Cleaning gravel in planted tanks?

[MalawiCich]

Hi there,

I was wondering how y'all clean the gravel (if you do) in a planted tank with groundcover (hairgrass in my case). I've noticed the hairgrass is sending little shoots all around and if I were to vacuum the gravel it would uproot the plants, though the gravel is now starting to get covered with a film (algae?).

Any ideas?

[fischkopp]

It is quite difficult/impossible to do a gravel cleaning as soon as the ground gets covered with plants without uprooting some of them. I try to clean the surface as good as I can without digging into the gravel and without squashing too many plants. The areas without plant grows or freshly replanted areas will get a better cleaning.

I use a fork to clean the debris and old leafs out of the hair grass, works quite well. You can also comb the grass down and moving into one direction. You will less likely break the grass if you go with a gravel tube over it afterwards.

Hope this makes sense.

[charlie]

I just hover approx1 inch over the areas as opposed to trying to putting any force on the gravel PU tube.

[MalawiCich]

Thanks, will try those methods today!