FishProfiles.com Message Forums

hey i generally use a gravel vac for water changes cas it gets a bunch of the gross stuff out. if i have sand on the bottom of the aquarium instead of gravel, will the vacum do it's job or will it suck the sand up too?

Yes it will suck up sand but not as bad as you think.
As the sand works its way up the barrel of the vac, I put my finger over the end of the outlet tube and the sand falls back down.

The bit of sand you do manage to suck into the bucket, I stir up and then pour off the mulm and water, leaving only clean sand. I fill the bucket with clean water and add it and the sand back to the tank.

Another idea is to stir up the sand with your fingers until you have a plume of rubbish, then siphon up the debris and don't put the vac so close to the sand.

I am not a sand user and never have been. One of my major concerns would be when you stir it up for no matter what reason it floats around the tank and can easily be picked up bu your filter intake. You might think this is good but far from it as these fine particles of sand can and actually will start cutting your filter impeller to the point that the filter will be very noisy and finally not work at all.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

I agree with Keith, sand will eat away at at all moving parts, it will get everywere and into every thing.... I would use a fine gravel instead.... but being the case you already have sand I would just syphon out the water, getting as close to the sand to remove any particles close to surface of the sand.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Sand really isn't that bad, you just have to handle it differently. Raise the intake of the filter a bit and turn it off while you are stirring it up.

The wear on the impeller isn't a big problem, it is the wear on the housing that is a pain as that is pretty much the end of the filter. If your filter does get rattly, replace the impeller immediately because if either part has worn to the point if increased movement (and they seem to make the impeller wear faster than the housing) the unevenness will just make the problem 10x worse.

I've been running sand for several years now, the only problem I've had is will the cichlids who continually spat sand at the intake. That pump did stop but it turned out to only be jammed and thankfully wasn't damaged. I moved the intake up and no more worries.

To clean the tanks with sand, I turn the filter off and mess up the sand with my hand to loosen it up and shake loose any grot that has worked it's way down. Most stuff rolls around on the top but some sneaks down between the grains and needs to be swooshed loose. I do it with my hand which is a bit crude but it lets me fix plants etc while I'm in there. I wait til the sand has settled (usually very quick, sand is heavy) and flick the filter on again to clear the water of particulate matter. After about an hour I flick the filter off again and sort of hover the vac over the sand instead of plunging it in. It still picks up some sand but since I don't use a Python it just collects in the bucket. When I'm done I pop it back in the tank I then flick the filter back on and away we go. A day or two later, I clean the filter (can do it at the same time for most tanks, but I have high stocking on one so I like to give the system some recovery time).

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett