Gravel Siphoning

[silane]

I was de-rooting some of my plants and noticed there are so much debris in my gravel. Shrimps immediately visit the area of de-root, scouting for food.

Do you use do gravel siphoning to remove mulm? Or it is ok to leave mulm there for a long term?

[Robert]

Hi,
I never siphon my gravel. I let it be like it is. If I plant new plants, then there is debris of course but I don't care much about it. BTW, my tank is so dense planted that there is no place to siphon the gravel without disturbing my plants. The plants grow well, the shrimps grow well and I safe some time.

regards
Robert

[GunmetalBlue]

Hey Fruitpie, I don't siphon my gravel either. If there's extra debris, I just pull it out with tongs or if a piece is small, suck it up with a very long plastic straw I happen to have.

-GB

[silane]

Robert and GB,

How thick is your gravel, does not the broken down debris sink to the bottom?

[Robert]

Hi,
I use granit gravel from Dennerle with a size of about 0.5-1cm. Like I said, me tank is too dense planted to siphon anything there. My shrimps do the job for me.

regards
Robert

[GunmetalBlue]

Fruitpie, my substrate is either sand or the smallest size gravel they offer at the LFS. Perhaps I don't have as much problems with debris building up because I don't have that many plants, nor are they planted in the substrate. But most debris after time should break down into fine pieces and kind of become part of the substrate, or if it's silt, get sucked up into the filter.

If it really bothers you, you could always choose a section of the bottom and just siphon the loose debris. I don't think you really need to worry about most of the build-up though, unless it's something bad that's rotting. :)

-GB

[Frank]

1-3 mm sand is OK for plants and shrimps. When there is too much waste i´m cleaning some parts of the ground, never all at one time and not too much. In tanks with higher ground > 4 cm i use snails for cleaning (Melanoides tubercutata).

[retardo]

Robert and GB,

How thick is your gravel, does not the broken down debris sink to the bottom?

The mulm eventually gets broken down completely by nitrifying bacteria and is used by plants.

[silane]

Ok, has anyone got their shrimps killed after pulling out plant or replanting?

[retardo]

Nope, never happened before, but I guess theoretically it's possible.

[lifetapestry]

I lost an amano shrimp the day after an extensive 2nd planting of my tank (and lots of moving around of old plants). I don't know if it was from all the crap that was let loose by this process, or whether it was just a normal loss. I've had amanos in my 55 gal community for about 9 months now, and I lose one about every 2 months.

Karla