Dead plant debris and tank maintenance

Inga

I am just wondering how much daily work you all do on your tanks? Planted tanks certainly take some up keep or rather, mine do. I have Pennywort floating and daily there are leaves that come off that I scoop out. Other plants shed leaves and whatnot and it needs to be taken out. Dead leaves on plants trimmed off etc...

How many of you do regular maintenance and what all do you do? How often? Any good shortcuts I may not have thought of?

AbbeysDad

I think you might just be obsessing over a little bit of plant debris - I think some debris/mulm in the bottom is natural, is just fine and comes out with the weekly water change gravel siphon.
If it really troubles you, then you 'can' remove it, but it's not necessary and does no harm.
Besides feeding, monitoring and watching, maintenance is pretty much weekly for me.

iamgray

I pretty much just leave it be other than when I'm doing water changes... and even then, all I do is remove whatever dead stuff is mushed into the filter intake. Most of the dying plant matter seems to get picked over quite thoroughly by the fish so I usually just leave it for them to take care of.

aunt kymmie

Once a week I do water changes on all tanks, and it includes wiping down all four walls and doing any pruning that needs to be done. On a daily basis my hands will go into at least one of my tanks (all are planted) to pick out any leaf matter that may be floating, to prune off something that I missed at water change time, or hit an area of algae on the glass that I missed. Half of the fun in aquarium keeping for me is "futzing" with them.

Inga

Thanks for not allowing me to be the only obsessive compulsive fish care taker. ha ha I like putzing also. Heck, I sit around thinking of where I could add a plant or how I could switch things up to make it look better. I refrain from doing much change as I do not want to upset the fish but I think a lot about it. I don't remove all the debris but I do scoop some... Often.

AbbeysDad

So move the living room furniture around every week!

Inga

With the way my living room is, there isn't much I can change but I do change something regularly. :) It is just one of those things, I guess. ha ha

I do have a Java Fern that is sucked up against my filter intake and I am leaving it there. It isn't cutting off the water supply so, for now it can stay. It is sort of cool because it kind of covers up the intake which is so mechanical looking. I prefer it not show anyhow. I do change my filters often and I do sift through the gravel regularly. I just like the tank to be as clean and fresh as it can be without upsetting the fish too much. They seem used to me cleaning the tank and don't seem to get upset over it. Each time it is done they do sort of victory laps around the tank. It seems like they are happy with the freshness or something.

Also, I do like adding new plants from time to time just because. They don't seem to mind that either.

Now... How do you guys get all the dead Ramshorn snail shells out of your tanks? My tank is littered with them after the addition of the Assassins. Some of them suck up with the Python but others must be too heavy. I have been picking them out as I can but again, don't want to freak the fish out too much so my hand bouncing around in there would freak them out too much.

LasColinasCichlids

I dont fuss too much with my tanks, personal choice. On average maybe once a week I fuss with them when doing water changes, gravel vacs, or moving a plant or piece of decor that got moved by the previous cleaning or by a fish. I dont bother with plant debris unless its in my filter intake or floating at the top of the tank.

I do sit and watch each tank for at least 30 mins a day just for fun. Does that count as fussing? lol

I sometimes wish I fussed more with my tanks, but then I worry I'd get mad and stop enjoying them as much if I did.

Inga

I am going to try cleaining my Angel tank 2 times a week in practice for Discus. They need to be cleaned several times a week, don't they? I know they are very fussy fish and I want to know for sure I can handle that before I even consider getting any. I have the process down to a science and it doesn't take me long but then, the Discus would have to be in the larger tank with larger quantity changes.

I guess I am used to interactive pets and to me, part of that for fish is messing with the tank. Cleaning, or rearranging or planning or something. Today I am planning on changing out a sword plant that doesn't look right where it is. Don't know if I will get to it today as it is Easter and there is much to do with family get together. Tomorrow maybe. :)

aunt kymmie

Discus need several water changes a week?? Please don't tell that to my Discus! They think twice a week is perfectly fine!!
Contrary to popular opinion, Discus aren't all that fussy IME, as long as you start out with healthy specimens to begin with. After keeping them for two years I have to say they are no more work than the other fish I keep. Like just about everyone else who starts out with these fish I was constantly stressing about them. (ie: is that a torn fin? Is that an unusual looking poo? Why isn't this one eating as well as the others?).

I had to deal with an issue of parasites at one time, and also had to deal with a serious eye injury. Now that I have two years under my belt I can happily say that now I can just kick back and enjoy them. They are great fish. I have to shoo them out of my way when doing water changes, they have such personalities. My mated pair that spawn weekly will even go about spawning right smack in the middle of a water change. Much more interactive than all my other fish combined!