Fine river sand as aquarium substrate

[BFG]

The way to clean fine sand is to pour a small amount in a pail and add water. Swish (?) the mixture by swinging the pail a few times and pour away the dirty water. Repeat until the water is clear then place the clean fine sand into another container. Very, very little sand will be lost if you are careful when pouring the dirty water away. Don't add too much sand in the pail at anytime as you need more water to clean the sand that way and when you are pouring away the dirty water, the larger amount of fine sand might accidentally fall out of the pail due to the weight of the wet fine sand. Enjoy cleaning the sand!

[StanChung]

Hi Luenny,

How fine is your sand? Is it really fine?

For maintenance of Shirui sand,
You can use a 1 cm dia tube to siphon it out onto a fish net over a white tub[I use a tall white plastic paint tub so you can see!]. The idea is that it will trap aquasoil or other debris or shrimp but let then fine sand thru. So it's up to you to determine the netting hole size to achieve this.

You can then recycle your fine sand after pouring away the water.[watering the plants]

[luenny]

Hi all,
Thanks for the advise. Since my sand is already in the tank, I've decided to let the filter do the cleaning for me by sucking in whatever things that is too fine to stay at the bottom. It's been working - not too good for the filter I think - and cleaning the filter once a week has help to achieve clearer water. Nowadays, I can stir up the sand and it won't turn the water brown. Seems the the filter is sucking in the finer particles that's causing the water to turn murky. I even try pouring water into the tank (gently as with all planted tanks) and it didn't turn murky. Hooray!! I think another week or 2 and another 1 or 2 times cleaning the canister should do the job. But probably takes a much longer time to mature since the canister media is always exposed to tap water.

For maintenenace, I will try Stan's way - well at least when I'm not too lazy to do it. Otherwise, I think may just let the corys stir up the debris a bit and hopefully they get sucked into the filter. Hahaha! (This is a lazy man talking).

- Luenny

[koolman]

Hi Luenny

Just an gentle reminder,
Do not often wash your filter and cannister.
You will wash away those good bb that are in your filter.


Thanks and regards

Koolman

[luenny]

Hi Luenny

Just an gentle reminder,
Do not often wash your filter and cannister.
You will wash away those good bb that are in your filter.


Thanks and regards

Koolman

Yup, understood. Just intend to wash 1 or 2 more times until I get the water clear.

- Luenny

[koolman]

Hi Luenny

In order to have clear water,
you may just change 30 - 50% of water every week.
You could add in a packet of magic purifying powder
Your water will be clean in no time.


Thanks and regards

Koolman
98366373

[StanChung]

I find my filter's always clogged in three months.

Mine is 'serviced' every two months.
There's new ideas and old ideas. Fishkeepers clean their canisters like every 6-12 months. IMHO planted tank filters should be serviced every 2-3 months.

[koolman]

Hi StanChung

What type of filter are you using and how long have you been using?
If it changing a new filter is within your budget, I would recommend that you replace your filter.
Nowadays, there are alot of economical filter in the market.
You could add in another filter as a backup.
For instance, I have two filter that reacte in my 4 feet tank.
1. Canninster
2. 4 feet stackable overhead filter
Sometimes, you cannot just rely on one filter to run your aquariums.


Thanks and regards,

Koolman

[StanChung]

Hi Koolman,

I think you misunderstood my post. lol. No worries. let me explain.
I use Eheim pro2's and 2217. These contain fine media [bio rio, etc] that filter well but clog easily due to fairly heavy bioload.

So it's nothing to do with the quality of the filters but rather the nature of the filter media that tends to trap mulm very well.

[luenny]

Hi all,
Just to update, after washing the filter weekly (I know it's not good for the bacteria but it's a new tank and I need to get the water clear up first) twice, I manage to get the water clear. Now it's a bit brownish - tinted by the tanic from the DW - but it's not murky anymore. Thanks for all who help.

Now I will leave the filter alone to cycle and hopefully the bacteria will build up. Yeah, looking for bacter 100 to add in.

- Luenny

[koolman]

Hi Luenny

You could buy the bac 100 at qianhu.

Thanks and regards

Koolman

[luenny]

Thanks, I bought it at NA already.

Hey Stan,
Thanks for the recommendation. Although a bit pricy, it seems to work quite well. I washed my filter over the weekend and after 2 days they seem a bit sluggish. But putting bacter 100 for a night seems to help them. The discus seems more active this morning.

- Luenny

[StanChung]

You're welcome though it's probably due to your discus getting used to the environment. Please post some pics of your new precious and tank setup for us to drool.