"steve" wrote in message
oups.com...

Ozdude wrote:


I am shocked at how filthy my gravel was and I can't begin to stress
how
important it is you get a really good gravel cleaner that suits your
tank. I
was using a cleaner suitable for a small tank and when I bought the
new 22"
one I'd say it sucked up 400% more junk on it's first use that the
little
one just wasn't able to pull up out of the substrate.


If this is true, don't you think people who use soil or even mammal
dung in their tank substrate would have massive water quality problems?
A large portion of the planted tank keepers do no deep gravel vac'ing
at all.

steve

Steve,; points taken. I never said I did a deep gravel vaccing. I haven't -
perhaps 0.5cm is the deepest I've gone. There was a lot of waste on and just
below the surface and it appears the bacteria took hold on it..

I don't advocate regular deep vaccing at all, never have, especially if you
have a planted tank.

Most of the advice sites I've read about substrates give warnings about soil
mixtures, dung and peat under/in substrates and there are many beautiful
planted tanks around using these types of substrates. It's almost definitely
a ymmv area.

I have lots of plants myself but I am of the opinion that if you have a good
working substrate (aerobic and good CEC) then the less disturbed it is the
better.

I've also seen tanks with Val. planted in sand and every time I've seen the
owners vacuum, they only do the surface mulm and detritus on the sand
surface - they never dig the siphon in - my point is actually you need a vac
with good suction so it can gently pick up most of the top surface mess,
where the bacteria have the most chance of getting a hold on the fish,
particularly bottom feeders.

All the best.

Oz

--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith