aquarium vacuum cleaning on planted tanks

Quick question - I have quite a lot of dirt over my gravel, which is impossible to vacuum as my vegetation is very thick.
Normally I wouldn't mind of the dirt, as the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are low (guess the plants and the filter are doing their job).
Problem is started seeing parasites on two fish, which probably a result of the dirt.

Any idea what can I do?

P.S.
Forgot to mention one more thing - the water are crystal clear, as all the dirt is stuck at the root level, but it does't help with the loaches which are extreme diggers.

What a beautiful aquariun. If you have a Python or similar clening system (even a clear hose), you need to syphon all the crudd off the bottom. That will control the ammonia. Just push the vegitation or decorations aside with the hose, and suckemup. Excess crud will raise the ammonia level, which will do naughty things to the fish.

I agree with John, you need to get the dirt out.

You can go to Lowe's and purchase different sizes of clear tubing... find one that you think will work for you, and then get down there between the plants and sweep that gunk up.

Or... with the python... if you can drain it outside... or down into a bucket... WAY down, instead of the sink... Then you may get enough suction where you can hover above the planted bottom and still suck up the crud...

Get that junk up off the bottom! Very important! It's too easy to neglect tank maintenance and then dump meds when the problems come up. Which usually ends in a giant nightmare... There's only a few people that I know that medicate well... It's a very hard balance to maintain...

Even if you have to pull some plants or something... get as much of the dirt off the bottom as you can.

I hope your parasites disappear with a water change or two!

Hei - my tank is not neglected

I'll rephrase my question.
My problem is not with high ammonia levels, I do not have a high ammonia level and neither nitrite and nitrate. I'm checking on those once in a while, and when I saw the dirt, I double checked.
This is probably because of the high filtration and the amount of plants that consumes NHx.

My problem is that parasites started infesting ground dwellers.

I would have gladly vacuum the gravel, the problem is that the vegetation is too dense and is preventing me from getting to the gravel.

The picture you see was taken some time ago, and now the bottom is so dense with vegetation, you can not see the gravel.

I tried to vacuum with high power, but it started vacuuming shrimps and one loach (got them back of course).

So I'm really open for ideas here...

If parasites are on some of the fish they could have been introduced by new fish, food, plants, decorations, etc. Although i don't like to recommend medicating aquariums, it may be the only way to get rid of the parasites, especially if they're actually on the fish. Most aquariums, they say, are full of living organisms, but healthy fish ususlly have strong immune systems, and not all the little bugs are bad. You might try isolating the fish and medicating them in a hospital tank. At the same time you may be able to treat the original tank and plants with a stronger parasite clearing medicine. If the parasites are the harmful kind, they really need to be killed off. If you wind up having to tear down that beautiful aquarium, you'll still have to treat the plants and probably use new gravel. Once everything is out of the tank, you can fill it with clean water and some chlorine bleach and let it soak for a while. Tearing the tank down would also mean disinfecting the filter, etc. and starting the nitrogen cycle all over. I sure hope one of the parasite cures will work. Please keep us posted.

wow - any recommendation for a specific medicine?

oh that sounds awful! Having to tear apart your lovely tank! it looks like a magnificent tank, rather thatn tearing it all up, try and find a medication that will kill off the parasites, then as for the dirt problem, I would take up 1 plant, clean that area, then put it back, 2nd plant and so on untill you have cleaned the whole tank. Keep us Posted!!!!!!

Although I have not used an aquarium medication for at least 40 years, other hobbyists tell me that Jungle brand sells a good parasite medicine. You should be aware that most medications can kill the good bacteria that make the nitrogen cycle work, so be sure to follow the directions religiously. You may also need to remove any charchol from the filter, because it can deactivate some medications. Again, this is what people have told me; I don't have first hand experience.

In the days before filtering systems became so sophisticated, people would arrange the aquarium gravel so that it sloped downward toward the front. They would then leave an unplanted dip near the center so any crud would, in theory, fall into that one dip where it could be easily removed by syphoning. The Python cleaning system that we talk about has a large diameter tube on the pickup end. This reduces the suction so you can avoid sucking up rooted plants. You can also adjust the syphon pressure by reducing water flow at the faucet where the Python "pump" is attached.

I'm sorry if I offended you... that wasn't what I was aiming for... I just know that if I'm not on top of every water change... Which sometimes I fall off the horse... Then that neglect always ends up way worse than if I would have just done the water change.

I still say you have to get the dirt up... If you're tank is that heavily planted... Which I must say I'm TOTALLY jealous of... maybe it could be time where you could divide the plants... like pull some and sell them, or swap or whatever (just make sure they're totally dead before you throw them out... Sometimes they're very resilient and can harm the area's natural habitat)... This way you might could get down to the gravel to get the dirt.

Be sure whatever parasite med you use... make sure that it won't kill your inverts. I didn't realize how fragile these neat little critters are until I got some myself... I've also heard that Jungle is good... but John and I frequent several of the same sites... so it may have come from the same person... I have a chart that I printed out... it's from
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?N=2004& aid=1338

There's several different meds you can use for External parasites on there. Maybe you could print it out and then head to the LFS and see which you can find... If you can't get any locally, Dr. Foster Smith is a great web place to get stuff.

I would try anything in the world to avoid tearing down your tank. That would be the totally last resort. Especially since if it goes that far... you'll have to somehow treat your lovely plants too...

Keep us posted, I really hope you can get this problem solved...

johnarthur wrote:

In the days before filtering systems became so sophisticated, people would arrange the aquarium gravel so that it sloped downward toward the front. They would then leave an unplanted dip near the center so any crud would, in theory, fall into that one dip where it could be easily removed by syphoning.

This is what I need to do!
I'll see if I can do something like that retroactively.
I'll let you know how did it work.

Rearranging gravel and moving plants can get the water pretty murkey, but a good filtration system should clear it in a few hours. Even my slow running, primative under gravel filters clear things right up when I make a mess.