Hey guys, im new to forums so sorry if this is in the wrong section. Ive had my aquarium for almost a year now, and i have one pearl gourami, 4 cherry barb's, 4 sterbai cory's and one ghost shrimp(had two, one disappeared..probably because it was a GHOST shrimp =P). Anyways, My aquarium IS planted with multiple types of plants( dont know all of them) and I noticed my aquarium gravel bottom is starting to accumulate lots of dead plant stuff. When I clean with gravel cleaner, I dont go in the places wheres theres too many plants, as I dont wana uproot them by accident, but thats where all the crap is. I just did a water test and noticed my Nitrate is at 80ppm, which is too high.

now, should I uproot my plants next time I clean, to clean properly? or is there another way?

thx guys( and girls)

Welcome to the forum!

You can uproot if you'd like (though, I would suggest quarantining your fish first). I generally just take a narrow-diameter siphon hose (not the bulky gravel vac), and hoover in around the plant stems. Most of the decomposing plant matter just falls apart and is sucked up, the remaining gets clogged at the inlet and I just pull it out and restart the siphon.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Gee are you suuposed to clean a planted tank?

Hummmm I never do.

Well I do suck out the mulm you mentioned every couple of years or so but that's about it. Just the mulm on top without disturbing the sand at all.

just me and my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

thx guys, and gtm2007, i guess i dint think of that, ill attach a smaller tube and replace my bulky gravel vac...good idea! thx