Aquaria are beautiful when they’re clean, but they require periodic cleaning and upkeep to remain so. A common first-time aquarium decorating is sand or gravel, which you can find at any home improvement store. Sand, gravel, silt, stones, and boulders are all used by fish to obtain food in their natural habitat, and many species have evolved to sift through sand to find it. Even with a good cleaning, it will become soiled rapidly.
After syphoning water into the bucket with the gravel vacuum, gently position the vacuum over the bottom of the tank and move it about until you reach the proper height at which trash is sucked in and sand stays.
- Avoid burying the vacuum too far in the sand because sand tends to trap wastes on the surface. Simply hover a few inches above the water’s edge.
- When vacuuming dirt from sand, turn the sand over after the first pass and vacuum again. This will provide a more thorough cleaning operation. It is possible that the aquarium sand will appear radically different once you have completed this procedure.
- Using the stirring stick, move sand around the aquarium to prevent it from creating anaerobic conditions, which can lead to decomposing stuff becoming trapped. Waste material that has been trapped in a black layer will degrade and release hazardous vapors into the water, perhaps killing your fish.
- Dry sand under the sun is an option. The sun’s rays are considered to kill bacteria, which may be beneficial in keeping aquarium sand in good condition; nevertheless, it is not absolutely necessary.
- Water should be changed and the sand cleaned at least twice a month, if not more frequently.
- Because there will be fewer wastes to dispose of each time, you may make the process much easier to complete if you do it on a regular basis.
Without a Siphon, Here’s How to Clean Aquarium Sand
If you do not have access to a syphon, there is a way that you can use in lieu of it as well. By manually stirring the sand, you can encourage the dirt to be washed down the drain. In order to do this, you can purchase specialized instruments or simply run your fingers over the sand.
With this strategy, the majority of the work will be done by your filter. Your filter will be responsible for removing any dirt that is raised into the water. In other words, if your filter isn’t powerful enough for your tank size, you might be better off going with a different approach.
Method of garden hose
- Place 1/3 of the substrate in a bucket and transport it outside, where you will run a garden hose into the substrate until it reaches the bottom of the bucket.
- To begin, open the faucet and adjust the flow such that the water from the hose agitates the substrate and overflows out of the bucket by itself.
- When the water begins to clear, adjust the hose’s position within the sand and repeat the process until the sand is thoroughly cleaned.
- Drain the water as thoroughly as possible without dumping the substrate down the drain, and then transfer the substrate to a new aquarium that has been completely decontaminated.
- Please allow 24 hours for the substrate to dry before adding any water to the aquarium, or use a water conditioner to avoid the possibility of chlorine contamination from your tap water.
It is necessary to clean the tank’s interior
- • Wipe the inside of the tank’s sidewalls with a lint-free cloth or an algae scrubber to ensure that all algae is removed from the tank.
- Avoid scrubbing too hard because it is easy to create scratch marks on the surface if you don’t apply continuous pressure.
Accumulate Sand in the Aquarium
The aquarium sand can be raked through using your fingers. As a result, the pollutants in the sand that are hidden at lower levels will rise to the surface.Gentle push the sand from the bottom of the pile to the top of the pile Proceed through the tank until all of the sand has been flipped over Inevitably, pollutants and debris will accumulate on the water’s surface as a result of the process of deposition.
If you are uncomfortable scraping up the sand with your fingers, a spatula can be used instead. A wide variety of aquarium spatulas, including those with extra-long handles, are readily accessible.To spin the sand in your aquarium, you can use this device. It will also be easy to level out uneven sand on the surface using a spatula, which is another advantage of using one.A simple three-step procedure is provided below for your reference.
- Stir the sand with your hands
The first thing you’ll want to do is agitate your sand substrate with your hands or a net.For a “lovely” cloud, mix the substrate all the way down to the bottom.
- Allow your tank to settle for five to ten minutes after that
Typically, any dirt that does not pass through the filter and settles on top of the sand will be visible.
2. Sift The Sand Surface Clean of Dirt and Debris
Since the dirt and debris on top of the sand is all that has to be vacuumed up, take an upright syphon with a large barrel, such as a gravel vacuum, start it, and then slowly and carefully go over top of the sand, collecting all of the debris that has accumulated on top of the sand.If you get too close to the sand, your vacuum will pick up the sand substrate and pull it out of the tank with it, so avoid getting too close.
3. Clean the filter
Another thing you should do once you have finished vacuuming the sand is to give your filter a short cleaning because it will have picked up a significant quantity of debris from the water when you stirred the sand.
