How Can I Vacuum A Sand Bottomed Tropical Tank?
I have a tropical tank with sand at the bottom. I need to vacuum it as it is becoming quite dirty with fish poo, food remains and bits of leaves etc. I have a tank vacuum cleaner, but when i have tried to use it in the past it just sucks up the sand as well as everything else. Any ideas?
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Just wave it above the sand, and it should suck up the solids without removing the sand. Don’t dig it down into the sand like you do with gravel, really no need to since the solids will lay on top of the sand bed.
well, for any tank it wouldn’t be a bad idea to clean the sand, the best way would be to buy a bottom feeder or some other fish that would constantly fish crap and algae that is growing on the sand since i have a saltwater aquarium i would look into crabs, but in freshwater tropical i am not as knowledgeable about the fish names but i do know that there has to be some kind of bottom feeder because how would lakes not be polluted with fish poop if there wasn’t some fish there to clean it up
Get yourself a stick, long handled spoon or whatever and tie it to the suction end so it physically cannot touch the sand. Gently sift through the sand and the cr@p rises, but the sand stays out of sucking range.
) You might have to twiddle with the length depending on how much suction you have, but mark the tool you use and you’ll get it straight away the next time. It’s simple and it works.
Been there done that
Just hold the siphon a couple of inches above the sand, you should see tiny waste particles separating from the heavier sand. After you run through the tank once, stir up the sand (the fish must be out of course) and repeat the process.
u should of got stones