Plec Poop

[Squirrelbuddies]

Help! I need some ideas from anyone with larger plecs that produce huge amounts of waste. How do you keep the bottom clean? Do you use sand or gravel? I have white sand (of all things!) and it looks dirty most of the time even though I clean every week.

I was searching through old posts and found some rather amusing information on the subject! However, I need some advise regarding a setup that will keep the bottom clean. Someone mentioned power heads at the bottom of the tank? If these are blowing the crap around and towards the intake, won't the sand get blown around as well? Maybe I'd be better off with gravel?

I'm so discouraged that this tank looks so crappy.

 

[Neal]

Just buy a gravel vac and hold it 1" away from the sand, some sand will get sucked up but not much that will be noticeable. But you may need to top it up every 6 months.
Also, if you get experience with the gravel vac, you might pick up a technique that saves your sand...

Neal

 

[bunjiweb]

The easiest way to avoid picking up the sand is to hold the vac at an angle to the sand, about 2cm away from the bottom. You should find that by holding it at an angle less, if any sand gets picked up.

The other way to consider is to use an airline syphon to pick up poo. Sounds tedious but it can actually be quick once you learn to use your finger to stop yourself getting too close to the sand.

Ben

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I'm ok with siphoning it out of the tank without sucking up the sand -- I just want to know if there is a better way to set up the tank so I don't have to vacuum every day. The plec produces a huge amount of waste on a daily basis and I honestly don't have the time to siphon/vacuum it out every day. I was hoping I could set up some sort of filtering system so it gets sucked up by the filter to reduce the amount of manual siphoning.

I have an Eheim external filter setup on the left side and an Aqua Clear HOB on the right. There is good circulation --- but neither filter is picking up the bulk of the waste.

 

[bunjiweb]

a powerhead with a spray bar attached blowing water across the bottom of your sand to keep the poop in the water column so that it is taken out by the filters is the best way to combat this.

Ben