# Probably a dumb question but....



## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

This is probably a dumb question but, how do I remove plant matter and detrius from my planted tank? Since adding new plants, some leaves and bits and pieces have come off, and I dont really have a good idea on how to get that stuff out of my tank. Since it is heavily planted, it is sort of hard to catch all of this stuff before it blends back in with the other plants. I have a cannister filter on the tank right now, and I could put on a small HOB filter to see if that could catch stuff by continually trying to kick that stuff up by hand. The problem there is that the stuff just plugs up the filter intakes and with small fish, I cant make bigger slots or leave the filter portion off...my wife recently learned that lesson and lost a semi-rare SW fish. 

So, I am sure the obvious answer is staring me in my face...but I am blind to it. Can you help me out?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I net what I can and leave the rest.


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## deepdiver (May 30, 2006)

You can try one of those mini-vacs. I just bought one, and it works great for planted tanks. The diameter of the vac is around an inch, and the line is about 1/4" inside diameter. It takes a while, but you can safely pick up detritus without disturbing the substrate-even sandy types. It was about $4.00 at Petsmart


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## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

Thanks for the advice. Would leaving some of this plant material make any sort of difference? I know that in a non-planted tank, organic matter is just potential nitrates more or less, but in a planted tank, would that issue be less or mute all together since the plants may gain from that?

I will check out the small vaccum as well. I usually use my python without the large end on it (just the tubing) but now I would be worried about sucking things up (by just using the tubing, the siphon is more powerful IME).


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## rugie (Mar 16, 2007)

*dumb question*

Yo! mad dog, there is no such thing as a dumb question (just dumb answers) In a well/heavily planted tank there is no reason to remove old plant material. it will benefit the live plants greatly. adding a small air stone will increase oxygen and help the bacteria to decompose the stuff, (air will increase your Ph a bit) also if you can find a larger mesh strainer to fit over the smaller one, it will trap the leaves and lessen the plugging. keeping the dense growth near the top pruned will keep your lower portions nice & full by allowing light to reach down there.


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## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

Thanks rugie. That is sort of what I had thought, the decaying material would beocme food for the living material, just like would happen in a forest. The only thing that I am a bit miffed about is if I should use an airstone, when to use one, how long to use it, and if there is a negative aspect to doing so. In a couple other threads I started, there seems to be differing opinions on airstones. Personally, I have heard, and think it makes sense to use one at night time becuase the plants would be using O2 and further creating competition between them and the fish. Now that you bring up the bacterial benifit of O2, I agree even more. 

I have an airstone in my tank....and have the ability to set it on a timer opposite of my Co2 system (have one of those coralife power strips). The only thing cannot do, without purchasing more timers, is to make a gap in time between Co2 and O2 systems. Do you have any advice or suggestions on what I should do here?

Most importantly, even if, as some people have said, there is no need or benifit for an airstone, would using one have any major drawbacks that are not obvious to me right now?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Mad Dog said:


> ...
> Most importantly, even if, as some people have said, there is no need or benifit for an airstone, would using one have any major drawbacks that are not obvious to me right now?


Not really. Except the noise... and the look of the "pretty" bubbles! 

I absolutely hate the things but more from an aesthetic point of view than anything else. 

So I've never ran one, in either planted or non-planted tanks.


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## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

I dont mind the looks of air bubbles, and I think an argument could be made as to some applications being better looking than others I suppose. In this case, it would be running at night time, when no lights are on in the tank so I wouldnt be looking at it anyways. The worst part of airstones IMHO is getting conflicting advice as to using one in this tank or not, lol.


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

the only problem that i see is that the air stone would de-gas whatever co2 is in your tank faster, and your pH would slowly rise. at least that's what i've noticed when i'm running my diatom filter and it burps out a fine mist of bubbles. my pH rises from 6.5 to 7, but when i'm not using my diatom filter, the pH is steady at 6.5.


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## Mad Dog (Mar 3, 2007)

Good point freydo. Running an airstone at night time, when the CO2 is off, wouldn't matter much as far as gassing out the CO2, right? Also, that pH change is still ok for fish since the change is only related to CO2 levels, right?


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