How Do You Clean Your Aquarium Sand?

[white_and_nerdy]

I'm planning to put aquarium sand in my new tropical fish tank and use one of these to clean the sand. But won't the sand get sucked up through the siphon and out into the bucket?

Would you be able to recommend the best way of how to clean aquarium sand?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

You just need to hold it an inch or so above the substrate and swirl/wiggle the syphon end gently, this stirs all of the mucky stuff up into the water so you can suck it up

 

[fluttermoth]

The trick with sand and gravel cleaners is: you don't stick the end of the cleaner right into the substrate, as you would if you had gravel. You hold it an inch or two above the sand, and move it around in a circular motion. That kicks up the mulm enough to be sucked up without getting up too much sand.

You'll proably end up with some sand in your bucket, but you just give it a rinse and tip in back into the tank

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually the trick is to realize that, just like there are different size gravels, all sand is not created equally. The easiest way to explain this is to swipe the info for 4 CaribSea sands:

Crystal River
Average Small Grain Size: 0.2 mm
Average Large Grain Size: 0.5 mm
Suitable for Planted Aquariums: Yes

Moonlight Sand/Marine Sand
Average Small Grain Size: 0.1 mm
Average Large Grain Size: 0.3 mm
Suitable for Planted Aquariums: No

Sunset Gold
Average Small Grain Size: 0.1 mm
Average Large Grain Size: 0.4 mm
Suitable for Planted Aquariums: Yes

Torpedo Beach
Average Small Grain Size: 0.2 mm
Average Large Grain Size: 1.2 mm
Suitable for Planted Aquariums: Yes

Note how each sand lists a different range of grain sizes. For years I refused to use sand because most of what I saw was smaller grained and would easily suck up into a vacuum. When I got interested in keeping wild angels I joined a forum for them where I learned about the Torpedo Beach product above. One of the admins who is from SA posted how this particular sand came closer than anything he had seen in terms of its duplicating the look of their natural habitat. So I tried it.

Because it has a larger grain size, I soon discovered I could vacuum it pretty much a I did my gravel. I just had to use a smaller size siphon so the flow rate was not quite as strong. So the answer to your question really depends on the type of sand you use.

If you pop into the DrsFosterSmith site you can see pictures of this all here CaribSea Instant Aquarium Freshwater Substrates
And before you go on about these being a product that is also supposed to cycle a tank, these same subsstrates are also available in a traditional form w/o the cycling stuff. The link is meant to show the sands not to suggest using that particular product. They are called Super Naturals when sold without the cycling stuff. You can find the full CaribSea substrate info on their site here (a pdf of their catalogue) http/www.caribsea....sea_catalog.pdf

 

[KISSfn]

I have found removing the large diameter end piece on a traditional gravel vac and using the smaller diameter hose works even better on sand. The smaller diameter hose creates more suction than the large conventional end. Since what I want to syphon out is lighter than sand as soon as I get the hose close the junk gets pulled in leaving the sand undisturbed.