When setting up my new tank, I thought black sand would be cool. Well it is, but it makes several of my fish lose their color. Is there an easy way to remove sand? I have a lot of it...
What is the easiest way to remove sand from an aquarium?
- Thread starter Carefree_Dude
- Start date
Not really, just take the time with a fine net. Use a hose to remove the rest, but you won't get it all. I'd be surprised if your fish lost color from black sand, everything I've seen including my green terror, black sand makes color much more intense
what i always did but it took a long time, I would use the syphon tube take off the vacuum part of the tubing and then use just the straight tube and use it like you would normally use it on gravel. It takes a while but you clean out alot of the sand and usually not too much water.
Or i just took my fish out into another tank and drained completely and used a scooper.
Or i just took my fish out into another tank and drained completely and used a scooper.
the best way i have found to remove sand is a dust pan, preferably one with a rubber lip. i can clean out 50-60 pounds of sand in 10-15 minutes. ive tried all the other ways, net, cup, siphon etc. this works the best. whatever little bit you cant get with the dust pan, the siphon will finish.
You could use a shop vac. You'd definitely want to remove the fish, because it'd very likely remove all the water before you got rid of the sand. Plus you wouldn't want to suck one up.
Alright, dust pan sounds good. I got like 200 lbs of this Tahitian moon sand in there. As for color, what it does is make my fish look extremely dark. My green severum and jade goby look black. same for my ebjd, blue fin kendego and a few other fish. My red severums, gold severum and blood parrots look great though.
I just use a siphon w/o the bell to suck it out. If you use buckets it takes a while since you have to go drain the water. If you use a python you can simply put a large bowl under the exit in the sink and the sand will sit on the bottom of the bowl while the water overflows over the sides of the bowl and down the drain.
I just bare bottomed over 100lb of sand frmo my 125g a few weeks ago like this np with all the fish in the tank.
I just bare bottomed over 100lb of sand frmo my 125g a few weeks ago like this np with all the fish in the tank.
When I removed sand from my 55 gallon I hooked up my python to the utility sink and then put an old pillow case around the python end to catch the sand but allow the water to drain. After a section I woudl dump the sand into a bucket then resume. When done getting it out from the tank I set the sand out to dry in the buckets and would shift it from one bucket to another to allow the bottom of the bucket to dry as well...