cleaning sand?!?

Q&A about aquarium maintenance

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jawbones
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 4:00 pm

cleaning sand?!?

Post by jawbones »

Hi,

I have a 30 gallon mbuna community aquarium, and am somewhat new to the cichlid keeping hobby. One problem I've been unable to solve is the fact that these fish are quite....productive, and their waste accumulates so quickly on the sand bed. The filtration (one aquaclear 200, one penguin 170) doesn't pick it up. I've tried aiming a powerhead at the sand to stir things up and into the filter, but this just results in a big gap in the sand on the bottom and more concentrated areas of waste. Also, I find it impossible to "vacuum" the poop up. The siphon picks up the sand more easily, and tends to just drop the waste! Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Pam Chin
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Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Jawbones,

First off it sounds like maybe you are feeding your fish too much. I know they are great beggars, but they don't need more then they will eat in two minutes, once or twice a day. If any of the food makes it to the bottom of the tank, then you are feeding too much.

I don't like sand for the very reasons you have stated, however, it really looks good when it is clean. It sounds like you need to practice a little harder with the gravel vac, to be able to pick it up and leave the sand behind. I can only tell you that it is all in the wrist, and the way you rotate it over the sand.

If cutting back on the food, and getting better with the gravel vac don't help you get ahead of this, then you probably need to look at your filter options and consider adding one with more capacity.
Cichlid Power!
Pam

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http://www.cichlidae.com
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