Fish Addict

Whenever I siphon my tanks, I am always afraid that I will suck up all of my plants. This makes it hard, because they are in areas that food and gunk goes. Are there any ways to do it so I can be sure it won't pull them out or damage their roots?

miker

Don't worry about the gunk near Plant Roots - they are plant food. If your tank is densely planted and water parameters look bad, additional water changes should be done.

Fish Addict

The thing is, the tank is just dense enough for me to only be able to really siphon one area, and I don't have that many plants either!!

susitna-flower

Even though it makes a mess, you can stir the water with something making small circles in the water, to bring up the poo...running the filters, and syphon the water.....IF you do this a couple times a week, it will keep things clean, without digging near the roots.

sirdarksol

With my rooted plants, I usually poke around the area, stirring things up and gently touching the vacuum to plant/substrate. I've never had a plant sucked up by doing this. When I'm having a diatom outbreak in a new tank, I've even vacuumed the plants themselves. As long as the input can't get completely covered by a plant's leaf, there shouldn't be a problem (an entirely covered siphon creates enough suction to lift a sizable piece of slate, I have found)

With my java ferns and java moss, I generally avoid the area (they're on driftwood) and let the bottom feeders/shrimp deal with that mess.