Vacuuming sand.

[Cheese Specialist]

Hello,

I have not had my sandy tank very long and I use a gravel cleaner on my other 2 gravel bottomed tanks. How do I clean the sand? I thought if maybe stirring the sand up and scooping around with a net but that seems a bit barmy and time consuming!

I just presumed that I can't use my gravel cleaner. Any ideas?

 

[AquaNut]

Use your gravel cleaner, but instead of sticking it into the sand like you would with gravel, just whirl it around in little circles about an inch above the sand. It will create little cyclones that suck the debris off the surface of the sand up the siphon tube. I stir my sand a bit with a wooden chopstick regularly, so as to avoid the formation of pockets of anaerobic bacteria.

 

[kingkong]

or you could syfon the top loayer of sand wash it well then use a cup to put the sand back in the tank so u dont stire the tank.

 

[De Plano]

or you could syfon the top loayer of sand wash it well then use a cup to put the sand back in the tank so u dont stire the tank.

I have read on this forum quite a bit that the first 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of substrate is where all the beneficial bacteria is. Wouldn't this be removing too much of "the good stuff"?

Aquanut quote
"I stir my sand a bit with a wooden chopstick regularly, so as to avoid the formation of pockets of anaerobic bacteria."

I read that -rain just does water changes and stirs the sand like Aquanut does and says she doesn't have any problems. Her tank looks gorgeous, , so it is a vote of confidence for me.

 

[freshmike]

Aqua is, as always, spot on!

Chris

 

[Mogo]

I also use the hover method, but on occassion I like to do a more thorough clean to remove the smaller particles from the sand. I dig a thin tubed gravel vac (1 size up from airline tubing) only slightly into the sand and let it swirl around. The sand will start to rise up slowly in the column, when it gets to about halfway or 3/4, I pinch the hose and the sand falls back. Works very nicely, keeps sand nice and clean and also turned over.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Oooo those are some really good ideas! I will do the more general one more often and then the super duper one every once in a while. Esp as I will have lots of fish in the tank.