Keeping Sand Clean?

[nike12301]

A few days ago I switched my 10 gallon tank with a betta in it to sand instead of gravel. I always wanted to try it and I loved the way it looks.

A few days later and I'm already running into a problem.... the beautiful white sand gets covered with left over food and other junk, which ruins how nice and clean the white sand was supposed to look. How do I keep it clean?

 

[LardyDad]

Buy one of them vaccuum cleaners that connects to an air pump and filters the water through it into a little bag. I think you can get a battery operated one if you are not running an air pump. Sell them on ebay for a few quid

 

[chrisrm]

A few days ago I switched my 10 gallon tank with a betta in it to sand instead of gravel. I always wanted to try it and I loved the way it looks.

A few days later and I'm already running into a problem.... the beautiful white sand gets covered with left over food and other junk, which ruins how nice and clean the white sand was supposed to look. How do I keep it clean?

.
is there only a betta in there? if so i brought some kulhie loaches for mine and they keep the sand cleen turning it over. or maybe some corydoras

 

[sjolliff]

When i do a WC via a hose pipe, i just use the end of the hose, iv tried 2 gravel vacs and found my way better IMO

Not tried the air pump ones but sounds like a good idea!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I believe what sjolliff is describing is one of the most common and successful approaches to sand maintenance. You take a length of normal clear aquarium tubing, the wide type that a cannister filter would use and you just start the siphon and use your thumb to shut it off. You adjust your hand-height above the sand and wave your second, third and little fingers to stir the debris into the water just above the sand and the release your thumb for several seconds, moving the hose around to suck up the debris you've just stirred up. You get better at it over time. Some sand always gets sucked up, at least a little bit, but sand is cheap of course.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jmkgreen]

The problem I have is once I start swirling the water I can no longer see through the shimmer effect to pick the crap up. This is particularly the case with a 24in tall tank.

 

[richie_bhoy1983]

hi nike,

3/4 of the base of my 90ltr tank is sand.
when i do a water change i use a gravel syphon. a method i find hepls is: put the business end over the un eaten food an move it to and frow. the turbulant current from you moving the syphon head lifts the "crap" thus making it easy to suck away.
i also employ a team of albino corys to sift through the sand and smooth it out keeping it looking all nice

hope this helps!

richie

 

[Fisses]

ive had sand twice now, and i had the same problem both times.

all you can do is what people have suggested:

either a vac pump which runs off an air pump which you just waft over the dirt and debris and it'll suck it up

or

gravel vac doing the same technique.

ive moved back to gravel now and im much much happier