Hi All,

I am new to this site and have to say have been very impressed.

I have a query with regard to live planted tanks. I have seen many cool aquariums on youtube, etc with plenty of plants in the tanks. My query is how do you vac the gravel with the plants there or do you just work around them? I have seen tanks pretty much with plants everywhere and I know it's not good to distrub the roots of the plant, etc so just wondered how to keep the tank clean as I know it's good to vac most of the gravel to remove waste.

Cheers to all

you must allow time for plants to establish in the tank.
i would suggest you do not vac the gravel but place the hose
near enough to lift the gunge but not the gravel.by trial &
error you can manage .best of luck.
phil

How can you clean the tank when its full of plants you ask well the simple answer i can give is carefully or a good filter. a gravel vacuum doesnt work very well when there are roots and plants growing out of the gravel and with other substrates you cant use this method either. Cleaning the bottom of the tank if you over feed your fish can be very difficult and take a very long time. If you get the balance right its not necessary very often which makes it easier