if i fill my tank with plants then would i haft to take them out to clean the tank?cause dont they abosorb...?

Question

if i fill my tank with plants then would i haft to take them out to clean the tank ....becuse dont they abosorb the waste ??
i have gravel ( i add fretilizer safe stuff to my tank) so can i just change the water and not clean the gravel with a siphone weekly

Answer 1

Plants will absorb some of the "Waste" howver you will oaccasionally need to clean the gravel with a gravel vacuum. Gently clean near the plants, you may need to hold your thumb on the end of the hose that the water comes out of to control the flow of water. With out controlling the water flow you could siphon all the gravel off of the roots when what you really want to do is have a gentle roiling of the gravel to have the detritus or waste get siphoned away.

Check out the www.theKrib.com for planted tank information, and excellent resource. Or even better check here http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/

Answer 2

If you have a planted tank you will not have to remove the plants. Just work the siphon around them. In fact leaving some of the gravel waste material, that you are normally removing with the siphon, acts like fertilizer so i usually go easy around the plants. You shouldn't have to take anything but water out of your tank when you clean.

Answer 3

No you need not remove your plants when cleaning.

And yes (subjective) you can don't vacuum your gravel.

The reason people vacuum their gravel is because the waste of the fish in the gravel will break down and produce Ammonia which get converted (assuming established tank) to Nitrate (NO3). Too much of such Nitrogen (N) compounds is harmful to your livestock.

We also knows that plants needs N to grow therefore if you have a "heavily and healthy" planted tank, there is a possibility you can skip the vacuuming. You can measure your water for nitrate (NO3), if your NO3 level is below 5 ppm you're fine. That mean you can forget about vacuuming and just do your routine water change, otherwise if NO3 is above 10 ppm you would have to either do vacuuming of the waste, keep less fish or plant more plants :)

In my exprience, I not only did not vacuum my gravel I have to eventually add KNO3 to keep my plants from turning a lighter shade of green due to N deficiency (my NO3 reading was zero) :) My tank is 55 litre and very very heavily planted, it contains 30~40 tetras which are fed daily.

Answer 4

I recommend that you do siphon around the plants as best you can, not siphoning means that you will have a waste build up in your gravel. Taking them out will damage the roots, and you want to avoid this.

Sometimes, it is easier to get a smaller siphon that is designed for small tank use. It will take longer, but you will still be able get the tank as clean as you need!

Good Luck.

Answer 5

In theory your idea is sound, but it doesn't really work out. You would need so many plants to balance even one fish it would be amazing. So yes, you will still need to vacuum the gravel to keep it clean. Good thought though.

MM

Answer 6

i dont think so, just take out all the water and then clean everything with a wet wash cloth