cleaning sand bed

[redvicki]

How do I clean a fine substrate sand bed? Do I just use a regular aquarium vaccum? I don't want to suck the sand out with the ucky stuff. Thanks.

 

[sabbath]

If you have a shallow sand bed.I recommend using the regular aquarium vacuums. Just bend the hose if it is going to fast. Also don't do the hole tank every time. I do about 20% each time.

Some do not it at all. This is asking for a long term overload of waste, I have found.

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13076678#post13076678 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sabbath
If you have a shallow sand bed.I recommend using the regular aquarium vacuums. Just bend the hose if it is going to fast. Also don't do the hole tank every time. I do about 20% each time.

Some do not it at all. This is asking for a long term overload of waste, I have found.

I have had my tank for about 2.5-3 years... I barely ever vacuumed my sand... and I have been having nitrate problems the whole time.... for the last month I have done 3 water changes + vacuuming and my nitrates have been slowly receding...

SO i agree with what sabbath is saying... if u dont vacuum, all the waste will build up in your tank and give u problems....

I will be moving really soon and plan to replace my whole sandbed and will vacuum it every 2nd water change of 20%.

I also told that when you vacuum if u have a deep sandbed try not to disturb more than 1" of the sandbed... something about disturbing gas pockets in the sandbed.... can someone confirm this??

 

[Tswifty]

I use a turkey baster and blow it into the sand in a circular motion. It releases all the junk up into the water column where it can be filtered off. As stated above, I only try and disturb the top 1/2" of the sand though.

 

[IslandCrow]

I've always done the same as Tswifty8. I think that's more common than vacuuming sand in a marine tank.

 

[Mavrk]

I don't vacuum the sand, but I do vaccum just above the sand to get the top layer of stuff. In terms of clean sand, a lot has to do with the cirulation in the tank. Both the amount and the direction of the flow matter. If you do vaccum, then just do a small section each time.

 

[Michael]

all i do is gently stir the top few millimeters of sand just to make it look nice and white again