clean up crew

[chia2k]

haha this may be a weird post but i have this qn.

u see in my 2ft tank with gravel at the bottom , i seldom see any fish "waste product" aka Shi* . but in my other 1 ft tank (not planted tank) , it has fine sand as the base and i always see tons of waste product . is there a way to get rid , if not reduce it ? maybe i should feed lesser.

[vinz]

The stuff break down and drop into the space between the gravel. Try siphoning the gravel and see the debris that comes out. Not too deep if you have base fert...

Or look at the sides of the gravel through the glass... you should see a layer of debris at the bottom of the gravel, above the basefert if it's bad enough.

[philtre]

hi chia2k,

think it's more of whether you see it or not. one thing about sand that I heard is that the debris will stay on top of the sand where you can see. The good thing is that you can SEE it and siphon it off. The bad thing is if you don't siphon it off ... it's a tad unslightly.

With gravel, it's probably got drawn down into the gravel ... kinda like hiding it ... so it's a matter of NOT seeing it though it's there.



hope that helps.

[pipsqueak]

if you use a gravel cleaner, you'll be shocked what comes out of the supposedly clean gravel. Brown water! and yea, i read somewhere that someone suggested creating a small depression in the sand bottom, so that the "mulm"? will collect there, it sure makes things easier for weekly maintainence!

[Bandit]

I use Mr Cleaner.....u should see the **** and waste food that get hidden under the gravel. Lucky thing nowadays got Mr Cleaner if not sure keep a bottom bare tank[]