How to get rid of all the debris on the tankbed

[InDeathsEmbrace]

Alot of debris accumulated on the tank bed.....any water movement close to the gravel creates a whole cloud of suspended particles....very irritating.
Planning to rescape tank soon,forsee big problem during uprooting n replanting.
Any idea on how to solve the problem?

[rijac]

you don't have shrimp or cordydoras?



anyway, you can vacuum the gravel at your next water change - do quarter of the tank at a time so you don't disturb all the bacteria at one go...

[Simon]

[quote:74d9bce875="InDeathsEmbrace"]Alot of debris accumulated on the tank bed.....any water movement close to the gravel creates a whole cloud of suspended particles....very irritating.
Planning to rescape tank soon,forsee big problem during uprooting n replanting.
Any idea on how to solve the problem?[/quote:74d9bce875]

siphon?

[InDeathsEmbrace]

too much to be siphoned...cos its not just on the surface but buried as well
don't u guys encounter the same problem?
was thinking of some sort of gravel cleaner...
saw it on some book before...wonder if available in sg.driven by air pump

[confusekid]

the particles are too fine to be trap by the gravel cleaner. Best is use a gravel cleaner when changing water to suck away the debris. Anyway the debris will settle after re-scape.

Jack

[rijac]

use a gravel vacum - its an attachment you stick to your hose when you siphon the water from your tank... stick it in the gravel and pull it out = the gravel will rise then fall back to the bottom while the junk (which is lighter) will get sucked out with the water... here an example of what it looks like.. there are a few types...

[loupgarou]

diatom filter, agitate gravel bed, rinse and repeat..

[Simon]

I wouldn't bother about trying to totally clean the gravel, some of which are bacteria residing in the gravel. Whichever is the case, unless you tend to rescape your tank very frequently, i suggest you otherwise.. the task is simply too tedious :P

[peterkoh]

[quote:ead3603109="InDeathsEmbrace"]Alot of debris accumulated on the tank bed.....any water movement close to the gravel creates a whole cloud of suspended particles....very irritating.
Planning to rescape tank soon,forsee big problem during uprooting n replanting.
Any idea on how to solve the problem?[/quote:ead3603109]

I've similar problem as well ... the biggest challenge is the tight space between plants which are hard to reach. Got some yamato to see if it helps.

[lorba]

what and how many fish do you keep? For one, I know that corydoras like to stir up particles at the bottom.

Also, do you have a lot of stem plants which always have leaves dropping off at the bottom?

Keep number of fish small. Frequent siphoning of visible areas helps. Keeping more yamato only generate more dirt, since they don't on the black mulm accumulated at the bottom.

[vinz]

I'm of the view that fishes like corydoras will help to keep things clean, but constantly disturbing the mulm, they allow the particles to float and be sucked into the filter. But it's limited.

I don't worry about the stuff under the gravel. I only vacuum the accessible areas.

Mulm isn't a bad thing, it's just ugly. It decomposes and the nutrients are recycled back into the water, substrate for the live plants.