Do you siphon your substrate? Why?

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kokzhilee

kokzhilee

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My oldest tank (more than a year) recently has BBA/Staghorn outbreak (Yes, I am a planted tank newbie🌱). One of the causes of BBA/staghorn outbreak is organic buildup. After research, I siphoned my substrate and I had a lots of fish poop underneath my substrate. After hydrogen peroxide treatment, BBA/staghorn has died off. I am still observing my tank closely in case it comes back.

Although I have siphoned my tank, I am not sure if this should be my regular maintenance of a planted tank.

So my question for you is that do you siphon your substrate? If so, why do you do that? If not, why?
 
It really depends on the type of your tank what and how much your substrate maintenance is going to look like. In my high tech dutch style tank where I’m uprooting plants weekly however, I do vacuum. Take a look at this thread for more info Vacuuming techniques, and on my November Tank of the month thread I go over my substrate maintenance routine also in the comments - Tank of the Month - TANK OF THE MONTH - November 2022 - Freshflora's Dutch-Inspired 40 Breeder. If you have a high tech tank with a decent amount of stems, a deeper vacuum is probably necessary to keep the substrate healthy at least once every 6 months to a year. The creator and owner of Masterline ferts Marian Sterian, also one of the best plant growers in the world, actually does a full tank deep substrate vacuum to keep his tank healthy and clean every 3 months or so. The tanks he does that in though are literally packed to the brim in stem plants and are high tech. It really comes to how high energy your tank is (lighting, plants, stocking, and co2 or not) all factoring in. Dennis Wong, creator and owner of APT Ferts and another one of the best plant growers is an advocate of diligent substrate maintenance - Should you siphon your aquasoil substrate? How to maintain aquasoil substrates?. The best plant growers I know pay a lot of attention to the cleanliness of the substrate.
 
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I agree with everything @Freshflora said above.

Here's the thing about the substrate. It houses much of the tanks beneficial bacteria. So while you need to keep it clean, you don't want to be disturbing it too deeply during regular maintenance. Like many things in the hobby this is often misunderstood.

With regular weekly maintenance you just want to be skimming the surface and removing the loose detritus in the top layer of the substrate. Going too deep in too many places can release a lot of gunk and ammonia into the water column and upset the balance for beneficial bacteria. This can create an algae storm pretty quickly.

But over time you will have a large build up deep in substrate. A good indicator would be poor older growth and algae on stem plants or soft/dark roots when you pull up plants. Then it's time to pull all of the plants and do a thorough cleaning and remove that gunk.

And be careful with blasting the tank with H202. With too much for too long you can do a lot of damage to your beneficial bacteria. If so could lead to ammonia spike which is never good.
 
Freshflora said:
It really depends on the type of your tank what and how much your substrate maintenance is going to look like. In my high tech dutch style tank where I’m uprooting plants weekly however, I do vacuum. Take a look at this thread for more info Vacuuming techniques, and on my November Tank of the month thread I go over my substrate maintenance routine also in the comments - Tank of the Month - TANK OF THE MONTH - November 2022 - Freshflora's Dutch-Inspired 40 Breeder. If you have a high tech tank with a decent amount of stems, a deeper vacuum is probably necessary to keep the substrate healthy at least once every 6 months to a year. The creator and owner of Masterline ferts Marian Sterian, also one of the best plant growers in the world, actually does a full tank deep substrate vacuum to keep his tank healthy and clean every 3 months or so. The tanks he does that in though are literally packed to the brim in stem plants and are high tech. It really comes to how high energy your tank is (lighting, plants, stocking, and co2 or not) all factoring in. Dennis Wong, creator and owner of APT Ferts and another one of the best plant growers is an advocate of diligent substrate maintenance - Should you siphon your aquasoil substrate? How to maintain aquasoil substrates?. The best plant growers I know pay a lot of attention to the cleanliness of the substrate.
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Thank you for showing some examples and resources in the forum (still exploring it). Dennis Wong's blog is the blog that made me want to give it a go.
Just give a quick glimpse of The tank of the month. This is very helpful for me to learn what is needed to maintain a beautiful planted tank in the long term. Sometimes I don't even know what to ask. The comprehensive maintenance is really helpful.
 
GreggZ said:
I agree with everything @Freshflora said above.

