Question: Sand in tank driving me insane PLEASE HELP

Just over a month ago I change my axolotl tank to a bigger one I used the same substrate (sand) that was in my other tank. My sand want stop clumping together, it ain't all over the sand just in places. When the sand it disturbed it creates a right mess in my water. I don't no how to fix the problem and it's driving me crazy, I have tired vacuuming it up but it's impossible ! Why does my sand do this it never it my other tank ? It can't be healthy for my axolotl having the big clumps of sand floating around in the water

Please help

Maybe you should get yourself a new bag of sand and replace the old sand? If you can't get the sand that's in your tank now to cooperate, it would probably be better just to start fresh.

PatchworkClocks said:

Maybe you should get yourself a new bag of sand and replace the old sand? If you can't get the sand that's in your tank now to cooperate, it would probably be better just to start fresh.

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Replacing my sand is the last thing I want to do =[ this sand took weeks to settle and spent hours cleaning it. I would have no where to put axoltol why I waited

Sand doesn't really 'clump together' of it's own accord, it's possible that the sand might have clay in it. Cleaning the sand throroughly before putting it into the tank can remove all of the clay. I use a showerhead on full power and swish some of the sand around in the bucket, tipping any dirty water out and repeating this until the water is near enough running clear out of the bucket. Even after this the water can look a bit 'foggy' but this settles within 24 hours.

The best option is to get a small tank to put your axolotl in temporarily (I have a square plastic one I bought from Wilkinsons for about a fiver) scoop out as much of the sand as you can and do a majority water change.

Then clean all of the sand you've scooped out as above. It can't take more than an hour overall to do this depending on the size of your tank and your little one should be fine for that amount of time sitting in the temp tank!

I had this happen with a certain type of sand I used in my first tank, I just skimmed the top a couple times a day for a few days and took the floating sand out, it cleared up nicely. In my second tank I used different sand and anytime it's disrupted the water is cloudy for hours, my third tank, yet another bag of sand settled quite quickly, so I really think it's just different substrates, weight etc.

Hi, i had heaps of problems with sand. I bought a couple of different types,expensive ones from aquariums and could never get them clean...I had one lot I cleaned daily for a week (swishing for 3 hrs a day isnt fun!) and in the end I got a bag of kids white playsand from my local Bunnings, which I gather is like HomeDepot in some countries. It was already double washed and was $8 for a 20kg bag. I washed it once and it was perfect. My axies have no problems with it, a little hard to clean being so fine.....but I'll only ever use that now. Wish Id tried it the first time, I would have saved a huge amount of time and $$$$

Agree with the suggestion of using kids playsand. It's fairly quick to rinse clean before you use it and tends not to have clay which will cause the clumping.

Have sand in mine but with cleaning and such its a bit thin on the ground so have bought more of same, should i take old and clean it and just add new sand or should i just remove old sand and throw it away and replace it with new ? would like to just add new too old to have more at bottom of tank . Thank you in advance.

If you remove all the old sand you'll lose some of the bacteria that contribute to the cycle. Add more sand, a little bit at a time, but don't get rid of the old stuff.

auntiejude said:

If you remove all the old sand you'll lose some of the bacteria that contribute to the cycle. Add more sand, a little bit at a time, but don't get rid of the old stuff.

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Many thanks :happy:

I honestly don't use sand at all, or river rock like some people I know. I got sick of having to clean everything thoroughly so I actually lined the bottom of my tank with slate. Cleaned and cured of contaminants first of course.