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ive had new sand in my tank for about 3 weeks and my fish for about 2 week. since i used all sand, the fish waste just sits on top the sand. what is the best way clean the sand without disturbing the sand?

Create more current in the tank if your stock will allow it. More current will prevent fish poo from settling on the sand, instead keeping it moving so that it will eventually go into the filter.

But for now I think that by hovering the gravel vac about 1" above the sand, you will be able to suck up the poo without stirring anything up.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

either do what cory said, or take a piece of airline tubing and just use it to suck up the individual pieces of poo

Daka

This is what I do. It works well and doesn't upset the sand much at all. Take a small fish net and scoop up an area of sand and then gently shake the net to sift the sand out, the poop and decaying food is big enough to stay trapped in the net. It does move the sand around a little but doesn't remove any sand or make the tank cloudy at all. This method also cleans out things that get trapped under the sand. It doesn't take very long and works pretty well. The problem I had with the gravel vac is that my Pleco's poop is to heavy to siphon easily so I end up pulling out more sand than poop.

I agree with what steve said, though I've never tried it myself. In theory it sounds like it would work, and he says it does. Stiring the sand is actually very beneficial to the aquarium and you want to do it every so often. It prevents gases from getting trapped under the sand. I also suggest that you try to get some [link=malaysian trumpet snails]http://www.petresources.net/fish/plants/mel_tub.html" style="COLOR: #FF82AB[/link]. They will dig around in the sand for you, helping keep it stirred.

HTH

><>Dani<><

are the malaysian trumpet snails asexual?

i use a gravel vac the sand i use blasting sand its white n heavy so the crap gets sucked up some sand does but falls rite back out if it was cleaned good b4 it went in u should b able to stir it up with out it going cloudy

the problems i have r my mbunas diggin under the rocks (almost 200lbs of whethered limestone)n the stuff gets in the caves they dug
another problem is my piranha the one i keep alone for a r eason attacks the vac
another tank i find hard to vac is my eel tank u never no where they r but love to swim up outta the sand into the vac
depends on ur stock but a vac is the best way unless u can get a powerhead which i tried only once the piranha didnt like it

I never have poo settle on my sand, which makes it very easy to clean it up...I dont have to .

30 gallon long did have an AC 200, now a AC500 ( dont ask ) as well as a AC powerhead on it. Filter floss over the intake of the powerhead, fish net netting over the intake of the filter to prevent sand from entering. The floss does need to be rinsed quite regularly to remove the built up waste. Sponge would be better but I didnt have any @the time .

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do how does the fish waste get cleaned?

That is exactly why I use sand in all my tank, well all but the oscar tank simply because they like to flick the sand everywhere which destroys the filtration very quickly.

As Natalie and Babel has said, good water movement is needed if you have sand and if you have that then there's little use for a vac I even have a hard time finding waste from my 2 plecs

BTW, your water movement doesn't have to be too strong to do the job either.