Siphoning Sand?

[DarkSephiroth]

I heard people siphoning their sand bed alot but my question is how do you do it? Do you guys siphon it out of the tank into a bucket and then put it back in when its clean? or is there an easier way to do it?

[robrich342]

Do you have sand critters ? If not get some. I would not touch more than the top 1/2 inch of sand to really just turn it over . I would not siphon any out. You will take out a tiny bit in the process but not much

[Toddrtrex]

I "gravel vac" the sandbeds in each of my tanks with each water change -- they are all shallow sandbeds.

I use this for it -- I take off the wide/rectangle attachment. With some practice very little - if any sand gets taken out. I think for my next water change I will video tape it to show it.

[jayk198030]

I Siphon my DT sand bed. I put the sand back in the tank after i rinse it off with clean water than i let it dry out for a couple of days and than i put the sand back in. I do not touch my RDSB.

[DarkSephiroth]

Cool, thanks for the reply. My sand has been in there for about 2 years. I think its time to completely take it out and clean it

[ibefishy]

Originally Posted by jayk198030

I Siphon my DT sand bed. I put the sand back in the tank after i rinse it off with clean water than i let it dry out for a couple of days and than i put the sand back in.

Thats what I do but I generally save sand from a few water changes before I rinse it with water and then boil it in for 10 minutes or so then let it cool one final rinse and then I put it back in. Havent had any problems yet.

When I had my fw tank I had a horrible snail epidemic and got tired of dealing with it so I took the tank down for two years. When I decided to set it back up I used the same lava rock I stored away 2 years prior but everything else was new. The filter. the sand, the plants, but within a few weeks those snails started reappearing. Some eggs must have survived and lay dormant until they are in water. I learned from this if anything survives that long out of its natural environment I probably dont want it in the tank, thats why I boil the sand.