Couple Of Pointers Needed Please

[pauly]

ok, I've currently got a matured 8 Gallon (UK) tank. I am buying a new 40 Gallon tank tonight which will eventually replace the smaller one.

I plan to do a fishless cycle on the new tank utilising some filter media from my mature tank to speed the process up. My first question is, where do I put the filter sponge? Just in the water or does it have to go into the new filter (if possible)?

In my current tank I have gravel, but as I'm planning to keep Cichlids I am going to have sand in my new tank. So my second question is, how do I clean the sand, both before putting it in the tank, and as part of the maintenance? I use a syphon to clean the gravel currently, but I imagine that will just suck up the sand, right?

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

 

[pauly]

shameless bump

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Before putting it in the tank -- swirling it around in a bucket with running water / line a colander with muslin and rinse it a lot?
After it's in there... I only have gravel in mine but have seen others on this forum recommend 'hovering' the end of your vac above the surface. A bit lairy of sand myself because that sounds pretty tricky to me, but maybe someone else has a magic trick they could recommend?

 

[rdd1952]

The sponge would need to go in the filter so that it is in the water flow. Otherwise, the bacteria would die off from lack of food. As for rinsing the sand, I just pour mine in a bucket and run the hose in it until there isn't any more dust/residue. I've never used the cichlid sands before so I don't know how difficult they are to clean. Some people also put the sand in something like a pillows case and rinse in it that so the fies come out but the sand stays in. Vacuuming sand is pretty simple. The waste just sits on the top so all you have to do is hover the vacuum and maybe swirl it a little to help lift the waste up. You can't put it into the sand like you do gravel as it will indeed suck up the sand. The only reason you have to do that with gravel though is because the waste filtrs own between he gravel and that is the only way to get it out.

 

[pauly]

Pillowcases and hovering - two things I would never have thought of.

Thanks again for the great advice

Paul.

 

[doresy]

When vaccing sand with my home made vac (just a long length of ridged placcy tube 12mm dia fitted to flexi tube) I purposely vac up the top few millimetres of sand as I go. As the ridged pipe is only 12mm not too much sand goes up and in anycase, I control the flow with a carefully placed finger over the exhaust end of the flexi tube. Finally, the water and sand are collected in a bucket then, when finished I stir it up then tip the water/poo away leaving the sand in the bucket. Then, after rinsing I let it dry and return it to the tank later