Tips On How To Clean Aquarium Sand

One of the important tasks when it comes to maintaining a nice fish tank and keeping pet fish alive is to clean the aquarium sand, which gets mixed with different kinds of waste. Many tend to think that sand is a bigger hassle to clean than gravel because it’s really fine, but cleaning or maintaining it is actually not much different from how aquarium gravel is cleaned. In fact, it’s sometimes an even easier job to complete. Also, you’ll be using the same tools (a big bucket, gravel vacuum, a stirring stick) for the job, so the process of cleaning aquarium sand is truly similar to cleaning aquarium gravel.

To help you do this task like a pro, here are the best tips on how to clean aquarium sand.

1. After siphoning water into the bucket using the gravel vacuum, place the vacuum over the bottom of the tank and carefully move it around until you find the right height wherein waste is sucked in and sand remains.

2. Don’t place the vacuum deep into the sand because sand keeps wastes on the surface anyway. Just hover above the surface.

3. To do a much thorough job of vacuuming dirt from the sand, turn over sand after the first run and vacuum again. If you do this, the aquarium sand will look completely new.

4. With the stirring stick (or just your fingers), move sand around the aquarium to prevent it from developing anaerobic conditions wherein decaying matter (fish waste and food) can get trapped. Trapped decaying matter will become a black layer that releases toxic gasses in the water, which can kill your fish. So, before putting the fish back in the tank, as well as the other decorative components of your aquarium, give the sand several swirls with the stick.

5. Optional: Dry sand under the sun. The blast of heat and light from the sun is believed to kill bacteria — it may help in keeping aquarium sand in good condition; however, it’s not really that necessary. But if you have time to spare and the sun is shining brightly, it wouldn’t hurt to add this step to the process.

6. Changing water and sand cleaning should be done at least twice a month. With this frequency, you can make the job so much easier to accomplish because there’ll be fewer wastes to get rid of every time.