How to clean aquarium sand.?

Question

When doing weekly water changes, how should the sand be cleaned?

I have been told to stir it with something like a chopstick, and also the gravel vac. Which is better?

When stirring, don't you have to get every inch? Kinda confused dunno why.

Answer 1

Gently stir the sand and hold the gravel vac about an inch above where your stirring so it sucks up the nasty stuff. Do this to the whole aquarium. If you miss some places its fine. The more you get clean the less often you have to do it.

Answer 2

Stirring the sand defeats one of the uses of the gravel vacuum that is to not stir the crap (waste and bacteria) back up where the fish are. properly used all the stirring action of a gravel vac takes place inside the vac. Ask someone in a pet shop to demonstrate,if their tanks are clean then they have had plenty of practice. Cleaning the entire bottom is seldom neccessary but remember where you cleaned before (or better yet have a schedule) so you can do different parts next time.

Answer 3

I find that although using a gravel vac may suck up more sand, there are some ways around that. What I do is I take the long wide tube at the end of the skinny tube for the vac off, and just use the small tube. Suck on the end, or use the sink, if that's the kind of vac you have. Then put your tube about 1" and 1/2 off the surface of the sand, that way you don't suck up as much. You can pour this water straight into a bucket, and if you catch any sand in it, you can always just wash the sand out and put it back into your tank. Good luck.

Answer 4

I like to use a gravel vac that has an adjusting valve on it. you can purchase them from python. I syphon like i would with gravel but as the sand rises, i close the valve slightly so the current is not strong enough to pick up the sand, just the debris. I also woudlnt clean the sand weekly, its a bed for good bacteria. If its a salt water tank and you have feather dusters, you can stir the sand and let it settle periodically, you will feed the dusters that way.

Answer 5

this is also why you keep a filter on your saltwater tank not just a skimmer! I actually use a long handle wooden spoon just for my salt tanks. (since it is like a little paddle, I can swish the sand off my live rock and corals) I stir up the sand (it will cloud the water but settle quickly) Use your syphone to suck up the debris. The main purpose is to keep the sand from forming air pockets. Currents in the ocean as well as fish stir up the sand.

When you use your gravel syphon, you will find it will suck up your sand! so you want to stay a few inches above the sand. As you may know, salt water clean up isn't as Messy as fresh water. For the lack of better words, there are no strands of fish debris laying all over the bottom of the tank. Saltwater breaks these down much quicker. Don't worry if you don't hit every area in your tank.

Answer 6

i use a gravel vac and swirl the sand a little bit. try to get all the sand so you dont gotta clean as often. i have dark sand the waste isnt so visible.

Answer 7

nicely, sand is so lots extra durable to scrub out. So in the past you upload your sand, verify you rinse it a minimum of 20 circumstances (i'm no longer joking) under water. and then upload it in. that is needed to function a rapid sparkling answer of types to hurry up the settling technique. yet frequently, it takes like 4-6 days to thoroughly settle. After it has settled verify your clear out. it may well be packed with sand so which you will could sparkling it out. Now, for cleansing, I surely have got here across fulfillment cleansing sand with a gravel siphon without actual issues. the only element you would be careful is, verify you do no longer suck in too lots sand at as quickly as. The siphon will in specific circumstances purely clog sand into the vacuum head and which will purely decelerate your cleansing technique. surely, flow rapid with the vacuum.

Answer 8

you could do both that's what we do we stir it for the dirt to come out then we vacuum it and it would be cleaner if you do every inch but you could also stir it after every 5 inches etc(when you stir make sure the fish is not in the water ,it can harm the fish and dont make the aquarium too clean)

Answer 9

I used to use the gravel vac, it worked good

Answer 10

i have never used sand in my aquarium. very small gravel works best and is much easier to clean and maintain.i have kept fish successfully for many years now. do a partial watter change about every two weeks and carefully watch the , alkalinity, ph, and chlorine