Good Fish To Keep Sand Clean?

[nike12301]

I am in the process of restarting my 10 gallon tank with a nice fancy 3D background and all. As I do this, I want to use some nice clean sand for substrate. But last time I did that it always got so dirty so fast. I had some neon tetras in the tank and no matter how little I fed them, the tetras were never hungry enough or fast enough to get the food before it sank to the bottom. Literally within a few days, the sand would be all nasty and dirty with leftover food/debris. It just looked terrible.

Could anyone suggest a fish combination/setup for a 10 gallon tank that would keep the sand substrate reasonably clean? I don't have the time to go in and suction out of the nasty stuff every 2-3 days.

 

[tom130691]

I am in the process of restarting my 10 gallon tank with a nice fancy 3D background and all. As I do this, I want to use some nice clean sand for substrate. But last time I did that it always got so dirty so fast. I had some neon tetras in the tank and no matter how little I fed them, the tetras were never hungry enough or fast enough to get the food before it sank to the bottom. Literally within a few days, the sand would be all nasty and dirty with leftover food/debris. It just looked terrible.

Could anyone suggest a fish combination/setup for a 10 gallon tank that would keep the sand substrate reasonably clean? I don't have the time to go in and suction out of the nasty stuff every 2-3 days.

get a small plec to clean up and some mts to clean up more and keep the sand loose

 

[mattlee]

I am in the process of restarting my 10 gallon tank with a nice fancy 3D background and all. As I do this, I want to use some nice clean sand for substrate. But last time I did that it always got so dirty so fast. I had some neon tetras in the tank and no matter how little I fed them, the tetras were never hungry enough or fast enough to get the food before it sank to the bottom. Literally within a few days, the sand would be all nasty and dirty with leftover food/debris. It just looked terrible.

Could anyone suggest a fish combination/setup for a 10 gallon tank that would keep the sand substrate reasonably clean? I don't have the time to go in and suction out of the nasty stuff every 2-3 days.

small bottom dwellers - shrimps, snails, corys, khuli loaches, chain loaches

or just try feeding even less, if the fish are eating and are healthy and there is left over food then feed less......

 

[Harlequins]

well if there's left over food you probably overfed them,i have sand and a fair few cories,which after feeding the sand is nearly spotless ,but seriously they don't really clean up,but i think they flick the debris around and the filters to the rest.

You could always try dark sand,this hides debris but obviously you'll still need to clean it up weekly