HOW do you vaccum your tanK???

[sophie68]

Hi everybody,:):):)
This might seem like a weird question...!!!! I happen to have a 2" layer of quartz sand at the bottom of my 80 gallon. Everybody in the tank seems to like it. But it does make cleaning and especially vaccuming the dirty bits a bit more difficult. I don't have plants so I need to vaccum and change my water very regularly.
I can remove the water with a powerhead but that does not get rid of the "dirty bits" left by fish and plecos etc... I used to use a 75' long Python but my back is not doing too well so I am looking for something easier. I tried connecting the Python's tube to the powerhead but then the powerhead would not work anymore. I believe because of the air in the system. I am just wondering: how do you all empty your tanks????? Whether you have sand or not does not make such a big difference. There will always be stuff remaining at the bottom that needs to come out, so my question is: how do get it out?????
Very curious!!!!!!!!
Thanks everyone for the feedback!!!!!! My back and my fish thank you!!!

Sophie

PS: I am not looking for an automated WC system here.;)

[sophie68]

Anybody??????

[gotfish?]

do you change water on a daily basis? if so, debris usually would just stay on top of sand unless you have a fish that always "lanscape" the tank around.

try to place the mouth of the hose close enough for it to suck the debris in but not too close to suck in sand. you will usually get sand in unless your really really careful, you can place a bucket on the other side of the hose where the old aquarium water comes out, let it over fill and the sand usually stays below the bucket and you can just place it back in the tank right after.

you will still have to mix the sand around atleast every couple of weeks, so patches of air trap in between wont create bacteria that can be harmful to your fish. do this after siphoning the top part of the sand first. you will notice that when the sand "calms down" after mixing it around that new debris tht where probably got trap in between are now on top again, you just have to siphon them out again. hope you understand what i said since im REALLY tired and i can barely see the screen lol:D good luck

[sophie68]

Thanks for your input Benedict. Not sure I understood everything 100% but about 99%!!!!

Sophie