Best way to clean the fine sand

[Warren2308]

What's the best way to clean very fine sand from the bottom of the tank without sucking it up??Bare bottom is not a option.


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[1077]

Get close enough with syphon to extract the waste, but not so close that sand is also sucked up.
What little sand may be sucked up with waste is cheap and easily replaced.

[John_Nicholson]

Personally I would say with a siphon hose until it is all gone...LOL.

-john

[Jdizon20]

Personally I would say with a siphon hose until it is all gone...LOL.

-john

Lol

OP once a week I stick my hand in there and shake/disturb the sand. The particles get lose and they are easier to siphon when it settles back down. Also my filter picks up a lot of the debris that would be floating around. I also run one of those circulator pumps towards the bottom of my tank to move things around for my main filter to pick up.

[ashtricks]

OP once a week I stick my hand in there and shake/disturb the sand. The particles get lose and they are easier to siphon when it settles back down. Also my filter picks up a lot of the debris that would be floating around. I also run one of those circulator pumps towards the bottom of my tank to move things around for my main filter to pick up. +1.

Also, If you don't hate snails (and they are not banned in your area) you can try malaysian trumpet snails (they will reproduce very fast!) or rabbit snails. These guys will help keep your sand from forming a cake at the bottom. Also takes care of distributing the nutrients around, and not forming pockets of H2S.

[BroodNV]

You can also siphon normally but have it drain into a bucket that will then overflow into the sink or drainage area. The sand that is siphoned out will settle in the bottom of the bucket and you can just put it back into the tank.