Can someone tell me how they clean a sand tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Like everyone else said, sand is not hard to maintain.. and it looks so much better than gravel... and the bottom dwellers really do love it..

For the black sand, I use Caribsea Super Naturals Tahitian Moon sand.. it's soft.. feels like mud when wet and it looks soo good in a tank.. it comes in 20lbs bags as far as I know and normally goes for about $20 a bag.. you'd have to do a little research to find out what lfs sells this stuff...

This is what it looks like..it also has little gold pieces in it that make it look even better...
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Grunt that 72longx18widex27high.. And check you p.ms -.- lol... Yes fishmamma thats how i want mine, i like your tank a lot :).. Its going to take a lot of those 20lb bags to fill my 150 huh ?
 
305phins;5051319; said:
like cleaning it when you first buy it right ? lol

Yes, it took me an hour and a half to rinse 40lbs.. and the water still didn't run completly clear.. but in about 24hrs or so it cleared up nicely...
 
Yea the footprint is too small for aros. You want a tank where a full grown aro can turn comfortably.

This is how I clean my sand. First I'll siphon all the junk off the top of the sand, do that ever couple of days. Once a week I'll siphon all the sand and mix it up. It's pretty easy, just start in one corner, stick the siphon completely in the sand let it suck up some sand then knot the tubing and the sand will drop back down. Then just do the rest of the tank. Pretty effective system that works for me. Also I would suggest a long siphon having a tank that tall.

Oh and for my 150 with the same dimensions as yours I used about 125lbs. of sand, that's how much I would suggest.
 
305phins;5051165; said:
Nice info guys. Idk what kind of sand i should get i want it black though any suggestions. BTW 72x18x27 isn't a good footprint for a arow? how come to thin ?

when u consider having any aro you should consider the length they grow to and the fact that you will want a greater width than that so the fish can comfortably turn. its not about stuffing whatever fish you want in the tank you have. its about fitting the correct fish to the tank and to your taste so that it can thrive and be happy, also when fish get crammed into small tanks they always look like cr*p. torn fins, broozed faces, and missing scales. thats not the fish i want to admire...
 
I vacuum the top of the sand and move decorations around to suck up poo and debris, but.. I introduced malaysian trumpet snails to all my sand tanks.
They sift the sand, they eat some garbage, etc. If they get sucked up while I clean, oh well.
Saves me the trouble of hand stirring the 2" tahitian moon bed when the fish stop digging.
Before the snails I'd get clouds of brown gunk bif I dug anywhere. Now, it's mostly just an insignificant cloud from the whole bed combined. I like these snails :)
I still stir it up every few siphons, never see anything like I did before I added the snails.
 
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