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Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plants

LancsRick

LancsRick

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Joined
18 Apr 2012
Messages
683
Ok, I wasn't sure whether to put this in Filters or Plants, so hopefully I chose right!

Whenever I do any planting adjustment in my tank, I stir up a load of debris/mulm out of the substrate, which is to be expected. The problem though is that as the tank clears, loads of this debris settles on my plants, turning them into horrible looking things covered in "fur". How do you guys sort this or prevent it? The only approach I've tried that is even vaguely successful is wiping each leaf by hand with filter media, but since this is a fairly new tank, I just end up uprooting the plants!!

Help. Please. :(
 
Just had the same thing tonight, I left an air stone on to try & get it floating round & sucked into the filter. Going to do a small w/c tomorrow & try to gently syphon the leaves.
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

BigTom said:
Shrimp and otos should have everything looking neat and tidy again in no time.
Click to expand...

By the sounds of it there is way too much muck on the bottom of this tank though. I think it would need an army of cleanup crew to deal with it. Far better to clean it up first, and then add the shrimp and otto to "keep things tidy" :thumbup:
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

I've got 8 juvenile corys in there, which I hoped would form a good cleanup crew - am I mistaken?

Since I've got tetras in the tank, and will be adding other fish over the coming weeks, I was thinking that shrimps would just become an expensive form of live food? There's no carpet established yet for them to hide in.

In the meantime I guess I'll have to treat myself to a gravel vac!

Thanks!
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

LancsRick said:
I've got 8 juvenile corys in there, which I hoped would form a good cleanup crew - am I mistaken?

Since I've got tetras in the tank, and will be adding other fish over the coming weeks, I was thinking that shrimps would just become an expensive form of live food? There's no carpet established yet for them to hide in.

In the meantime I guess I'll have to treat myself to a gravel vac!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes you are mistaken about the corys. They wont eat dead or decaying plant material or fish poo and this is what is causing your debris on the substrate. All corys will do is cause minor disturbances and this can send the muck into suspension for the filter to suck out but this really is a downward spiral in terms of time it takes. Amano shrimp are unlikely to get eaten unless you choose larger or predatory fish or vicious buggers like Apistogrammas.

Seriously, gravel vac is the best solution. You dont have to plunge it into the gravel like you would have done in a fish only system, just hover it above the surface and it will suck it up. Areas that are not planted, of course, still vac lightly so as not to cause disturbance.

If you are hoping to create a carpet, you still need to vac it. Mark Evans has a post or thread on the subject and it is well worth having a look at it ... it will come up if you do a search on here :)
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

I may as well post in here rather than start a new thread - any recommendations for a gravel vac? I see some for under a tenner and some for much more, is there any quality difference or are you just paying for names?
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

LancsRick said:
I may as well post in here rather than start a new thread - any recommendations for a gravel vac? I see some for under a tenner and some for much more, is there any quality difference or are you just paying for names?
Click to expand...

No mate, dont spend a lot of money. In fact a coke bottle duct taped to a bit of tube would do the job. When you do your suctioning, dont plunge the tube part into the substrate just hold it above and allow it to draw out the mulm :) I think some people put sponge on the bottom of the tube to use over delicate plants.
 
Re: Do some planting - disturb mulm - horrible looking plant

Nope, still looking for something at the right price! In fact, with my new tank I'm after even more stuff now!
 
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