# Cleaning a Planted Tank



## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

I have quite a bit of fish which means quite a bit of fish poop and this usually builds up mostly around the base of plants because the water currents sweep them there. Should I leave it? So far I have been using a turkey baster to siphon them out, gravel vac too big to maneuver around plants without uprooting or bending them to the side and when I use just the siphon tube, the suction usually sucks in my plants with the detritus. I was thinking of squeezing the tube to slow down the flow, might work? I'll try it out next water change so...

My questions for you guys are:
Do you clean the bottom of your planted tanks?
How do you clean it?

Thanks in advance


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I do not clean the bottom of my planted tanks. I leave the mulm alone, However I have lots of fish in my tank but its not the fish poop there.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Ciddian said:


> I do not clean the bottom of my planted tanks. I leave the mulm alone, However I have lots of fish in my tank but its not the fish poop there.


My tank is slightly overstocked and I see quite a bit of poop at the bottom concentrate in certain areas, like little litter boxes spread around the tank lol. So I should just leave it? There are small spots where the poop carpets the sand, should I be worried about the ammonia? I mean there is only so much plants can absorb right?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I usually hover the siphon around the base of the substrate to get as much of the detritus as possible. Of course, there is no need to really deeply vacuum the gravel in a planted tank.

Also, squeezing the tubing in your siphon will slow down the flow a bit, so it may help in preventing your plants from getting sucked up.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> I usually hover the siphon around the base of the substrate to get as much of the detritus as possible. Of course, there is no need to really deeply vacuum the gravel in a planted tank.
> 
> Also, squeezing the tubing in your siphon will slow down the flow a bit, so it may help in preventing your plants from getting sucked up.


Alright so I'll try the "squeezing the tube method". I have sand so it's much much easier to get the stuff out since it rests neatly at the top, unless my convicts do a little bit of digging.


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