cleaning sand?

[rywill]

I am thinking about using sand as my substrate when i get my 75 gallon. I was wondering how to clean it without it getting sucked up? thanks

[garfieldnfish]

I have sand only in one of my tanks and I find it harder to keep clean the gravel. I use Malaysian trumpet snails to keep it clean and just lightly vaccum over it. The MTS's bury themselves in the sand during the daytime, thereby removing toxic pockets and eat left over food that the fish miss. Horseface loaches would also be great in a sand bottom tank.

[rywill]

alright thanks for the info.....i need to find things that will be able to go in with some american cichlids

[leveldrummer]

just vaccuum it, you will suck up just tiny amounts, but just let the siphon "hover" as close to the sand as you can get it. it will suck the stuff off the top, and sand usually doesnt allow to much trash to flow down below it. i also use to blow the crud up into the water with my hand, making a waving motion BEFORE i did the water changes, then vaccum what ever was heavy enough to stay at the bottom, the water will be very cloudy for about an hour, but it gives the filter a second chance to pull that stuff out.

[fishfreaks]

Cleaning sand is alot easier then it sounds IMO. As leveldrummer said, just hover the syphon above the sand and it should suck everything up. Also you will want to stir up the sand a bit when you do a waterchange to prevent gas pockets from forming.

[Alin10123]

I dont even vacumn the sand. Everytime i change my water i just shut the filter off, stir the sand up to get the toxic bubbles out. Then once the sand settles down i turn on the filter again which will catch the little debris leftover. Then change out the filter cartridge. It's much easier to keep clean IMO than my gravel tank.