Ok, so a few weeks ago when it was still warm I had taken a fairly large bag of playground sand (like $5 at Home Depot, talk about cheap!) and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I spent about 1/2 an hour swishing water through it, swirling the sand and really driving water into it, until the water was really coming out clear. Then due to lack of motivation, satisfaction with the tank the way it was and a hurt foot I put the covered 5 gallon bucket in the basement until this weekend.
I turned the filter off, since it has already made a racket once before once sand got sucked up into it. I brought the bucket upstairs and used a coffee cup to dump the sand in. The fish didn't seem to mind it, but they hated it that I had removed all the decorations to one end of the tank. When I was finished the water was somewhat cloudy but was clearing quickly. Once all the plants were replanted and the heater dusted off I refilled the water, using a bowl on the bottom to intercept the stream of water. Voila! Turned the filter back on and within 1/2 an hour it was crystal clear again.
I just checked my water parameters and I am 0
ppm for Ammonia and Nitrite, and down to 10
ppm for Nitrate (must be all those plants!). pH is still at 8.0.
The sand does not get all the bits of food in it that I expected, nor does the poop seem to collect. It is going somewhere, I know, but I know not where! When I did my first vacuum I turned off the filter and simply put the vac close to the sand and the water movement sucked the dead leaves up.
All in all I am pretty happy with it!
