get very much mulm building up on the surface... i think they eat it all! (gross)

Indeed; snails and shrimp greatly reduce if not eliminate mulm buildup.