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Do you gravel vac a planted aquarium?


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It's really up to personal preference. Some gravel vac for aesthetic reasons to keep the clean look. Some gravel vac to reduce the amount of waste decomposing in the tank. I personally no longer gravel vac, as my plants and beneficial bacteria handle the waste just fine and I'm not bothered by anything sitting on the substrate. My shrimp also enjoy sorting through that stuff, so just another reason for me to leave it in.

Edited by colo3000
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i do, waste still accumulates over time regardless of the plants using some of the nutrients from the broken down waste. if your tank were lightly stocked with a good number of plants, you could go a long time or never do it. in a heavily stocked tank , or even moderately the waste can accumulate faster than it breaks down. there is no hard and fast rule that either way is right. you just have to let conditions, and what you desire guide you.

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Normally no, an unusual exception would be if i had a ton of dead growth laying on the bottom and nothing grew but algea... In that case I'd uproot everything, salvage what i could, gravel vac the surface of the gravel, and replant just as if I was starting over. 

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To vac or not to vac. It can depend on different factors of your setup and stocking as well as your own preference. We know that plants with roots like the dirty gunk and nutrients that fall to the bottom of the tank. However, finer substrates like sand will allow some of this detritus to lay on the surface of the gravel more easily which can cause problems aesthetically. On the other hand, sand-sifting species like loaches will pretty much gravel vac the top half-inch of your substrate naturally. 

Personally, I gravel vac the top half-inch of my substrate in planted tanks if that tank lacks a creature to do so itself. The plants want the nutrients in the bottom in order to have functioning roots, so I leave everything below that half-inch alone. Especially do not uproot all your plants for the sake of gravel vac-ing. Replanting your plants requires them to entirely reset. Just vacuum around your plants in the open areas.

As a side note, I purposefully stock all of my tanks with Malaysian trumpet snails since they sift and mix through the entire substrate. I believe this also alleviates the need for vacuuming. I combine that with an army of loaches to keep the ecosystem cleaning itself 🙂

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I have a planted tank and gravel vac around the plants. I tried to not and i ended up with a nitrate spike. I only have a betta in the tank. I have a think gravel layer. not sure if that contributes to more gunk collection.

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