[blake6511]

I have a 20 gallon long that is about 85% planted. It is soil capped with black diamond blasting media. I have an Aquaclear 30 as my filter, placed in the middle of the tank. However, I am getting a good bit of debri/waste on my plants and in the substrate. Right now, I am using a turkey baster to blow it off all of my plants/driftwood/rocks before doing water changes. I try to lightly vacumm above the substrate in order to get as much of it as possible, but a good amount still remains, especially around the more heavily planted areas. Current clean up crew is just 2 Nerite snails and a few random hitch hiker snails. I tried 4 ammano shrimp a few weeks back but they did not make it more than a few days. The 7 harlequin rasboras and 3 rummy nose I currently have are doing fine.

This is a low tech tech and I do 25% water changes every other week. Should I be worried about the waste/debri settling on top of the substrate and plant leaves? Should I consider changing my filter to something with more flow or adding power heads? I am thinking I should pick up a MTS and some more nerites but not sure how much this would help. Any advice is much appreciated.

Shot of anubias and substrate that is in the front of the tank forward of the aquaclear 30.

 

[Diana]

I would increase the water movement to keep the leaves clear, and hopefully blow the debris closer to the filter intake. I use the Aquaclear 50 on tanks this size. On my 20 long I also have a small power head. This is a bit of an awkward tank to filter- any water movement is so close to the substrate that it tends to push the substrate around if it is not carefully aimed.