planted tank question

[ineke]

/i have a very large densely planted shrimp tank that needs a bit of thinning out. The plants are mostly swords with a few stem plants- I also have mosses and java ferns but they are on driftwood. The plants are in a thick layer of benibachi substrate and have a very large root system. My question is if I uproot some of these plants while my large CRS colony is in the tank is it likely to cause an ammonia spike? Is there anything I can do to stop the adverse effect? I have just had several drops of Shrimplets and I don't really want to catch them out as they are so little but I really would like to take a few plants out. I always worry if the substrate is disturbed so if it's too risky I will have to wait until the breeding season is over- I missed the boat this time they started breeding before I got a chance to do a big clean out. 

[jc12]

I have read that you could slowly pull the plant and expose 1-2 inches of the root (depending on size of plant) and snip it off there, and leave the rest of the roots in the substrate. I have wondered if the roots would rot and have an ammonia spike. Sorry I am not very helpful here but it seems to work for the person who posted his solution.

Personally I just did the same. Pulled out 40+ chain swords last weekend with 2-4 weeks old TB bubbas in the tank. Touch wood... so far so good without any obvious ill effects. Initially I pulled at it gently and not much got stirred up so I continued. I was taking a risk but the chain swords were hiding my shrimps from view. Overgrown chain swords are messy and I had to uproot some of them whole, some with trailing roots at around 30cm. Some I snipped the roots off. I left the canister and sponge filter running while I was doing it.

Good luck!

Edited August 26, 2015 by jc12

[ineke]

Thank you. These are huge swords with very very large root systems so I wonder if I snip the roots will the plants still survive? I might try taking out the smaller ones and see how they go maybe if I only do a few at a time it might not cause too much trouble?

[kizshrimp]

The plants will survive no matter how much roots you remove Ineke but they will be set back a bit. Swords are super tough things and big ones will have plenty of energy stored to replace lost roots if necessary. They might drop some old leaves and the new ones might be small or distorted for a little while. 

Yes, cut roots left in the substrate will decompose and release their nutrient load to the environment. It might all be consumed in the substrate and never reach the water column. It might be dealt with by the filtration and never cause a spike. Or, it might all go wrong. Depends on the obvious factors. 

I think if you follow your instincts not to remove to many and not to make much mess you'll be fine. If you leave some swords behind they will probably suck up any excess very quickly. 

[ineke]

Thanks for that - sounds like the way to go .

[2OFUS]

We done this recently ! 

We had 2 monster crypts that had the biggest root system I have ever seen 

 

I got the mrs to hold the gravel vac rite at the base/soil as I slowly uprooted them ! 

she didn't gravel vac so to speak 

she just held the gravel vac as close to the root system as possible and sucked out all the black muddy stuff as it came out :) 

no amonia spike what so ever and we topped up the tank straight away :) 

 

the tank had roughly 100/150 adult and juvi Crs 

Not 1 death to date 

the 2 plants at the front left side are the ones we removed 

plants got much bigger 

this is a 12 month old pic 

Plant was removed 1 month ago

 

hope this helps :) 

goodluck 

Edited August 26, 2015 by 2OFUS

[ineke]

Thanks Gary sounds encouraging.

This was the tank a few months ago but the plants have almost doubled in size and you can't see the substrate. They have grown right to the top of the water and are much fuller looking now so I really need to thin it out. I will give it a go tomorrow I think.

[2OFUS]

WOWZA !!!!!!

If you try our method maybe get the hubby to pull the plants out very slowly whilst you control the gravel vac (you will know where to direct it better) 

and if you are worried about the tank occupants maybe catch out what you can and put them into a container/bucket and re drip them in later :) 

me and jess were EXTREMELY worried about removing our plants but she came up with this method and it worked a treat :) 

we also added an extra drop or 2/3 of prime