Cleaning sand

[Sacha]

Just wondering what is the best way to clean the sand in my tank? It has a layer of Tetraplant complete underneath it. I have never actually vacuumed the sand, because it causes too much disturbance in the tank. But now I've been reading that some people do actually Hoover their sand?

 

[frothhelmet]

Yes lots of people hoover sand. But you could only clean the surface if you dont want to disturb the soil underneath. My favourite trick is to use cories with sand to fling muck into the water column where the filter can grab it. They keep my sand crystal.

 

[Sacha]

Yeah my cories keep my sand pretty clean. And the MTS prevent the lower parts of the sand from becoming anaerobic. But I still have crap (diatoms?) building up just below the surface of the sand. I can see it against the front glass.

 

[tim]

You can run a credit card or Oyster card etc along the front glass below substrate and syphon out the diatoms as they come above the substrate.

 

[tam]

If it's looking a bit grungy coloured you can lay flat rock eg slate or catappa leaves (weight down with pebbles) over it. Leave for 3-4 days and remove. It's like a mini blackout just for your substrate and kills off any tiny traces of algae making it look off coloured.