 Re: Old tank syndrome?
Sometimes in a real dense tank, you can have cold spots, or even anaerobic spots in the aquarium.
I once stuck my fingers into a 1" thick layer of mulm at the back of my tank and it was freezing cold. It smelled sulfurous when I removed it. I thinned out the plants so water current gets through and sucked out the mulm and the algae in the tank dropped considerably. My stem plants were much healthier as well, there was no stem rot after I started doing that. I've found that water flow has much more to do with keeping the lower portion of a stem plant healthy than access to light.
Do you have a glass lid? Clean it regularly. The deposits from condensation can cut down a lot of light.
You can kick up a tremendous amount of garbage (organics) into the water when you gravel vac. I try not to touch the gravel with the vac. I just skim what's on the top. When I do a deep gravel vac, I do a second big water change the next day.
There's something else I'm missing but can't think of it now. |