SAND

S

sabrina

Guest
Hi, everyone I already showed some pictures of my aquarium and everybody reacted on my gravel. I'm now going to install a new aquarium and i'm still strugeling with sand/gravel problem. I like a lot my blue gravel and meanwhile (already 5 months) my Axies are well used to it. But I have one question concerning the sand, how do you clean your aquarium with the sand - you can not really take a vacumcleaner like it's easy to work with, with gravel. Sorry maybe stupid question but want to be sure to do the right thing for the wellness of my little ones.

Thanks for the help
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I use a turkey baster to put frozen food on a plate at night in the morning use it to suck up whats left and any poo. It takes some time to learn how to do it just right bit works good for me.
 
you can take the gravel vacuum to clean it, you just have to hover it a bit. takes time to get used to. you can also get shrimp, they like to eat what ever is on it.turkey baster is great for removing large peices of waste, like leftover food and axie poop.
 
Yes use the turkey baster for spot cleaning daily and can still use your gravel cleaner weekly, and if you do suck some of the sand up just give it a gentle shake and it will come down! We occasionally run the siphon thru the sand, giving it a wee shake, and make sure no food or waste bits are embedded in it

You'll probably also find once your axie is on the sand you may find coloured gravel appearing as they poo it out.

(Message edited by kapo on October 19, 2006)
 
ho! This information's very useful for me as well! I'm considering to use sand since I think blank floor's too smooth for axie to walk on it!
 
You could also use large pieces of slate or stone/rock instead of sand. As well as sand we use several large flat stones in our tanks they're about 6-7inches long x 3.5 inch wide (the biggest one anyway).

(Message edited by kapo on October 19, 2006)
 
Heres what i notice with my sand ALL debris accumulate on the top of it and its visably noticable.

You can vaccume it up with out siphoning the entire sand with it, i just use the method of putting my finger on the end of the tube as a siphon and i dont really suck up that much sand.

I have black Tahitian moon sand.
 
Most waste will accumulate on sand, but when our axies do a mad rush round the tank if they get spooked or snuffle round at night they will bury anything in their path (so occasionally regurg. waste/poo gets buried esp. beneath the sand in their caves. Also, the odd live earthworm that manages to get away digs itself into the sand
 
I have playground sand in my tank. My little guys (3 in. not sure how old..) suck it in now and then but just spit it back out.
I feed them on a piece of stone that has no sand to help them to not accidently swallow any with food.Do you think it will hurt them if they swallow a little?
 
You may feed them on the stone, but remember if they are hungry *or hunt mode* at night when we sleep then they will snuffle round the sand and invariably swallow some, but at least it is small enuf to pass thru easily unlike gravel/stones which can take months or cause blockage problems such as constipation and/or prolapse.

And the sand does come out both ways, if you ever put them in the fridge usually the first day or so they throw up and poo out anything left in their stomach/intestines; so you'd see little sandy bits.
 
Thanks for all the infomation. I will install my new aquarium next week. Will post than some pictures.
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