White Sand

[nabilbb]

How can you keep a white sand in an aquarium clean since we can't vacuum it?

[Larry Bugg]

Why can't you vacuum it?

[nabilbb]

I am guessing it is sand and it will be vacuumed away to the drain

[moon_knight1971]

Sand comes in several sizes. Very fine sand, #0, will go into your syphon and some of #1 will too. I use #2 and other than some some traces of broken smaller pieces it essential stays in the tank yet is not as corse or large as your standard aquarium gravel.

Joey!

[Larry Bugg]

When using a standard vacuum like this http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/siphon-vaccum.htm, I can skim over the top of the sand and barely disturb it while getting anything on the surface. When I want to really clean the sand I can actually put the tube into the sand. It will lift the sand up about 1" to 2" into the tube but there isn't enough suction to actually pull the sand all the way through the sand. You can clean as much or as little as you need.

[jcsdad]

i put a hose in the bottom of a bucket, let the water flow over the edge into the drain. most of the sand that gets in the vacuum will stay in the bottom of the bucket. hope this works for you

[DonMD]

I often vacuum my pool filter sand, and it will rise 6 inches up the tube. Then I tilt the tube to a 45 degree angle, and the sand falls back down. It cleans the sand very well, but even doing this on a regular basis won't keep it from getting darker with time. When it gets too dark, I'll change it out.

[discuspaul]

Don is right on. #20-30 grade quartz-based silica PFS is quite dense and will not get siphoned out with vacuuming at wcs. Nor will it free-float into the water column when well disturbed, so will not get into filter and clog up impeller assemblies.
Turn up the open areas of the sand with each wc and stir it up well to maintain relative fresh-looking conditions.
And as it dirties up over a few months, simply remove 10% to 20% of the top layer (with straight siphon hosing), and replace that with new sand - will look just like new for another few months.