Keeping The Sand Clean?

[seantheprawn]

hi all

i was just wondering how do you all keep your sand so sparklingly clean all the time?

i mean after one day with fresh clean sand in, with three fish, there is crap all over the bottom, it looks a mess, after 1 day!! with three fish!! i mean if it continues at this rate there will be mounds of poo everywere after a few days.

is this normal, it seems almost impossible for this amount of waste to occur, from three fish, 1 is a swordtail, are these big waste producers?

i mean i know how to kclean the sand, hole the siphon just above it, but i dont want to be having to do this every 2 days, with only 3 fish, i can only imagine wen i get more.

do you think the poo could of fallen on the plants? as they were in a tank with fish before.

i mean this just doesnt seem rite.
how much waste do your fish produce and how many times do you find yourself cleaning the sand?


cheers any feedback appreciated.

 

[SamUK]

i jus vac all the poop put each week when i do water changes.


the poop build up seems worst than it is at first i think cos your used to seeing it so clean.

plus cos of currents and fish movement youll find most areas stay clear and all the poop ends up in a couple of places so its easy to vac out.

 

[seantheprawn]

o ok thanx for that.

also i think my filters a bit crappy, would extra filtration help keep the waste level down?

 

[SamUK]

yea it should do.


you can never over filter a tank. jus aslong as theres not a raging torrent in there your ok.

 

[Bloo]

Sean, I sympathise you you and that's why I hate sand (and got rid of it - even my overpowered external didn't make a difference). I can't stand to see poo floating around the sand all the time. Yes, the sword tail is a high waste producers - and plecs/catfish are even worse. What are your other fish ?

 

[seantheprawn]

thankyou bloo for your sympathy, sand does seem to be awful high maintanence.

my other two fish are 2 red eye tetras, and yes dw i plan on getting more, they are the two survivors of a school of 6 from a long long time ago.

so if i rehome the swordtail and plan on getting maybe schools of small tetras and barbs and some cories, will this help with the waste? as im sure the smaller species of fish would produce smaller amounts of waste.

my tank is 168l btw.

 

[HendrixTheOscar]

Sand is a much better substrate and although it does take constant maintenance you can at least take it off the top whereas with gravel when most people clean it (though whether they'll admit to it or not) when they stick the syphon down inside the gravel there are massive amounts of dark rubbish pulled up through it as dirt sits and filters down through the gravel, thus making the environment for the fish much worse.

 

[Taridan]

What I've done for my tank with the pleco is I bought another fish net/ scoop and I use that to get the main chunks of solids out, then when I vacuum its not as much poop at once. you just can't move the net too fast or the poo will start to break, too slow and it will want to fall out... not sure if the swordtail poo is the same size as the pleco poo... if you did that you might need a finer net than what I use. lol

 

[Spader]

yeah when i clean it out the poo sometimes gets into the water all over and i scoop it out with the net.

 

[annka5]

I've sand in my discus tank, and syphon daily... this mostly because I want to keep nitrate as low as possible whilst they're growing, rather than aesthetics.
However, I imagine if I only did it each week, there would be more visible poop.

 

[SamUK]

only on a fish forum could we talk so openly about poo!!

 

[Araxen]

If you have any real driftwood in your tank make sure it's not rotting. I recently bought some driftwood from a petco(they had them presoaked in their tanks) and after I put it in the tank it made a major mess of the tank. It made it look like fish poo was all over the bottem of the tank. I blamed it on my CAE at first, but I took out the driftwood and everything has been ok and it wasn't my CAE!

 

[seantheprawn]

thanx for all ur replies,

i like the idea of netting up the poo, as that would cause less disturbance than a syphon,

i just still dont understan how 3 lil fish could produce so much waste, ill try n get a pic up just to show u how much there is.

o and its not bogwood, as they are cylinder like in shape, and really look like poop lol.

 

[seantheprawn]

o yeh

what filter/ type of filter would u guys recomend that is good at helping keeping the substrate clean?

like is there a certain model or type that is particualrly good at keeping the bottom clean, or atleast helping?


cheers

 

[Qays]

Sand is a much better substrate and although it does take constant maintenance you can at least take it off the top whereas with gravel when most people clean it (though whether they'll admit to it or not) when they stick the syphon down inside the gravel there are massive amounts of dark rubbish pulled up through it as dirt sits and filters down through the gravel, thus making the environment for the fish much worse.

technically incorrect.

Sand is good because large particles will stay on the top. But if your sand bed is over an inch or 2. Anaerobic pockets will become present, in which case the sand needs to be stirred. Its also reccomended to stir sand often to avoid the pockets of anaerobic gas. When stirring sand, particles will wedge between the grains, and some will be buried underneath the sand. This is dangerous because of decomposition of the waste.
Generally, sand will also be troublesome to siphon on with many pull up siphons, and the filter has to be switched off when sand is disturbed because the filter could suck up the particles and damage the impellor.
Plants will also do better in gravel, over sand.

All in all, sand is harder to maintain, it looks much better, and its easier to find dirt. But with gravel, you dont need to see the dirt, you just siphon straight into the gravel and downt have to worry, and all the particles are gone.

Gravel has its drawbacks too, such as visual impact, and fish who prefer sand.

Sand looks much better than gravel. and if you can siphon it, then it can be easier than gravel. Its just about practise with sand, but many are just fed up with it.