Planted Tank - cleaning / maintenance random thoughts=questions!

[TifNee837]

Serious question - to any/all with planted tanks........
It's starting to really bug me.......
Gravel vac'ing!? I can see poo in more than one spot and it's driving me MAD! And OF COURSE, those particular spots, and SUUUUPER super close to some of my biggest plants root systems...I have absolutely sucked up more than one amazon sword in the last few months..
I try and do a "surface vac", and I have a pair of tongs I use to like, swish the water around a bit && bring some of the nasty up to surface..
But
Now I'm also getting really bad with this --- but listen --- 

I have a 60 gallon tank, #1.

Anyhow.

I have this filter, right..it's a Danner 55 E-Z Clean, HoB filter (NO it is absolutely NOT my only source of filtration, but, stay with me here!)

So, this filter, came with an attachment piece, that goes into an opening in the filter housing, and uses the filters 'motor' to siphon out the water (instead of it going out thru the outflow, it comes out thru the tubing like it would during a normal gravel vac/water change)

Soooooo I have totally, sorta kinda just been using THAT to do my W.C.'s lately (I take out 25% of the tank water in less than 15 minutes most times!), but this has been my "water changing way", since after basically murdering the biggest of my swords and uprooting half my dwarf hair grass.

SOLUTION(S)!?

And thanks in advance!!! 😊😊😊

[Brandy]

Well I only have little tanks but I hate the piles of snail leavings under the cholla wood, so I have a siphon hose and a turkey baster. A squirt with the baster stirs the poop UP without touching substrate and siphon takes the rest. I think you could safely do similar near plants, just spot clean and then do your HOB water change trick? I have seen someone rubberband the baster to the siphon hose to make it a one hand deal, but I haven't bothered yet.

Arguably however, you might want to just put something larger over the area (stones? carpeting plant?) to hide the unsightly poop and let it fertilize those swords...

[StephenP2003]

2 things remedied this situation for me:

Leave no inch of substrate without plants or rocks. 

Seachem pristine or Fritz monster 360. They both liquify the poop. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

I kinda use Brandy's turkey baster trick but a bit different. I fill the baster half way, then squeeze the bulb to get the air out. Just point at the detritus and release the bulb. Gentle enough not to disturb plants. 

[Dave23]

Depending on how fine the substrate is you could try siphon with 1/4 inch airline tube or one of the meany other sizes hose out there. I do this on fry tanks to allow for max control. but may work here.

[KBOzzie59]

A couple things come to mind.  #1 being a ball valve on the siphon line so you can adjust the amount of suction.  #3 a larger diameter vacuum tube.

[KBOzzie59]

This is the no glue model.

Threaded 1/2" ball valve

1/2" MPT X slip street elbow

1/2" MPT hose barb

1/2" pvc (cut to desired length)

Teflon tape on the male threads, just push the rest together.  Right now it's setup for 10 gallon tanks, a longer pipe for deeper tanks.  No glue so I can also use the valve on my siphon-helper.  I'll picture it in a bit when I use it again.