Cleaning tank with sand

[Archerfish]

Invasive snails can be controlled, even eliminated with careful tank management. Eliminate their food supply and they go away. It is easy to do especially since you only have artificial plants.

 

[Tyler777]

Invasive snails can be controlled, even eliminated with careful tank management. Eliminate their food supply and they go away. It is easy to do especially since you only have artificial plants.

So how do I el8m8nate em ? What bout their food

 

[Archerfish]

Eliminate their food supply. Since you have multiple tanks, I recommend starting with just one tank until you get the hang of it.
Sparingly feed your fish. A few small feedings are better than one or two large feedings. Make sure the fish eat everything you give them.
Keep the tank algae free.
Do you have live plants? If so, remove all old or decaying leaves. Quarantine any new plants.
Keep the substrate clean as you are doing.
Manually remove as many snails as possible.
Make sure to completely clean anything that is used from tank to tank such as fish nets.
Again, concentrate on just one tank at a time.
The last thing I recommend is using any snail eating fish (or snails) to control snails.

 

[Tyler777]

Eliminate their food supply. Since you have multiple tanks, I recommend starting with just one tank until you get the hang of it.
Sparingly feed your fish. A few small feedings are better than one or two large feedings. Make sure the fish eat everything you give them.
Keep the tank algae free.
Do you have live plants? If so, remove all old or decaying leaves. Quarantine any new plants.
Keep the substrate clean as you are doing.
Manually remove as many snails as possible.
Make sure to completely clean anything that is used from tank to tank such as fish nets.
Again, concentrate on just one tank at a time.
The last thing I recommend is using any snail eating fish (or snails) to control snails.

Ok, thanks

 

[fishorama]

I'm not opposed to feeding pest snails to loaches. But like Archerfish said less food = less snails, but also hungrier loaches, a good thing! Plus you have a nice big tank & other loaches for them to school with after they do the job you want them to.

Learn to see the "jelly masses" of snail eggs (everywhere!) & scrape them out or at least into the water column so you can vac them out. They look sort of like clear bumpy snot globules (such a pretty picture, lol). I don't mind "some" pest snails. It's just when they get out of control that they need addressing. We used to pick out snails & feed them to our loaches of several species. Ramshorns were preferred but pond snails were ok too.

But again, less food, less snails

 

[Tyler777]

I'm not opposed to feeding pest snails to loaches. But like Archerfish said less food = less snails, but also hungrier loaches, a good thing! Plus you have a nice big tank & other loaches for them to school with after they do the job you want them to.

Learn to see the "jelly masses" of snail eggs (everywhere!) & scrape them out or at least into the water column so you can vac them out. They look sort of like clear bumpy snot globules (such a pretty picture, lol). I don't mind "some" pest snails. It's just when they get out of control that they need addressing. We used to pick out snails & feed them to our loaches of several species. Ramshorns were preferred but pond snails were ok too.

But again, less food, less snails

Ok. I tried to clean the sand in my Angels tank yesterday. I FAILED miserably. I was sucking up too much sand

 

[Tyler777]

Walmart has this cheap plastic quilting stuff in the sewing section. It's sheets of flexible plastic with square holes in it. You roll a piece up, slide it into you gravel vacuums end. Leave hanging out about 1 to 2 inches depending on the depth of your sand and the strength of your suction, adjust as needed. The idea is to find the amount hanging out that lets you work the sand and get close enough to vacuum the mulm but not the sand itself. Problem solved for any sand tank for under a buck!!!! If you need the vac for gravel tanks as well just pull it out the end of the vac for those and reinsert as needed. It's also good for keeping fish out the vac while working. The end can be used to smooth and turnover the sand as needed as well while working. It really can't get any easier, more efficient or cheaper than that.

The quilting material has other uses as well from tank dividers to DIY fry or birthing boxes, media baskets, you name it. I've sewed them together to make things or used water safe hot glue in the past.

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/ec135987-8a14-49a0-94db-2146066839e3.73cc1a7ccad8b4be01feabacb9ed5b64.jpeg?odnHeight=2000&odnWidth=2000&odnBg=FFFFFF

Would you send me a picture of how you have it in your vacuum please ?
Thank you in advance