How do you clean with live plants

HI guys I put 2 live plant In my tank today and I'm not to sure how to clean with them in there. I was told b4 I got them to gravel vac but now wouldn't that hurt the plant.I know 1 is a ruby Mellon sword and I don't remember the other thanks for the answers

 

I just clean aroundlants and decorations. I don't think the goal of cleaning the bottom of the tank is to clean every single inch of it. Decorations one can sometimes take out for ease of cleaning. Some plants that are not rooted but free floating can also be taken out or moved out of the way, but if a plant is rooted then one just cleans elsewhere in the tank. plants contribute to cleaning up the tank. They use the fish poop as fertilizer, so there is no need to clean fishpoop from under a plant for example.

 

Ok thanks for the tips they have huge roots that I dug up under the gravel and just as an example if I got so many plants that I coverd the better part of the bottom ( I love the way it looks and is my plan after a lil while ) would I just not vac any more

Also allot of the longer roots won't stay under the gravel Is it ok to trim the roots a little

 

Just push the roots under gently, or dig a little trench and put the gravel back on top. Swords are heavy root feeders, so make sure to get some root tabs to put in the soil for him. I just vacuum around them very gently and mine did really well. Just vacuum the top of the gravel, don't push it down into the substrate. If you have the right lighting (I'm not sure about LED stuff) they'll grow pretty quickly. I bought some amazon swords that were around 3 inches tall, and they got really big and sent off daughter plants, so I ended up with 5. If you put too many plants in your fish won't be able to swim! Danios (glofish) need a lot of swimming room. Hopefully catsma will chime in, she helped me a lot with my plant stuff when I was first planting tanks.

 

Ok dug the trench popped back up a little but not as much so ill play some more and who ever catsma is I love as much info as I can get thanks

 

Also allot of the longer roots won't stay under the gravel Is it ok to trim the roots a little

Yes you can trim the roots. Its also good for the plant.

 

Also I herd you can rip a stem and leaf off replant and get a second plant I know there's got to be more to it then that if someone could tell me how that would be awesome thanks

 

I just swish mine around in the tank - the plecos do a pretty good job as well. You can also use the gravel vac, either to lightly vac or when you are putting water back in to "spray" it off.

 

Also I herd you can rip a stem and leaf off replant and get a second plant I know there's got to be more to it then that if someone could tell me how that would be awesome thanks

It depends on the plant - some can be propagated by cuttings, others cannot.

 

Good morning,

Here are a few links for you concerning Aquatic Plant Propagation:



Ken