The Great White Hand Posted May 26, 2007 Report Share Posted May 26, 2007 Hi Background: 215 ltr heavily planted tank (AR980), wet/dry filter and external canister (CF1200, plenty of biomax and good noddles). Five Discus, 2 rams, 6 corys, 8 ottos, 2 Saes, 20 harlequins, 16 neons. 30% WC 2-3 times a week only vacuuming the top 10mm of substrate, substrate appears clean. Noticed phosphates going up, put in seachem phosgurd but kept coming back (0.5 - 1.2 ppm)all other parameters fine, so decided to vacuum top 30-40mm (50mm fine gravel and 20mm JBL proflora), a whole heap of rubbish coming out. I think I'm heavily stocked, but am heavily planted and filtered? Should I be deep vacuuming? Will this upset my biological filtration? How to vac around glossistigma and tenellus? Any advice welcome! Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted May 26, 2007 Report Share Posted May 26, 2007 Vacuum only until you get down to the substrate i.e. vacuum only the gravel. To get around my plants I use an airline instead of the gravel vacuum. I also tend to stir up the gravel slightly to allow the airline to pull out all the mess. Shouldn't upset your biological filter as what you are sucking out isn't going to go up it anyway. The only thing likely to clog it is the substrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 i have an almost indentical setup to you in litres & filtration. i had major water quality probs when i "over planted" my tank. the plants started to loose their quality & then so did the water. I did not have many ferts in the water. i ended up removing everything except the cabomba & have not had any quality problems since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great White Hand Posted May 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 Hi Smidey Can you elaborate a bit on your problems, so I might know what to look out for? Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 i dont really know what the problem was but it definately had something to do with amount of plant matter that was in the tank. the water was always clear but one of my angels got popeye & a few others deteriorated. have not had any problems since i removed alot of the plants. my tank is around 200l & have 1900L/hr filtration. this is how i originally planted it then i replanted it & had water quality problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 Smidey, if you think either of those tanks is overplanted you should take a look at mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freakyfish Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I dont see how a healthy planted tank can cause your water problems? What sort of readings did you have? Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I dont see how a healthy planted tank can cause your water problems? they started to deteriorate, thats when i started to have problems. i didnt have a complete setup for plants. only had sand under the gravel & wasn't using ferts enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freakyfish Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 Maybe it was from the plants dying and affecting the water quality I only have sand at the bottom of my planted display tank Ferts are a must for a heavily planted tank though Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I would say originally it had nothing to do wth the plants. I'd say there was something else wrong with the water quality, and the side effects were causing the pop-eye and plants to deteriorate. Then once they started going, the water issue got worse. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 I would say originally it had nothing to do wth the plants. I'd say there was something else wrong with the water quality, and the side effects were causing the pop-eye and plants to deteriorate. Then once they started going, the water issue got worse. Just a thought. i don't think so, my tank had run with no change except the fish growing for 12 months. i added alot of plants, when they went bad i had the probs then when i removed them the probs stoped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 oh well maybe not then, if removing the plants was all you did to stop the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 Smidey, Plants won't cause disease or deaths. But they can carry diseases if in with fish carrying diseases. Whitepot is very easily transported this way. Pop eye is usually related to bacterial problems, getting an injury & it getting infected for example, or poor water quality. If you removed some plants & re planted, remember plants take time to re-establish & grow. Something went wrong, what it is I don't know. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted May 27, 2007 Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 as far as i was aware pop eye was a bateria problem mostly put down to poor water quality. whether the water quality affected the plants or the plants reduced the quality i will never know. i removed plants & quality was restored to what it was before i planted them. i got rid of 60% of the plants & have not had problems since so i just gunna stick to what i know, "less plants means healthier fish for my tank". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great White Hand Posted May 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2007 Hi Smidey I think both of your set-ups look cool! Good on you for having the goods instincts to pull the plants out and fixing the problem . What sort of readings were you getting (nitrate,phosphate,etc.)and how much water changing were you doing? Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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