Posted by kherman on February 26, 2003 at 11:43:53:
In Reply to: How to clean gravel with plants? posted by OceanMon on February 25, 2003 at 23:53:04:
It matters on how many plants you have. if 10% of the tank is covered with plants, just don't vaccuum that 10%. If your tank is totally planted (90+%), you might just need to do water changes weekly to keep chem levels down. It should be noted that with a fully planted tank, the plants themselves will do alot of work in keeping hte chemical levels under control.
In general, just do the best you can when vacuuming, making sure you don't pull up any plants. The purpose of vaccuuming is to pull out uneaten food and fish "by-product" from the bottom of the tank before it starts breaking down into ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc....
Vacuuming kills two birds with one stone. it cleans the tank and it is when you do the partial water change. If you can't vaccum, be sure to do water cahgnes weekly.
Keep an eye on the chem levels and eventually, you'll know how often to vacum and do water changes.
