Cleaning tank with sand

[Tyler777]

Hi, in the past I posted the question bout how to clean up a tank that has sand as substrate but I don't remember anybody answering me so I'm gonna ask again.
I have 2 tanks with sand, how do you clean it up without getting sandvbeing sucked up along with the water ?
I always had gravel which is easy to clean it up but I'm lost bout cleaning sand. Any info n advice bout how yo do it n tools to use will b very appreciated it

 

[fishorama]

It's a kind of shallow vacuum while swirling the vac intake. It depends on the size of your sand & if you have plants in the substrate. It's just really a matter of practice. Big pleco poo is more difficult to vacuum up. But if you suck up a lot of sand, you can rinse it out in the bucket & return it to the tank (after some dechlor).

I don't use more than 2+ inches in most sand tanks. If you don't have plant's roots to worry about it's not hard to do. A quick plunge of the vacuum intake & lift it up fast. Most sand will drop down but you might lose a little bit. With practice, you can go down as far as the bottom glass for a really good cleaning. With plants' roots you need to be more slow, shallow & gentle, but it's still not super difficult. Practice makes, not perfect, but not hard either.

Like most things, do the best you can & work toward better techniques. A bit of root damage isn't fatal to most plants, they will recover almost always.

 

[Magnum Man]

I’m not opposed to “making” stuff… a wide, bigger diameter gravel vac part, will reduce the suction velocity… getting the right size in relation to your hose, may take a few tries… I was going to make one for my black sand tank, and while the Cory’s are not there to eat poop, I have a pretty large group, and I think they work over the sand enough, that by products gets stirred up, and end up sucked into the filter, as the sand always looks spotless…

My white sand tank does look like it needs help… but I have a good group of Cory’s coming for that tank in 2 days… if the results aren’t the same, I’ll have to make a vacuum for that tank…

 

[Colin_T]

Sand is usually fine enough to settle and not allow too much stuff through so you normally gravel clean the top 1/2 inch and leave the rest. however, you should do a deep clean about once a month whereby you push the gravel cleaner right down and let the sand circulate in the gravel cleaner tube.

If you suck up sand, kink the hose a bit so the flow isn't as strong and the sand should sink back down.

 

[Tyler777]

It's a kind of shallow vacuum while swirling the vac intake. It depends on the size of your sand & if you have plants in the substrate. It's just really a matter of practice. Big pleco poo is more difficult to vacuum up. But if you suck up a lot of sand, you can rinse it out in the bucket & return it to the tank (after some dechlor).

I don't use more than 2+ inches in most sand tanks. If you don't have plant's roots to worry about it's not hard to do. A quick plunge of the vacuum intake & lift it up fast. Most sand will drop down but you might lose a little bit. With practice, you can go down as far as the bottom glass for a really good cleaning. With plants' roots you need to be more slow, shallow & gentle, but it's still not super difficult. Practice makes, not perfect, but not hard either.

Like most things, do the best you can & work toward better techniques. A bit of root damage isn't fatal to most plants, they will recover almost always.

Thank you. Is there any special vacuum I need or the normal one with the tube n the hose would do it ?

 

[Tyler777]

I’m not opposed to “making” stuff… a wide, bigger diameter gravel vac part, will reduce the suction velocity… getting the right size in relation to your hose, may take a few tries… I was going to make one for my black sand tank, and while the Cory’s are not there to eat poop, I have a pretty large group, and I think they work over the sand enough, that by products gets stirred up, and end up sucked into the filter, as the sand always looks spotless…

My white sand tank does look like it needs help… but I have a good group of Cory’s coming for that tank in 2 days… if the results aren’t the same, I’ll have to make a vacuum for that tank…

I have 7 corys in my angels tank with black sand n they seem to b working good. I have some invasive snails too so I got 2 big youo loaches to take care of them but 1 died the same day dunno why. The other one hopefully is eating the snails