How often to deep clean a planted tank?

[Surya]

Big water changes work for my tank, been doing them religiously every week for years and fish are incredibly healthy and long lived, breeding like crazy etc. I don't have shrimp and parameters are matched. Clean water = good IME 😉 Every tank is different of course, do what works for you.

I will experiment with different approaches eg the turkey baster. Got one in the Christmas box which is coming out on Sunday...

 

[Luciën]

I don't deep clean any soil substrate. I just vac around the stones where detritus builds up and where there is cosmetic sand and top it off with some new now and then.. Just shake all your plants thorough blast mosses/carpets with a turkey blaster and remove dead plant's/leaves. Just try to keep up with weekly water changes keep your co2 stable if you have any, and not too long light on 8hrs is good enough.

 

[MJQMJQ]

Depends. I certainly do far less changing of water on my low tech shrimp breeding tank. But that system is minimal fuss and low bioload so anymore is kind of moot. I change water for the opposite outcome to the killing of shrimp, it easily adds calcium and mangnesium to the water due to the tap water qualities where I live. Helps the shrimp with shedding.

The ten high tech systems I help maintain receive up to 90% water change a week. If maintenance is being performed throughout the week then this may happen more than once a week.

Point is the amount is arbitrary. We do clean our high tech tanks, amongst other things, the water change helps prevent the circumstance you outlined before:



The other end of the scale is what @dw1305 outlined:



Another way of creating a relatively stable environment with a means to support life. Different methods for dealing with a range of setups; low energy to high energy. An explanation of the qualities of zones of REDOX would be far better served by someone with more knowledge on the matter.



Not quite understanding the question. I haven’t seen the OP’s tank so there isn’t really a comparison or judgement I can make here. As for what I do, the sanded area is literally on the bottom glass of the tank and a few mm’s depth. A lot of detritus falls into this area and makes removing it easier (if that’s what you want to do and if it’s necessary).

90% water change?I use dechlorinated tap water and the ph can fluctuate by abt 1 so not possible for me.Are u using ro/di water?

 

[Geoffrey Rea]

9 tanks tap water (very high gH and kH, over 400ppm TDS) and 1 tank RO/tap mix to 120ppm TDS @MJQMJQ

 

[Parablennius]

I havn't deep cleaned my current tank in its 3+1/2 yrs. flow is sufficient to carry any detritus over the weir where it's filtered out.
When I used to clean substrate in other systems, this was the best tool ever and it's home made. Cheap as chips. Airlift tube from a U/G filter plate, reduced to a smaller bore pipe. This allows you to probe the large bore down into the substrate, which "boils" around but doesn't get sucked up due to the reduced flow but the detritus will syphon out.

 

[MJQMJQ]

9 tanks tap water (very high gH and kH, over 400ppm TDS) and 1 tank RO/tap mix to 120ppm TDS @MJQMJQ

Im guessing you keep easy fish like neon tetra?If not Im so envious.My shrimp hates it sometimes even when 50% water change is done.

 

[Geoffrey Rea]

Don’t want to hijack the thread so will restrict this to one post.

My shrimp hates it sometimes even when 50% water change is done.

What are you using as evidence that your shrimp hate large volume water changes?

Are they perishing? Or just going into hiding? If it’s the latter Amano and Cherry shrimp can/do moult with an influx of available calcium in the tap water and whilst vulnerable, without a hardened outer shell, seek shelter until it is regrown. This could be misinterpreted as being unhappy but is natural behaviour and a necessary process for them to grow.

I only ask as rather than looking to estimating a change in pH as a cause for a behaviour there are many alternative explanations to explore, unless they are perishing. Not saying you should ignore your personal judgement as your tap water and mine will be very different no doubt. For example, there could be a high amount of metaldehyde in tap water from agricultural run off, that shouldn’t be ignored if you intend to keep invertebrates in aquaria.

Another regular claim all over the net and on YouTube is that glutaraldehyde causes shrimp deaths. No one seems to correlate a very clean tank/plants/surfaces with less food/aufwuchs as a food source; less food for a colony of shrimp, potentially less shrimp...

Caveats to this are having a very heavily planted tank, with hardscape etc gives a mammoth surface area to graze. Putting glutaraldehyde into a sparsely planted tank is a very different scenario and will have a greater effect proportionately on food availability for your shrimp.

 

[Zeus.]

I've suffered a little with bba recently and I believe that's partly down to me not removing damaged plants and rotting leaves and not deep cleaning enough.



I like the look of this bit of kit, @Zeus do you use this on your 500 litre?

Yes and No- I mainly just use the turkey blaster on my 500l with it being braced, but the turkey blasting does tend to move the AS and it gets to the lowest part of the tank near the glass, then I do find then the Dennerle Nano Gravel Cleaner comes in very handy to suck the AS up and reposition it elsewhere in the tank

 

[MJQMJQ]

Don’t want to hijack the thread so will restrict this to one post.



What are you using as evidence that your shrimp hate large volume water changes?

Are they perishing? Or just going into hiding? If it’s the latter Amano and Cherry shrimp can/do moult with an influx of available calcium in the tap water and whilst vulnerable, without a hardened outer shell, seek shelter until it is regrown. This could be misinterpreted as being unhappy but is natural behaviour and a necessary process for them to grow.

