Sand and poop?

[Jen]

I just changed my tank over to sand, and it seems that its always dirty. The sand is white, so I'm guessing that I'm just not used to it. Could it be that the fish are still nervous about their new home and their bowels are a little over-active?

 

[FishDan]

The "problem" is in the difference between sand and gravel. With gravel the poop/waste sinks in between the indivdual gravel pieces and is hidden. That is why a gravel tank can look much cleaner than it really is. In a sand tank the waste sits on top of the substrate, making it much easier to see how much waste your fish are producing, and also making it easier to clean. Now, having said that, I have sand in both my tanks, and barely notice the waste. I usually find more poop built up in my filter strainer than on the sand. Though I know the poop is there, the current just moves it to a corner behind my decorations, making me have to work a little harder during water changes to get most of it.

\Dan

 

[Teelie]

That's the same with mine. I rarely see waste on the top of my sand though in my partial rock/gravel/sand aquarium I pick up quite a bit of waste from the rock and gravel part. It gets buried in there and doesn't get sucked into the filter so easily.

 

[yhbae]

So what do you do about it?

My mbuna tank is the first tank with sand as the substrate, and since it has lots of rocks, there are places where you will end up with no water current movement. I can see that debrees do get trapped in these places.

Python is unable to suck these up. The only option I have so far, is to put my hands in, and try to create a wave in front of it - I can see them coming out of the other end...

But this is a very silly way to clean the tank, not to mention that my little daughters want to participate in this activity!

Any ideas? May be I should think about strategically placing some powerhead outlets at different places of the tank...

 

[FishDan]

I just lightly jab my gravel vac into my sand. The poop/waste gets stirred up and as I raise the gravel vac, the sand falls back. I suppose adding power heads couldn't hurt, but now your poop will be in constant motion. A sort of poop vortex. (Sorry... ) Maybe if you could use the powerheads to "herd" the poop to your filter? In any event, I'd rather see the poop and then know its gone from the sand, rather than think it's gone but have it rotting in my gravel.

\Dan

 

[yhbae]

The poops that are accesible to the vac are fine - I can suck them up (oops, I meant my vac can suck them up ). The problematic ones are the poops trapped in between rocks where I cannot get my vac near them... If I can create a strong current into one end of the rock complex, wouldn't all poops come out?

 

[Pufferpack]

I use sand in most of my tanks and I find the easiest way to clean up under rocks or in cracks is to use a turkey baster (cheap plastic one .99) and shoot a jet of water under the rocks and it gets the debris out nicely (I did seal the bulb to the baster with silicone so that there are no air leaks, gives a better jet of water). I also picked up a battery operated vacume (14.99) that I use to do quick cleanings between water changes, works well to get the stuff off the sand and keep the tank looking cleaner.

 

[Jen]

Awesome everyone, thanks. Those are all fantastic ideas. That will deffinately help me out. And you're right fish dan... is is better than thinking its gone rotten. this way I'll always see it and I'll be more likely to remember to clean the tank on a regular basis. lol