How do i keep my substrate clean?

[Cunningham]

Hey everyone I was just wondering how does everyone keep their substrate so nice and clean? Mine used to be clean because I had a orange spot sleeper goby and he would sift the sand and keep it really clean but he got out of my tank and died and I've got another one but he's super small and I thought he died up until last night cuz I finally seen him again but all he does is hide and he hasn't cleaned anything.... I got like lots of different kinds of snails and hermit crabs but is there something else that will really focus on the substrate? Maybe an urchin or something? Any suggestions will help greatly
Thanks
Dan

 

[hdultra]

Watch this video, show's you how.

That is one way.

It is reccomended by most members here to rinse out your filter intead of replacing them. Unless they are to tore up to use. Rinse them in the water you took out of the tank, not tap water. Good Luck

 

[Gti_Leo]

yep i definatly like the second one better shes cute

 

[hdultra]

yep i definatly like the second one better shes cute

I could'nt agree more. lol

 

[akkitten]

So how would you pull out plants to clean if you have a live planted tank?

 

[hdultra]

So how would you pull out plants to clean if you have a live planted tank?

If it were me I'd go around them. Or just hit the very surface with out touching the base of the plant.

 

[Gti_Leo]

if your substate is sand then vacumming it isn't really an option, you'd suck it all in the bucket with the water. plus most poo and food don't since bellow the surface of the sand so you can place the vac a few inches above the sance and just swirl it around to get all the particals floating and suck all the crap up while its off the sand

 

[Cunningham]

Watch this video, show's you how.

That is one way.

It is reccomended by most members here to rinse out your filter intead of replacing them. Unless they are to tore up to use. Rinse them in the water you took out of the tank, not tap water. Good Luck

This is for freshwater I got a saltwater tank I thought I posted this in saltwater but ya it's definetly a marine aquarium here's what I got

80 gallon tank
110 aquaclear trickle filter With Chemi pure elite and carbon and polishing sponge
Seaclone protein skimmer
2 koralia power heAds
No sump but I'm currently looking for one
About 70 - 80 lbs of live rock
3 - 4 inches of crushed coral substrate (I know i should have live sand but I didn't get it when I started 2 years ago and I'm definetly not switching now)
T5 lighting for the coral and fish
I also got an anename and a hammer head coral and two different rocks full of polyps and a rock with some red mushrooms and I got a Tridacna Crocea clam
Then I got a yellow tail cleaner wrasse, sixline wrasse, flame and bi colour angelfish, and a yellow tail chromis
And last but not least two perfume clown fish for the anename
I have about 150 - 200 different snails
Coral banded shrimp
And I just got a orange spot sleeper goby but he's not sifting like my last one did and it's like he 6th one I've had cuz they kept jumping out but it's sealed now I dunno this one is lazy I barely ever see him except when I feed them.

I've bin told im not supposed to disturb the substrate very much when I clean it just do the top layer but it just gets really dirty again with the green slimy stuff
I do a weekly 10% ro/di water change

But I look at pics and everyone bottom is spotless and mine used to look like that but that was thanks to the goby but like I said the one I got now is lazy so is there anything else I can get to help clean?

 

[hdultra]

You still clean gravel the same way. There is no easy way IMO. You have to do it on a regular basis, or it will build up and be nasty. Also all the other problems that come if you don't keep your aquarium clean.

I can't really think of anything else, Maybe some type of sludge destroyer.

Maybe some of the salt water guy's have some tricks up their sleeves.

But IMO there really is no other way. Every time you do a water change I would be cleaning that substrate And you should be probally be doing 30% instead of 10%.

This is how clean substrate is when you take the time to vacume it. And who say's you can't vacume sand. I do it all the time. At least when I do PWC's.

So when you do it send us Before and After Pics.
Good Luck

 

[hdultra]

Check this link out:

Saltwater Aquarium - Clean and Maintain a Saltwater Aquarium Video

 

[Gti_Leo]

lol don't you have a problem with your sand getting sucked up, i do. if you swirl the vaccum around above the sand, you will calls all the food and poop to float around, i just suck it up when it leaves the sand

 

[hdultra]

lol don't you have a problem with your sand getting sucked up, i do. if you swirl the vaccum around above the sand, you will calls all the food and poop to float around, i just suck it up when it leaves the sand

Yes I do loose sand in the process, That's why I keep extra on the shelves.
I clean the sand often with every water change. And yes I mainly stay above the sand just to get what my filters did'nt.



Yes your exactly right. Good Point.

 

[Cunningham]

I was told that I shouldn't stir the substrate up too much in my saltwater tank cuz it releases all the good bio filtration things and it takes time to build that up and I'm only supposed to clean the top inch or so.

I clean the substrate as best I can every week and also I've bin told to do 10% weekly or if I can't do that then do 20% every second week.

 

[hdultra]

But if you want the ugly to be gone, then gravel cleaning is the only way. You don't have to do it all at one time. You could do sections at a time.
And eventually you have it the way you want it.

 

[mr_X]

I was told that I shouldn't stir the substrate up too much in my saltwater tank cuz it releases all the good bio filtration things and it takes time to build that up and I'm only supposed to clean the top inch or so.

I clean the substrate as best I can every week and also I've bin told to do 10% weekly or if I can't do that then do 20% every second week.

that's not true. you can't vacuum up beneficial bacteria. you should be vacuuming that substrate with water changes. you are not going to get any DSB benefits because the grains are too large, so all you have is surface area there. if you see nitrate problems, the CC is the source.
this is why people have told you to change out the CC for sand. it holds a lot of detritus and needs regular maintenance.

 

[Cunningham]

Here's the before I cleaned the substrate pics

 

[Cunningham]

Here's my after pics of my substrate.
Still not as clean as I'd like it but hopefully the goby in there starts sifting soon
If I got an urchin would that be any good? Cuz I noticed everything sticks to them.

 

[melosu58]

Nice rockwork BTW. The green algea all over the substrate shows you that the CC is holding alot of trash and excessive nutrients. If you could do it then changing over to sand would be your best bet. If not then manually pulling up the algea by hand will be needed. Weekly PWC`s and vacuuming will be needed. It`s not that hard to change over to sand. If you are interested let us know and we will let you know how.

 

[melosu58]

Your last pic was not up before I posted. It looks 100% better. Just hand weed the rest.

 

[hdultra]

Wow man that looks great, Good Job