Gravel cleaner

[Dadzpants]

Hi,

Just in the process of fish less cycling and all is going well so far. Added ammonia a week ago and it's started dropping, nitrites up to 3ppm and nitrates up to 110ppm. Assume nitrates have gone up so quick because I got a filter pad from an established tank but didn't expect them to get so high so quickly.

Anyway I'll keep checking my levels and referring to the guides on this site.

Not that I intend to clean my tank yet but as I've gone for sand instead of gravel I was wondering if the usual gravel cleaning tubes are any good for sand? I thought that my sand would get sucked up but don't know how to clean it if I can't use something like a gravel cleaner.

Would appreciate some guidance on this please.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

From what I have heard just swirl the vac just above the surface to disturb the waste off of the sand. The waste doesn't work its way into sand like it does in gravel so it doesn't take much. You will probably lose a small amount sand though....

 

[librarygirl]

Yep, I have sand and use a gravel siphon. Just swirl it over the sand and the debris will come up and you can suck it up when it does. Once every few weeks I get a plastic fork and run it through the sand too just to avoid any compaction issues (where some gasses can form under the sand if it isn't disturbed regularly).

 

[Hholly]

There are tutorials on YouTube on cleaning sand too.

 

[maestromad]

I made the switch recently and you have to be careful but you can just hover the vac over the sand and with a little swirl it will pick it up.
My one tip would be to get a battery operated one as its much easier to operate!

 

[Dadzpants]

Thanks to all. I'll give it a try.