mcdonald.kk

So now that I have my first fish in my tank I have some questions about maintenance. I know you should do water changes but what about gravel cleaning? I have a lot of live plants and driftwood in my tank. Do I just vacuum around things? I also have fuzz algae on my driftwood. It's not out of control but if I need to clean some of it off how do I do it without stressing out my fish? I have a yo yo loach and ghost shrimp. Should I prune my plants once a week too? Some of the leaves are dead/dying--if they stay in the tank they will raise the ammonia right? whew...lots of questions...sorry...any help is much appreciated.

primerowan

I am also pretty new at fish keeping, but from what I do know it is really important to aggregate the gravel when you vacuum. Not only does it clean out all the junk that settles at the bottom of the tank, but it also prevents the buildup of toxic gas pockets that can kill your fish!

As for frequency, I've heard that vacuuming over the gravel when you do your once a week cleanings is enough, and then really thoroughly aggregate it and clean it once a month - though someone more experienced might have a better answer than that.

Your tank sounds cool though - I really like yoyos and am hoping to add a small shoal to my new tank!

HatchetHaven

mcdonald.kk

I've unbunched the ones that came bunched up. I have argentine sword, microsword, java moss, cabomba, watersprite and Japanese rush. The Japanese rush is an acorus species which, I've found out, isn't meant to be submerged. It is still alive but if it starts to go downhill I'll take it out. Here's a pic of the tank, you'll see what I mean about it being tricky to vacuum.

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Mcalpine

it doesn't sound like you have a huge bio load on your tank so i would gravel vac. every two weeks or so. It doesn't have to look dirty to need it you might be surprised the first time you do it on how much junk is in the gravel. Yes plants are great but the dead stuff should be kept at bay due to its rotting it realeases things that aren't good for your fish i love the setup get urself a nice like and those plants will take off. good luck!!!

sirdarksol

Excellent advice. Your take on frequency of vacuuming is spot on.

I'm going to take a leap, McDonald, that the driftwood you have is grapevine. The stuff has a habit of growing the fuzz algae. I pulled the grapevine out of my tank, but some people have had luck with water changes and light scrubbing to keep their grapevine clean.