Siphoning poo?

I've been having some trouble keeping my axie's tank clean. I have one axie, about 6 inches long now, in a 10 gallon with sand. He just seems to poop SO MUCH and the poop always seems to dissolve into tiny little pieces before I can suck it up with a turkey baster. I have a siphon but it seems like the poo is too heavy for the siphon to actually suck it up. I'm wondering if I should get a siphon with more vacuuming power? The poo seems to collect in his cave and it's hard to get it out without lifting up the cave and then the poo goes EVERYWHERE.

Any suggestions?

(p.s. this is the cave I have for him - he loves it :happy: )

TBH a turkey baster is the best tool for poop, even disintegrated poop. If it collects in one place it's easy to get at. But yeah, it's a pain when it scatters.

Have you tried an air or battery powered vac? An air powered one (cheap) uses bubbles to lift the water and filter out poop through a small bag, and a powered vac (expensive) sucks with an impeller. I have both, they bot do the job fine.

I bought a battery powered vacuum at dx.com that cost about 15€ I think. But I still prefer to use a turkey baster.

I have a Fluval battery vac, it's quite good for removing dirt off a sand substrate because it's gentler than siphoning and leaves the sand in place.

If you can pull the tubing off your siphon, use than. Just suck gentle on the dry end and it'll pick up everything. Sand included too so be careful.

Don't be worried about losing too much sand if you are siphoning. Better less sand then more poo. If you use aquarium tubing and siphon into a bucket, you can collect all the sand and pour out the water. The sand can then be rinsed thoroughly to remove the poo and then put back in. If the sand is cheap to replace then you can do that.

Some siphons have a grid inside to prevent the uptake of large items that will clog the tube. I ended up removing the end of my siphon and just using the tube, since un-cloging the grid was a pain in the neck.

Remember that a siphon will 'suck' harder the greater the height difference between your tank and wherever the siphon ends, so put the bucket or whatever on the floor to maximize the power. A larger hose will also suck with more power than a smaller diameter hose.

I start the siphon and then approach the poo-hiding spots in the tanks with it already running, and just sort of nudge things around with the end of the siphon hose as its running - I find that helps keep debris from going everywhere. It doesn't do a super-thorough job of cleaning out everything under the hides, but its pretty good for most days and I do a more thorough cleaning with a bigger water change once a month or so.

Thank you all for your help! I ended up pulling the tubing off of my siphon and it worked perfectly!