Sand in Freshwater Aquarium

[Rbishop]

You could also drain the tank so the water is only an inch or so above the sand...let settle overnight......then an extremely slow re-fill minimizing any disturbance and follow that with a siphon of the substrate surface.

 

[Jspigs]

For future reference: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cleaning_sand.php

 

[silentcircuit]

You could also drain the tank so the water is only an inch or so above the sand...let settle overnight......then an extremely slow re-fill minimizing any disturbance and follow that with a siphon of the substrate surface.

Yep, put a dinner plate or something in there before you re-fill to avoid stirring up stuff as much as possible.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

Yep, put a dinner plate or something in there before you re-fill to avoid stirring up stuff as much as possible.

i do this every time i water change my 20 long, since the tank is so shallow and i'm not patient enough to pour the water in slowly/over decor, etc. lol.