Vaccum

[Fin35]

I have sand substrate, how often do you guys vacuum? I’ve been doing it every week but it would be nice to just change the water sometimes. Also, how often do I need to mess with the sand to prevent gas buildup? When I vacuum I stick the hose in the sand and stop it before it sucks up sand to prevent the buildup in areas I don’t have plants. Sand is about 2-3 inches deep.

Thanks

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Fin...

Vacuuming isn't necessary. If you remove and replace half the tank water weekly, you'll remove everything that has dissolved in the water. If you want to vacuum, then wave the siphon back and forth just above the sand to clean the organic material from the bottom. You can also get some bottom feeders. Corydoras will forage around the bottom and keep the sand aerated. Goldfish will also do the job.

B

 

[earhtmother]

If your worried about gas pockets you could try adding Malaysian Trumpet Snails, they do a great job aerating and as long as you don't overfeed they shouldn't get out of control

 

[Flyfisher]

I ran sand as a substrate for a couple of years. I have corydoras in most tanks and MTsnalls in all tanks. I am happy to hover over the substrate picking up solids most weeks . I deep vacuumed the sand from time to time. This deep vacuuming confirmed for me the corydoras were burying the fish waste from other fish along with the MTS . This lead me to the conclusion that waste was building up . I could not see it except when deep vacuuming.
In my case I was able to move all plants because they are in terracotta pots or on wood.
Given I like to have leaf litter , snails and shrimp my answer for me was to remove the substrate and go bare bottom.

Fin35, I suggest you do water only changes as often as you like, once in a while deep vacuum. If you find a serious build up of brown when you deep vacuum. It’s a simple job to vacuum the MOST of the substrate into a bucket and rinse it until the water runs clean.
Shoveling the wet sand back into the tank can be done without removing the fish.

I am not even going to of write gas pockets in substrate. I have no evidence that they kill fish up to this point.

 

[Fin35]

I can’t add any more fish or snails, I’m already fully stocked with mystery and nerite snails and I’ve heard that the trumpet snails can get into the hundreds, not really the look I want and it’s hard to feed my current snails without feeding them as well. I also have ember tetras and a Betta in a 10 gallon. I was thinking of going with the Pygmy Cory’s but went with the tetras instead. If I upgrade to a 20 eventually I’ll totally get pygmy Cory’s , they're so cute! I think the plant roots should prevent the gas buildup and I can stir it as well. Thank! It’s good to know I don’t have to vacuum every week! I like sand because most of the waste does stay on top and I did just deep vaccum last week, so this week I’ll just do a 50 percent water change. Thanks!