Fish Waste On The Tank Floor

[wooch]

Just wondering if there is any specific gear i should use in order to keep fish waste from accumulating on the floor of my aquarium. i have a 120l tank with a 600l p/h powerhead located near the surface. however there isnt enough of a current to sweep a lot of the fish's solid waste into the filter section.

is it a matter of removing it with water changes or is there some equipment i can purchase to aid the removal.

thanks

Wooch

 

[fluttermoth]

You can get some gravel 'vacuums' that return the water to the tank and collect the mulm in a cloth bag you can wash out. There are battery powered ones and ones that run off an air pump.
Personally, I wouldn't use one; if there's that much mulm there, you probably need to water change anyway, tbh.

 

[wooch]

You can get some gravel 'vacuums' that return the water to the tank and collect the mulm in a cloth bag you can wash out. There are battery powered ones and ones that run off an air pump.
Personally, I wouldn't use one; if there's that much mulm there, you probably need to water change anyway, tbh.

hiya, i do regular water changes to the tank however i have a sand substrate on the tank floor and it tends to get sucked up in almost every gravel cleaner/vacuum i have used to i have resorted to sucking the top layer away using a hose and removing as much 'mulm as i can this way but it only stays clean for a day or so.

wondering if upgrading my powerhead or adding another internal powerhead would help

 

[wooch]

any other wise reccommendations? would be much appreciated as i assume the waste cant be doing anything positive for my ammonia levels
=)

 

[hillmar77]

I find getting a bigger filter then recommended usually does a good job at keeping a good water current throughout the top and bottom of the tank. I usually like running two filters, one on the left and one on the right side of the tank, that usually gives alot more chances for the waste and debris to get sucked up.
example- My 10 gallon has a whisper 10 filter on the left and a Aquaclear 20 on the right.

 

[karin]

I just use a 1/2 inch hose, I taped one end of the hose to a dowel to make it more rigid. I create a siphon and hold it above the sand 1/2 inch or so, swirl it creating disturbance to the poo on the surface of the sand and then it glides nicely into the siphon hose. A bit of sand comes up from time to time but not much.

 

[moochy13]

i was doing this yesterday with a normal wide bottomed gravel hose, but i have sand substrate. there was enough vaccuum to suck the poo up, but the wide bottom of the hose meant that vaccuum dissapated and sucked up a bit of sand.

i think like the post above, if you can hook some sort of vaccuum of that has a 'precision' nozzle on it, it would be very effective.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi wooch, as I've watched the comments go by in the last few years it does seem that most sand users have gravitated to using their thumb over the end of a normal hose to "spot clean" mulm areas (they combine various finger movements to stir it above the sand and then direct their little "vacuum" closer for pickup, thereby using the water itself to help separate the debris from the sand I think.)

As flutter mentions, there's always a basic concern in mentioning the existance of battery powered gravel strainers because beginners can mis-understand the fundamental importance of substrate-cleaning-water-changes (the regular removal of the hundreds of substances like heavy metals and organics so that they won't build up is of prime importance and use of a strainer could threaten that good habit.) But, if one is careful not to compromise that habit, then I think a battery powered strainer (especially one with a tall clear tube so that less sand would make it to the top) (does the eheim one accomplish this, does anyone know?) might be an especially good -addition- to the water changing habit (still performed with a simple siphon or narrow gravel-cleaner device. Does that make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[the biffster]

The only way to clean the substrate
is with a gravel vacuum,they work just
as good on sand as they do with gravel.
You need to control the flow through
the vacuum with your finger at the end of
the pipe, too much sand and water coming
up the vacuum you slow the flow down,
not enough flow you take you finger off.
I normally let the gravel vacuum get half
full slow the flow down let the sand /gravel
fall back down then speed the flow up so the lighter
stuff gets sucked up while the rest drops back to the
tank floor.

 

[fluttermoth]

You can get some gravel 'vacuums' that return the water to the tank and collect the mulm in a cloth bag you can wash out. There are battery powered ones and ones that run off an air pump.
Personally, I wouldn't use one; if there's that much mulm there, you probably need to water change anyway, tbh.

hiya, i do regular water changes to the tank however i have a sand substrate on the tank floor and it tends to get sucked up in almost every gravel cleaner/vacuum i have used to i have resorted to sucking the top layer away using a hose and removing as much 'mulm as i can this way but it only stays clean for a day or so.

wondering if upgrading my powerhead or adding another internal powerhead would help

Ah, I didn't realise you had a sand substrate; I do appreciate the difficulties with that! I think the thumb over the end and the other techniques mentioned here are your best bet. Luckily sand is cheap, so buy some extra for 'topping up' as you may just have to accept the fact that if you want clean sand you're going to inevitably lose a certain amount while cleaning.
I'm also 99% certain that as long as the mulm is composed of fish poo rather than uneaten food it won't affect your water quality as much as you think and is more of an aesthetic thing.

 

[wooch]

i was really after something that would help shift debris without my constant attention (not to say im a lazy fishkeeper) but maybe a better powerhead or another gillter closer to the bottom would help?

any observations or reccomendations?

 

[elisew]

If you put a filter too close to the bottom then you`ll more than likely end up with sand in the impellor which will in turn probably burn the filter out.....at the very least it will sound terrible when running.

Unfortunately there`s not a lot you can do about the waste to be honest except for swirling a syphon/hose above the surface of the sand and then it`ll get sucked up. I`m sure there`s some people that would like to sit back a bit more and not have to put so much effort into cleaning the tanks but bottom line is that if you want a clean, healthy tank then you`ll have to keep putting the effort in.
Having a powerful powerhead may shift the waste towards a filter a bit but what about the waste under any ornaments and around plants, I doubt it would shift it all.
Good old elbow grease will give you the result you`re after