Clean sand

[Ali Day]

When I changed over to my new tank a while back, I changed from gravel, to a
large grained soft sand, this was to allow the clowns to have a good root
around. My question is to anyone out there with sand, how the hell do you
keep it clean. I found that about every third water change I have to hoover
the top couple of millimetres of sand of the top, otherwise it gets
discoloured with algae that exist in the sand. I then add a new bag of sand
into the tank. I don't have a big algae problem, bit of tuft algae in a
couple of spots, and some beard algae on my leaves, but otherwise
everythings fine. For those who don't know, It's a 170 gal, medium planted
tank, with about half a dozen swords, and about half a dozen other broad
leaf small plants. With 0 across the board on the 'nitrogens' and
phosphates, PH 6.9, temp 27 and 25% water change every two weeks. Any ideas?

Cheers

A

[Aquarijen]

"Ali Day" > wrote in message
...
> When I changed over to my new tank a while back, I changed from gravel, to
> a
> large grained soft sand, this was to allow the clowns to have a good root
> around. My question is to anyone out there with sand, how the hell do you
> keep it clean. I found that about every third water change I have to
> hoover
> the top couple of millimetres of sand of the top, otherwise it gets
> discoloured with algae that exist in the sand. I then add a new bag of
> sand
> into the tank. I don't have a big algae problem, bit of tuft algae in a
> couple of spots, and some beard algae on my leaves, but otherwise
> everythings fine. For those who don't know, It's a 170 gal, medium planted
> tank, with about half a dozen swords, and about half a dozen other broad
> leaf small plants. With 0 across the board on the 'nitrogens' and
> phosphates, PH 6.9, temp 27 and 25% water change every two weeks. Any
> ideas?
>
> Cheers
>
> A


I have sand in my 135 - I have been gravel vac-ing up the first few
millimeters and then I wash the sand that got vac-ed and put it back in the
tank.
-Jen

[Ali Day]

"Aquarijen" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Ali Day" > wrote in message
> ...
> I have sand in my 135 - I have been gravel vac-ing up the first few
> millimeters and then I wash the sand that got vac-ed and put it back in
the
> tank.

Cheers for that, I thought about washing it, but does it get the sand really
clean?

Cheers

A

[Mbuna]

If you use an extra tall gravel vac you can often vac without sucking
up the sand. Otherwise I used to crimp the hose so that the water
flow was lessened. I'd keep just enough water flow to "stir" the
sand at the bottom and suck up the crud without sucking up the sand.
__________________________________________________
Posted via FishGeeks - http://Aquaria.info

[Aquarijen]

"Ali Day" > wrote in message
...
> "Aquarijen" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> "Ali Day" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> I have sand in my 135 - I have been gravel vac-ing up the first few
>> millimeters and then I wash the sand that got vac-ed and put it back in
> the
>> tank.
>
> Cheers for that, I thought about washing it, but does it get the sand
> really
> clean?
>
> Cheers
>
> A
Detrious seems lighter (or more bouyant) than the sand and so it floats off
when I wash the sand.
-Jen

[Ali Day]

"Mbuna" > wrote in message
...
> If you use an extra tall gravel vac you can often vac without sucking
> up the sand. Otherwise I used to crimp the hose so that the water
> flow was lessened. I'd keep just enough water flow to "stir" the
> sand at the bottom and suck up the crud without sucking up the sand.

I actually want to suck up the sand, the sand is dicoloured, it's not the
rubbish amongst it, it's the sand is getting 'stained'

I was just wondering what everyone else with sand did, or do I have an
inspid algae problem that I'm just ignoring.

A

[david priestley]

i never have to clean the sand in my planted tank i find an army of cory's
do this for me. my clowns take no interest in digging in the sand so some
cory's maybe an idea
"Ali Day" > wrote in message
...
> When I changed over to my new tank a while back, I changed from gravel, to
> a
> large grained soft sand, this was to allow the clowns to have a good root
> around. My question is to anyone out there with sand, how the hell do you
> keep it clean. I found that about every third water change I have to
> hoover
> the top couple of millimetres of sand of the top, otherwise it gets
> discoloured with algae that exist in the sand. I then add a new bag of
> sand
> into the tank. I don't have a big algae problem, bit of tuft algae in a
> couple of spots, and some beard algae on my leaves, but otherwise
> everythings fine. For those who don't know, It's a 170 gal, medium planted
> tank, with about half a dozen swords, and about half a dozen other broad
> leaf small plants. With 0 across the board on the 'nitrogens' and
> phosphates, PH 6.9, temp 27 and 25% water change every two weeks. Any
> ideas?
>
> Cheers
>
> A
>
>

[Dick]

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:40:15 +0200, "Ali Day"
> wrote:

>
>"Mbuna" > wrote in message
...
>> If you use an extra tall gravel vac you can often vac without sucking
>> up the sand. Otherwise I used to crimp the hose so that the water
>> flow was lessened. I'd keep just enough water flow to "stir" the
>> sand at the bottom and suck up the crud without sucking up the sand.
>
>I actually want to suck up the sand, the sand is dicoloured, it's not the
>rubbish amongst it, it's the sand is getting 'stained'
>
>I was just wondering what everyone else with sand did, or do I have an
>inspid algae problem that I'm just ignoring.
>
>A
>
I have sand in a 75 gallon tank. I have lots of "low light" plants so
no much sand exposed to cleaning. I don't even try to clean the sand,
however, I do know that you can get the sand clean by spreading on
plastic sheet in the sun. I had a bad case of Black Hair Algae and
used the method to clean the effected sand.

dick

[Ali Day]

"Dick" > wrote in message
...
[...]


Thanks