For those of you that have tanks that got fine sand in them, how do you guys maintain it? For me I got .5mm silica sand that does not easily get sucked in the syphon tube. Was wanting to mix it with alittle finer and coarser grit but, I'm concerned that I'm gonna suck the finer grit when I do "gravel" vac. I'm going to have a bunch of eartheaters in the tank and was wondering if I still gotta sift through it to rid of dead spots? ATM my tank with the .5mm I find wen I do my weekly vac I find some gas bubbles and it concerns me a lot and wonder what's causing it. The inhabitants are mostly clown loaches, SD's, n severums. Thanks for any help.
Cleaning fine sand
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i use pool filter sand. heavy sand, doesnt get sucked into my gravel vac real easily unless I jam it to the bottom of the tank for like 10 seconds, and it looks good IMO. unfortunately the trapped pockets are a fact of sand substrate (at least in my experience, I'm sure someone has mastered a way to keep it from happening) what I tend to do is do a good vac of the tank, then go back over the tank with my gravel vac without it siphoning water, and just push the vac to the bottom and release the bubbles trapped underneath. takes maybe an extra 30 seconds if youre fast.
IF you want to deal with the never ending promiscuity of the species, trumpet snails are awesome substrate diggers, and will get rid of those trapped pockets for you. be warned, they will take over a tank if you dont have a fish that controls the population haha.
I dont know anything about the earth eaters you have in the tank, but if they dig, you wont have the problem of trapped gases.
IF you want to deal with the never ending promiscuity of the species, trumpet snails are awesome substrate diggers, and will get rid of those trapped pockets for you. be warned, they will take over a tank if you dont have a fish that controls the population haha.
I dont know anything about the earth eaters you have in the tank, but if they dig, you wont have the problem of trapped gases.
Thanks for the reply. I got clowns and I think those trumpets won't last a week with them 
. Also does the depth of the sand play a role too? I'm going for about 1/2-1" deep. I'm planning on having the .5mm, some finer and alittle gravel mix for my retroculus.
. Also does the depth of the sand play a role too? I'm going for about 1/2-1" deep. I'm planning on having the .5mm, some finer and alittle gravel mix for my retroculus.Hello; A practice I have used is to have an amount of clean substrate in a bucket on hand. I would vac the dirty substrate into an empty bucket along with the water during water changes. I would then put the clean substrate back into the tank. I would then rinse the substrate removed from the tank to have it ready for the next water change. By rotating the area siphoned during water changes the tank can eventually be entirely done this way. It is like mowing grass in that by the time you make a full round, it is time to start over.
yuuuuuup good point haha those clowns wouldn't let em get buried haha.Thanks for the reply. I got clowns and I think those trumpets won't last a week with them
the depth definitely plays a role, deeper sand, more hidden anearobic(sp) pockets. Those trapped air bubbles arent a huge concern unless you allow them to sit for months at a time. at .5-1" thick, you shouldnt have any trouble keeping that from happening.
I'd be worried about the impact that would have on your BB colony, unless you are only doing like 1/10th of the tank at a time. Even then that would worry me a bit.
+1. If you want to play it safe then once a month just turn off all the filtrations and stir up the sand. After about a half hour, turn the filtrations back on.
Hello; In an established tank the beneficial bacteria (bb) are on many surfaces in the tank. There might be a small impact if the substrate vac was done at the same time as a complete cleaning/replacement of the filter system. Even then the colonies of bb would be in the remaining substrate and on the other surfaces. Also not a large percentage of the substrate would be removed at any single water change.
At any rate I did this for a number of years with no ill effects to the tank. It was something of a chore. I believe your worry is unfounded.
