How to clean sand in an aquarium?

How to clean sand in an aquarium? When choosing sand for the bottom of your pool, you have to take into account its main drawback: cleaning. Organic waste, dead plants, excrement… All these impurities are called “mulm”. Too concentrated the mulm can be harmful for the good health of your fish.

Fortunately, cleaning sand from an aquarium is not complicated.
Here are the methods most used by aquarists:

spatula

Very affordable and easy to use, the spatula is always part of the kit for beginners. It allows quick maintenance of your pond: you can remove the most visible waste when you feed your fish for example. But the spatula is also used to stir the sand: the smaller impurities will rise in the water and will be sucked up by the aquarium pipe.

Concentrate your efforts where the most impurities accumulate: Low current areas, where deposits accumulate. The manger and its food residues. The filter that covers itself with mulm.

Long arm spatulas exist for the deepest pools.

The dust bell

Also called a bottom or mud vacuum, this device works like a house vacuum cleaner. The dust bell is very useful for easily cleaning all the organic waste that settles on the sand.
Simply slide its comb-shaped tip over the bottom of your pool, emphasizing visible stains.

As with the palette, this stirring will also allow small impurities to rise to be sucked up. Prefer a bell with a low flow rate so as not to remove too much sand during your passages.

Wash the sand

The aquarium hose or the spatula can also be used to remove the sand when it is too dirty. Outside the aquarium, you can rinse off the sand and clean it. You can then put the clean sand back in the same place.

Be careful not to use aggressive products when rinsing. These could end up in your fish's water.

By focusing on the dirtiest parts, it saves the hassle of changing all the sand in your aquarium. This kind of operation does not need to be daily, but can be done every two or three weeks.

Snails

The presence of freshwater snails in a pond divides aquarists.

However, these small molluscs have the advantage of eating waste and impurities and contributing to the ecological balance of your pond.

The problem comes from their proliferation in an environment too rich in food.
To avoid this problem, you can introduce specific species: The Clithon, Neritina or Vittina, for example, are good algae eaters, but they struggle to reproduce in the aquarium: no risk of overpopulation.

We generally recommend one introduced snail per 10 liters of water.

Now you know what to do to clean the sand from your aquarium.
Keep in mind that mulm, bacteria and small impurities also contribute to its biological balance.

Cleaning the sand in an aquarium should be done with care. Prioritize a little regular maintenance to keep the sand clean but rich in nutrients for the life of your pond.