Cleaning sand?

[corbypete]

I will be having sand, not stones as my substrate.

Whats the easiest way to clean the sand periodically? I presume I will just syphon off a load of sand if i use the conventional vacuum method?

 

[yvez9]

nope

just hold your syphon about an inch above the substarte, then all you need to do is a small circular motion so the junk is lifted up and caught by the syphone. that way your sand won't be disturbed.

The advantage of sand over gravel is that the debris stay on top of the sand, they woN,t fall though the cracks

 

[FrAnK3333]

I hold mine just above the sand and it works just fine.

 

[corbypete]

Is there a better vacuum that doesn't syphon? ie. collects just the debris?

or an electric one?

i dont fancy pooy fish water in my mouth!

 

[keane]

Hi,

i have a syphon pump (mine came with my fluval external canister but am sure you can probably pick one up from a LFS or pet store for only a couple of £'s)...its basically a hollow rubber ball with a valve that you push in to the end of your syphoning tube.

Just squeeze the rubber ball a few times and it draws the water through your tube and starts the syphoning off.

Saves paying £££'s for a motorised vacuum and avoids the need to sample the fishy poo as you said!!

hth

tbr

 

[Jen]

I do both... one clean I will hover, the next I will stick the syphon in the sand- instead of sifting through with a stick- so that I don't get any gas pockets (I've had problems with that before). It's not necessary to do that if you have fish that stir up the sand... loaches or really active catfish (mine hardly moves)

 

[CathyG]

You can get battery or hand pump operated syphons. You could also just submerge the whole syphoning tube in the tank until the air is expelled, then keep one end in the water, and your thumb over the other end. Take the end out of the water covered by your thumb, lower it to your bucket, and you have a syphon and no taste of tank water in your mouth

 

[Yenko]

Siphon pumps are for the weak. In fact, you suck at aquarium keeping unless you use a legnth of flexible plastic tubing you bought at home depot as a siphon. It's easy not to get tank water in your mouth; just stop sucking a few inches short of your mouth. Besides, if the water parameters in your tank are good, then your water shouldn't be particularly bad-tasting. Tank water is not particularly good for you; the KNO3 in your water is bad for your heart. On the other hand, the amount of tank water I'm likely to ingest over the course of my life will have an insignificant health impact.