Keeping Sand Clean?

[xweeqtx]

I'm having a real bother with keeping the sand clean in the rio 180. In the way of er.. "fish mess". All the crap just seem to be gathering up amongst the plants(heavily planted, loads of bogwood and caves). It's running an external filter, and I don't think I have particularly messy fish(minus the two plecs). Even stripped the tank the other night, did a 50% waterchange and clean up to get rid of it all and it's STILL a mess. Any suggestions? More corys? Have 5 at the moment.

 

[saltynay]

I think the word you are searching for is detritus waste and the only FW animal I know of which will eat this is malaysian trumpet snails. Which are sometimes seen as a pest snail although I quite like mine.

 

[Fisses]

although u say u regulary do water chnages, do you use anything else suck as a garel vac or a sucker thng(use it with your air pump) ?

 

[xweeqtx]

I think the word you are searching for is detritus waste and the only FW animal I know of which will eat this is malaysian trumpet snails. Which are sometimes seen as a pest snail although I quite like mine.

OH hates snails, so thats kinda out of the question.

although u say u regulary do water chnages, do you use anything else suck as a garel vac or a sucker thng(use it with your air pump) ?

Yep, I use a vac along with water changes. The sand looked lovely until the water settled and it all gathered up again. I was thinking of something more to mix around the sand, like the corys do. To help the filter pick it up?