Micro sword & vacuuming

[Herefishie]

I'm new to the hobby. I have a 15 gallon Fluval flex with one beta, six tetra and one mystery snail. I want to plant some micro sword but I'm confused about something. If the substrate gets covered with the micro sword, how do you vacuum? Doesn't the substrate get full of old food, poop, etc.?

[nabokovfan87]

Welcome to the forums!

Let me try to find a video, but you would gently rest the siphon on the plant.  don't crush it or anything, but you just get as close as you can to the substrate to get the much out. It will get food and stuff stuck in there and it can be important to siphon it out.

The segment is about halfway through.  Same technique, but a little easier with a siphon.

 

Here's another one on a big planted tank.