Here's the thing about the substrate. It houses much of the tanks beneficial bacteria. So while you need to keep it clean, you don't want to be disturbing it too deeply during regular maintenance. Like many things in the hobby this is often misunderstood.

With regular weekly maintenance you just want to be skimming the surface and removing the loose detritus in the top layer of the substrate. Going too deep in too many places can release a lot of gunk and ammonia into the water column and upset the balance for beneficial bacteria. This can create an algae storm pretty quickly.

But over time you will have a large build up deep in substrate. A good indicator would be poor older growth and algae on stem plants or soft/dark roots when you pull up plants. Then it's time to pull all of the plants and do a thorough cleaning and remove that gunk.

And be careful with blasting the tank with H202. With too much for too long you can do a lot of damage to your beneficial bacteria. If so could lead to ammonia spike which is never good.
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Thanks for the tips. The indicator tip is especially helpful!

For siphoning the substrate, I do have a similar concern. I plan to split the footprint of my tank into multiple sections and siphon one section at a time when I do maintenance biweekly. And stop siphoning once I cover the entire tank. Do you think this will help?

I have incorporated skimming surface to maintenance after reading Dennis Wong's blog. Your comment made me feel like I was doing the right thing. Ha.

I did replace my filter floss with a temporary filter floss that I have put in my other tank filter to replenish beneficial bacteria after H2O2 treatment. Thanks for the reminder.
 
Art said:
If possible, run some large pore carbon for a week to remove what you've kicked up into the water column. It really helps to reduce dissolved organic carbon (DOC) that seems to benefit mostly algae.
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Thanks for the suggestion! I got many free Chemi pure green samples at the AGA Chicago a few months ago.

But I do notice that it removes nitrate. I added nitrate in the morning and checked my nitrate level in the evening. It became almost zero. I did add nitrate directly to the test tube, and it did change color (to test if my test kit is still working).
 
GreggZ said:
I was there at the AGA. Did we meet??
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No, we didn't meet. But you looked familiar, but I couldn't figured it out at that time. When I got back, then I saw the FB post then I realized you are the one who has one of the most beautiful tanks in the community. I especially like the elegant Barclaya longifolia. I wished I had realized sooner. Ha. As I mentioned, I just started my planted tank last year, and I am still learning and getting to know everyone in the community. Thanks for your informative posts on FB and here, I enjoy learning them.
 
kokzhilee said:
No, we didn't meet. But you looked familiar, but I couldn't figured it out at that time. When I got back, then I saw the FB post then I realized you are the one who has one of the most beautiful tanks in the community. I especially like the elegant Barclaya longifolia. I wished I had realized sooner. Ha. As I mentioned, I just started my planted tank last year, and I am still learning and getting to know everyone in the community. Thanks for your informative posts on FB and here, I enjoy learning them.
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I would highly encourage you to start a build thread in the Member Tanks area. I realize it may be intimidating if you're looking at the tanks experienced folks keep. However, please know we all started at the beginnings and all our tanks looked the same way then. It is by sharing and getting feedback that you learn and improve your knowledge and skills. You end up enjoying the hobby more because you end up building nice, long-term relationships with people.

I've run into people in past AGA conventions that I had been following for years online. I was able to ask them about their tank and how a certain plant they were trying to grow was doing.

Lastly, please don't be shy to ask any question. This forum is intended to be a place where you can comfortably ask any question, even beginner questions, without judgement or insecurity. ScapeCrunch circle of trust.
 
Art said:
I would highly encourage you to start a build thread in the Member Tanks area. I realize it may be intimidating if you're looking at the tanks experienced folks keep. However, please know we all started at the beginnings and all our tanks looked the same way then. It is by sharing and getting feedback that you learn and improve your knowledge and skills. You end up enjoying the hobby more because you end up building nice, long-term relationships with people.

I've run into people in past AGA conventions that I had been following for years online. I was able to ask them about their tank and how a certain plant they were trying to grow was doing.

Lastly, please don't be shy to ask any question. This forum is intended to be a place where you can comfortably ask any question, even beginner questions, without judgement or insecurity. ScapeCrunch circle of trust.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I like that idea as I do need some help for growing some plants such as Ammania species. I am still learning how to grow healthy plants.

Lastly, thanks for making this forum interactive and friendly.
 
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