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Hey ppl's,


I recently changed my substrate from gravel to sand, at first i was in love with the new look...however i've found out that sand is a real pain in the bum to clean! for it actually goes up the vacuum!
Can anyone give me some pointers onhow to deal with this problem, i really dun wanna go back to gravel...My Jardini Saratoga likes it to much!

At the risk of sounding smarmy, go back to gravel!

Actually if you lightly wave your siphon above the substrate you can get the nasties waterborn and vacuum them out. You will have to experiment with height from the substrate and how vigorous the wave should be.

Over time the smaller sand particles will move downward in the substrate exposing the larger particles. Unfortunately sand is very uniform so you may not notice this action as much as you might with other substrates.



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Try putting something on the end of the syphon like a coffee filter or a piece of tights

Make sure to get something that sifts the sand like a snail to avoid ammonia pockets and stir frequently!

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Just keep the siphon 1 inch from the sand when you're cleaning & changing water & the dirt will be sucked up & the sand left in place. Occationatly, pass your fingers through the sand, like a rake, so it doesn't compact & tap air.


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I have sand in my 30 gallon and my sons 10 gallon and will be putting snad in my 55 gallon when I get it at the end of the month, I to was having the same problem sucking sand up when trying to siphon the bottom, but I figured out a trick A TURKEY BASTER all i do is squeeze the tip of the baster put the tip just above the "poop" then let go of the tip, after a few trys you get the hang of how close to the sand to put the tip,I will then take the poop and water and put into a bucket , I do this once a week when I do my 10% water change, so you get to kill 2 birds with one stone getting rid of the poop and changing your water at the same time, plus what i have started doing is once all the poop is sucked up i will suck some sand up which leaves a big pot hole and the will slowly let the sand back out again, saves on stiring the sand and clouding up your water. Try it and see if you like it, but buy a new baster dont use the one that you use for turkey dinners

mmm turkey dinner said the vegetarian

So anyway, now that my tummy is hungry
Another trick is to simply increase the water flow in the tank. I have sand in my 30 at work, but I am planning on changing it back to gravel. I'll give you the bad first... I managed to kill two AC's and an extra impeller, the third (an AC500) may be damaged as well. Hope the canister I just recently bought for the tank will survive . The problem is that small particles of sand can get caught up in the water column then get sucked into the filter. Not so good.
You do also have to worry about anerobic bacteria. I have MTS in the tank and I manually stir the sand after water changes (the trick is to wave the sipion over the surface of the substrate rather than push it into the sand), however I still lost all my corys to what I can only put down as a face full of poison gas. MTS will work, but once there's a pocket of anerobic bacteria they'll stay away from it too.
Keep the sand shallow (under 1 inch) and keep it stirred regularly, but dont be vigirous about it or you'll get the sand suspended and sucked up into the filter .

Problem with sand is that it looks soooo good. Add a small powerhead to the tank on the opposite side as the filter that'll help keep the fish waste suspended in the water and off the surface of the substrate for a bit longer, making it easier for the filter to pick it up. Cover the intake of the filter with some foam or stocking if you're seeing sand in your filter. You will have to rinse it off frequently as it'll collect the fish waste easily and slow down how much it cycles the tank water.

^_^

Maybe I haven't had sand long enough (less than a year) but since I have a heavily planted tank, I switched from gravel to sand and clay. I have about 3-4 inches of substrate, about 3/4 of it sand. The clay is conctrated more to the bottom. I don't want to stir the substrate too much because I'll disturb the root systems.

I have used the "wave a wand over it" approach with the syphon--weekly cleanups--to keep the surface as clean as possible and I have a lot of water flow (600GPH on a 72G tank) and so far things appear to be spotless.

Is the possibility of ammonia build-up from anerobic bacteria something that is a long-term threat? Longer than 6-8 months, at least?

Thanks,
Gary

Anaerobic bacteria can form in the same amount of time that aerobic bacteria can form, essentially 2-4 weeks time which is why keeping the sand sifted through on a regular basis is so important.
For the people that are able to keep plants in sand the plant roots are able to break up the pockets (some thrive in anaerobic conditions) to keep from it becoming a problem in your tank. The problem is, that plants dont always work well in sand.

^_^

Well, I think you may all be crazy...ok, not. I have Sand in mine and yes, it goes into the tube, however, when lifting the end of the siphon away from the sand, most if not all will just fall back down the tube. (Sand is heaver than water) One must deep clean sand too. (as others have pointed out, gases) Sand will keep cleaner longer but not forever. Most junk will not fall beneath the sand until it is stirred up. This is why sand is not good for live plants, hard for the roots to breathe and grow. This is why I have a sand/gravel mix.


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There are many who have sand but these are usually very experienced fish keepers and know many tricks as you can see by some of the replies.

I have never used it and certaiinly would never advise any one to use it unless they know exactly what has to be done to the sand to keep it working/clean correctly.

A short answer would be go back to 1-3mm substrate as soon as possible.

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I LOVE how sand looks, but it is becoming a pain.

To Be Honest I never saw the difference between sand and gravel cos i never had a gravel cleaner until recently, my 12G is gravel and looks loads better with it, I can gravel clean weekly and it looks fantastic.

I am going to change to gravel on my main tank I like how the sand looks but it gets in such a mess every two weeks when I "clean" it. its a shame cos it looks so good.

trouble is I want white gravel which is an aglae disaster but hey I have put up with sand for nearly two years!



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Hmm yes I was considering sand for one of my tanks as well... how well does a gravel/sand mix work?

Gravel and Sand don't mix .
The sand is smaller and sinks to the bottom anytime you have a gravel sand mixture. If done with larger grain sand you may have sucess. The key word there being "may".

Do you have a specific reason for wanting to combine the two.

^_^

But sand and small gravel do mix. I have had it for years. Some may not like it, and then again, some may.

I combine the two, because my elephantnose loves to root for his food and he loves the sand. The small gravel allows plants to grow without getting root rot. I am sure there must be lots of other reason why people what both.

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

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I was thinking of doing a thin layer of bigger sand in one of my tanks with a little bit bigger gravel it. I have a pair of convicts in the tank that are major diggers and it would be nice to have multiple layers for them. The whole thing would probably end up a huge mess though.

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No,not a huge mess, unless you think of them as layers, because that it will not be. It will mix together, and when you clean (deep clean as you should) the sand will come to the top and gravel will be at the bottom, then the sand will fall beneath the gravel and mix together.

See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Yeah it would help the plants out. Plus I imagine it would look more natural then just one or the other.

entkitty can u post a pic of ur tank?

I am thinking you want to see the gravel sand mix. Thsi was the best I could do.

Attached Image:


See my profile (link below) for fish and setup.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.