Sand Cleaning Problems
- Thread starter DartGuy
- Start date
I'm certainly no expert on this, but if it has to go uphill, probably. There's no way to run it that far and have it go downhill the entire time. Fighting gravity would probably slow it down. Try getting a 5 gallon bucket, which they sell in the painting section at walmart for a few dollars, and just go straight from tank to bucket. It's pretty easy.
Well thats a tough one...but its not necessarily bad to vacuum off the top layer once in a while...detritus layer getting pulled out.
I am curious though.. In FW is it bad to stir sand up like that? It is for salt world cause of the organisms in the sand. You dont want to disturb them ..
I never vacuum out the sand only the top layer if I have a detritus build up...not really bad idea to siphon out some of the top layer if you see algae growth starting.
putting more sand in isn't that bad like other suggested...
The way I do it is putting the sand in a bucket...let the hose loose...no nozzle...as it overflows..stir with your hand slowly...till the dust cloud is no longer present ....
put in hefty bag (cause hefty are tough!) and lower into tank...rip a hole and let it poor over on the bottom with low distance from bag to bottom...
that will lower the impact of a dust storm clogging up filtration pads.
I am curious though.. In FW is it bad to stir sand up like that? It is for salt world cause of the organisms in the sand. You dont want to disturb them ..
I never vacuum out the sand only the top layer if I have a detritus build up...not really bad idea to siphon out some of the top layer if you see algae growth starting.
putting more sand in isn't that bad like other suggested...
The way I do it is putting the sand in a bucket...let the hose loose...no nozzle...as it overflows..stir with your hand slowly...till the dust cloud is no longer present ....
put in hefty bag (cause hefty are tough!) and lower into tank...rip a hole and let it poor over on the bottom with low distance from bag to bottom...
that will lower the impact of a dust storm clogging up filtration pads.
Try using a 1/2" vinyl tube and using 5 gallon buckets.... never had a problem sucking anything out... only problem i had was having my sand sifting snails get caught up in my siphoning...(ugh)
Best trick is hillbilly, you ready for this.
I got a 26g sand tank, beautiful white sand.
I take a chopstick or a solid wood ruler no metal or paint on it and rubber band that to my vacuum end.. you stir the sand while only getting the crap off the top. I did mine yesterday half butted so its not spotless but I got atleast 85% of the crud out.
I add sand by tupperware, do the rinse then while I am doing a PWC and the water level is down I then ad the sand but lowering the tupperware to the top of the sand and slowly tilting it till the sand pours out. Then after anything/everything settles( less then 30 seconds) I move it around with a hair pick to give it a combed look. It looks nice till the kuhlis figure out what I did and use the comb rows as drag strips.
Also if there is any crap left-over, I take a brine shrimp net to it and sift it that way, the weight of the wet sand is enough to pull it thru with a little jigging help( jig= up and down in fish world) I get the crap but not the sand, the holes are big enough to let the fine sand thru yet small enough to trap the debris( kinda like how gore-tex works but different in our case)
I find solutions to problems, I improvise and make things simpler as my wife( not a sexist comment) is lacking alot of these skills, im lucky she knows how to pump gas. Im not being mean to her or women she just doesnt understand this stuff yet she can make ugly girls hot in no time.
It just takes patience. I got white sand because I like the clean look and like the challenge of keeping it clean.
I got a 26g sand tank, beautiful white sand.
I take a chopstick or a solid wood ruler no metal or paint on it and rubber band that to my vacuum end.. you stir the sand while only getting the crap off the top. I did mine yesterday half butted so its not spotless but I got atleast 85% of the crud out.
I add sand by tupperware, do the rinse then while I am doing a PWC and the water level is down I then ad the sand but lowering the tupperware to the top of the sand and slowly tilting it till the sand pours out. Then after anything/everything settles( less then 30 seconds) I move it around with a hair pick to give it a combed look. It looks nice till the kuhlis figure out what I did and use the comb rows as drag strips.
Also if there is any crap left-over, I take a brine shrimp net to it and sift it that way, the weight of the wet sand is enough to pull it thru with a little jigging help( jig= up and down in fish world) I get the crap but not the sand, the holes are big enough to let the fine sand thru yet small enough to trap the debris( kinda like how gore-tex works but different in our case)
I find solutions to problems, I improvise and make things simpler as my wife( not a sexist comment) is lacking alot of these skills, im lucky she knows how to pump gas. Im not being mean to her or women she just doesnt understand this stuff yet she can make ugly girls hot in no time.
It just takes patience. I got white sand because I like the clean look and like the challenge of keeping it clean.
