Cleaning planted tank

[Elizabeth Power]

I have a 20 gallon tank that is heavily planted. Do I still need to vacuum the gravel? Right now I try to do it every time I do a water change which is about every week, sometimes two weeks apart. It's getting harder and harder to do so as the plants fill in more and more of the space, and I add new plants that are not yet established and would be uprooted by vacuuming. I have rock in the center where my corys spend a great deal of their time. Now I mainly just remove the rocks and vacuum where they were sitting. 

[Isaac M]

Hi @Elizabeth Power, I personally do not gravel vac my planted aquariums. In my book, it is just fertilizer for my plants. I have done maybe a handful of gravel vacs in the last 6 years or so and that was mostly because I made a mess with trimming moss or something like that haha 

[Fish Folk]

8 minutes ago, Elizabeth Power said:

I have a 20 gallon tank that is heavily planted. Do I still need to vacuum the gravel? Right now I try to do it every time I do a water change which is about every week, sometimes two weeks apart. It's getting harder and harder to do so as the plants fill in more and more of the space, and I add new plants that are not yet established and would be uprooted by vacuuming. I have rock in the center where my corys spend a great deal of their time. Now I mainly just remove the rocks and vacuum where they were sitting. 

This can be a hotly debated question. I remember another media space where my answer to this same question was "yes" and where another aquarist's was adamantly "no." It never actually came to a crossing of swords . . . but it devolved a bit into the immature.

All I'll say is this: We used to gravel vac faithfully as you describe. And, after time, like you, it got to be a hassle. So now, I gravel vac where I can, only every other water change. As long as fish are not _overfed_ then what's building up mainly is mulm. I'm not persuaded that mulm is all that bad. Where it's unsightly, there I vac. Otherwise, I let the plants and micro life do their thing. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Fish Folk

[Isaac M]

Well said @Fish Folk

[lefty o]

is entirely your choice. if you want to gravel vac, you dont have to go crazy and root up plants doing it. you can just hit the easy to get areas.

[Mmiller2001]

I just brush off plants and do a few pats on carpets or mosses.

[Yanni]

I actually used to gravel vacuum every chance I got but as I started to get into aquascaping, I found it harder and harder to actually gravel vac, so I just stopped, I found that my plants actually grow much MUCH better with the mulm and detritus. My crypts and amazon sword, depsite not having any fertilizer or aquasoil grew like crazy. I know that gravel vaccing can really help to get aeration down to the roots, but I have found that gravel vaccing just isn't really necessary for the plants or fish.

[Elizabeth Power]

Thank you for all your input. It was very helpful. @Yanni @Mmiller2001 @lefty o @Isaac M @Fish Folk 

[Streetwise]

I try to run my tanks so that that each ecosystem is stable and compatible. I prefer to let biology do the work.

[swivvr]

Is gravel vacuuming where you plunge the siphon into the gravel? Is it any different than sucking up any debris laying on top of the gravel? 

[lefty o]

gravel vac'ing can be either, it is up to the user how far they want to take it.