I only ask as rather than looking to estimating a change in pH as a cause for a behaviour there are many alternative explanations to explore, unless they are perishing. Not saying you should ignore your personal judgement as your tap water and mine will be very different no doubt. For example, there could be a high amount of metaldehyde in tap water from agricultural run off, that shouldn’t be ignored if you intend to keep invertebrates in aquaria.

Another regular claim all over the net and on YouTube is that glutaraldehyde causes shrimp deaths. No one seems to correlate a very clean tank/plants/surfaces with less food/aufwuchs as a food source; less food for a colony of shrimp, potentially less shrimp...

Caveats to this are having a very heavily planted tank, with hardscape etc gives a mammoth surface area to graze. Putting glutaraldehyde into a sparsely planted tank is a very different scenario and will have a greater effect proportionately on food availability for your shrimp.

Failed moults and dead shrimp I cant match the parameters exactly so yea.

 

[Authur11]

Steps to Clean Old Aquarium Gravel: Step one is the standard cleaning solution: about 10% bleach and 90% hot or warm water, or you can use a lower concentration of bleach to be safe for fish after that. The second step is to put the fish gravel in the pot plus the bleach solution, pour the water to cover the gravel. Soak the gravel for no more than a quarter of an hour, during which time you can stir to irritate the cleaning solution. The fourth step is to rinse the aquarium gravel and then dry it. Finally, return it to the aquarium.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Step one is the standard cleaning solution: about 10% bleach and 90% hot or warm water, or you can use a lower concentration of bleach to be safe for fish after that. The second step is to put the fish gravel in the pot plus the bleach solution, pour the water to cover the gravel. Soak the gravel for no more than a quarter of an hour, during which time you can stir to irritate the cleaning solution. The fourth step is to rinse the aquarium gravel and then dry it. Finally, return it to the aquarium.

Welcome to UKAPS. You can just rinse the gravel, you don't need the bleach. If you do use bleach you can sun-dry the gravel afterwards or use a de-chlorinator. Gravel is inert because it is mainly quartz (SiO2) which is hard and impermeable.

One of the reasons I'm not keen on gravel is that organic debris can fall into the gaps between grains, while with sand it tends to sit on top and can be syphoned out from above the substrate. These days I like <"an undisturbed substrate">, this follows the reasoning of <"Stephan Tanner"> CEO of "Swiss Tropicals".

cheers Darrel

 

[azawaza]

I wonder if your fish think of ‘deep clean’ as when I think of drrrrrrrrr (shudders!) while my dentist says ‘relax, just a deep clean’.

 

[Authur11]

Steps to Clean Old Aquarium Gravel: Step one is the standard cleaning solution: about 10% bleach and 90% hot or warm water, or you can use a lower concentration of bleach to be safe for fish after that. The second step is to put the fish gravel in the pot plus the bleach solution, pour the water to cover the gravel. Soak the gravel for no more than a quarter of an hour, during which time you can stir to irritate the cleaning solution. The fourth step is to rinse the aquarium gravel and then dry it. Finally, return it to the aquarium.

Gravel open the way for the growth and development of a specific bacteria that is beneficial to aquatic life. But sometimes it also harms your fish. I recommend cleaning it to keep the balance of the ecosystem.

 

[Hufsa]

Gravel open the way for the growth and development of a specific bacteria that is beneficial to aquatic life. But sometimes it also harms your fish. I recommend cleaning it to keep the balance of the ecosystem.

How is it a balanced ecosystem if you bleach the daylights out of the substrate?

 

[ceg4048]

I didn't do this at all for a long time, and the tank looked fine and fish were healthy, but I developed a BBA problem on the wood eventually. I've done a deep clean and sucked out a phenomenal amount of waste. I don't know how often to repeat this - would 6 monthly be too infrequent?

Hello,
BBA is a CO2 related algae. It is not directly related to sediment waste buildup. Dirty sediments in a CO2 enriched tank however can contribute to some types of algal blooms since there is a high ammonia content in the sediment. If the sediment is disturbed at a time other than during water change time this could help to trigger some types of algal blooms such as staghorn or green water - especially if the lighting is strong.
If this is a CO2 enriched tank then it is always a good idea to occasionally vacuum the substrate using any of the devices mentioned by other posters. If the bottom surface is covered with carpet plants, then obviously vacuuming is not possible.
Also, it's not necessary to vacuum the entire surface in one go. Vacuum small areas during successive water changes. I don't think weekly is necessary though. Just keep it simple. The waste buildup in a CO2 tank can be many times greater than in a non-enriched tank. That's why it's recommended for CO2 tanks but not for low tech tanks.

The main point is to not bust a gut cleaning gravel. Do it when you feel you have the energy and are motivated to do it.

BBA in a CO2 tank means you should examine your flow/distribution and gas ON timing relative to lights ON schedule. Injection rate and dissolution technique should also be investigated. Perform very large and frequent water changes. Excel or equivalent can be dosed daily until the BBA tufts turn from black/gray to pink/purple. If you have not fixed your CO2 however, the tufts will reappear. Review the Algae sub-forum for details. There are many threads there discussing BBA.

BBA in a non-enriched tank is a lot more difficult simply because there are fewer options other than to reduce the lighting and to perform a lot of large water changes. Excel can also be used, however, again, if the root cause has not been fixed, the tufts will reappear.

Cheers,