Cleaning thin sand layer

[xDestro]

In one of king of DIY recent videos he shows us how he maintains the 2000 gallon aquarium... When it came to the sand he said he just basically brushes it around and stirs it up and that prevents anything bad from building up as its so thin... Is this Tru? Meaning gravel vaccuming is basically not needed

 

[philipraposo1982]

Makes perfect sense to me. The same thing can apply to any thing layer of substrate. Just turn off the filters and while doing a water change mix it up, done.

 

[duanes]

I have used PF Sand for decades, and find it allows detritus to sit on top, as opposed to working in like what happens with the larger intersticial spaces in gravel, so much easier to get rid of.
I do vac it regularly, by just holding the vac slightly above the substrate, which easily pulls the gunk off leaving most sand behind.
I prefer to remove material that metabolizes before it has a chance to degrade inside the filters, and turn them into nitrate factories.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I'm guessing that thoroughly vacuuming a 2000 gallon tank is a pretty arduous task, and that's why he does it like that. Probably works out alright. In more "normal" sized aquariums, where it is more plausible, I think it is always best to remove the poop as duanes suggests.

 

[Jhay3513]

I have used PF Sand for decades, and find it allows detritus to sit on top, as opposed to working in like what happens with the larger intersticial spaces in gravel, so much easier to get rid of.
I do vac it regularly, by just holding the vac slightly above the substrate, which easily pulls the gunk off leaving most sand behind.
I prefer to remove material that metabolizes before it has a chance to degrade inside the filters, and turn them into nitrate factories.

How often is a good schedule to gravel vac? My Haitiensis are to the point where they are leaving visible turds in the tank. Would once a week or every two weeks disturb the B.B. Colonies in the substrate?

 

[Drstrangelove]

Unless you have an old fashioned UGF, you likely won't have a substantial BB colony in the substrate. Oxygen and food will be lower because water movement (especially downwards) will be very low especially compared to the filters or sump.

Some BB will be there of course, because the BB will eventually go where ever it can, but nothing in any amount that should be significant. And every time you vacuum, the BB will simply expand more elsewhere (like in the filters.)

 

[Jhay3513]

Unless you have an old fashioned UGF, you likely won't have a substantial BB colony in the substrate. Oxygen and food will be lower because water movement (especially downwards) will be very low especially compared to the filters or sump.

Some BB will be there of course, because the BB will eventually go where ever it can, but nothing in any amount that should be significant. And every time you vacuum, the BB will simply expand more elsewhere (like in the filters.)

Good to know that I’m not hurting anything. Is anybody using the fluval gravel vac? I was thinking about trying it out

 

[Hendre]

Good to know that I’m not hurting anything. Is anybody using the fluval gravel vac? I was thinking about trying it out

For sand I use my siphon pipe to pick up all the debris, from about an inch above it.

 

[duanes]

I try to vacuum every other day.
Especially with Haitiensus, the extra heat they need in their tanks can encourage opportunistic and/or pathogenic bacteria to proliferate (the opportunists type that causes bloat) and... any kind of detritus laying around for any length of time, creates substrate where bacteria like columnaris can get a foothold.
Since with sand, the debris basically sits in plain view its only a 5 minute job to suck it up, and anytime you can remove old water is a good thing.
I try to place my influent current in a way to push the detritus to a very visible front corner, which makes it even easier to siphon the accumulation up.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I stopped using sand years ago for a few reasons with cleaning being one. However I had a method that works on sand as well as gravel which is to siphon the sand out during a water change. I would not then be concerned with trying to "hover" the siphon intake over the sand, just go ahead and siphon the sand and water into a bucket or few.
I would have extra clean sand or gravel ready to put back into the tank.
The dirty sand/gravel was cleaned at a later time and usually when enough had accumulated to make the job worth the time. That way it would eventually be ready to put back into a tank and my guess being it was much cleaner.