maintaining clean gravel with baffled betta filtration in a heavily planted aquarium

[Mizzle]

Maintaining clean gravel with baffled betta filtration in a heavily planted aquarium

My 20g long aquarium houses 2 bettas, 8 plants, and a couple pieces of driftwood. I'm using a marineland bio-wheel 150 filter but the water movement is so strong that I have to baffle it or watch my bettas get blown away. There is little to no water movement in my tank and because of this I feel that my filter doesn't fully get to do its job.

So my question, how do you / would you go about keeping your substrate clean in an aquarium like my own?

I was thinking about investing in some algae eaters such as Otocinclus / Pleco / Corydoras / Snails / Shrimp. Which would work best?

[Oldfishlady]

I would just hover the vacuum over the areas that need cleaned with your weekly water changes so not to disturb the plant roots.

Ottos are good for cleaning up some species of algae, cory cat will clean up left over food, the plecos eat some algae species, only one should be added to that size tank IMO and find a type that only get 5-6 inches so it won't out grow the tank like a bristle nose, the snails and shrimp will eat the left over food and some algae and decaying plant matter, shrimp will also shred dead plant matter to speed decay.
All still need supplement feeding. Otto and cory cats are social and do best if kept in schools of at least 6 or more to see the best behaviors and keep stress lower.

What kind of plants do you keep and would love to see some pics.....

[Mizzle]

Thanks for the reply, that's pretty much what iIve been doing and was just wondering if there was anything better that could be done or if there was a better solution to my lack of water movement. I've tried bubble stones ect and my bettas just get rocked by them 0_o.

as for the plants the only ones I can for sure identify are amazon swords...I'll try to get some pictures and or a video up after I get home from work this evening.

I think I'm also leaning towards the cory cats, the oto, or some snails.

[wallywestisthebest333]

Good luck. =]