General Care Discussion :: bottom of the tank dirt

[afallan]

Hello,

I was wondering how do you keep the bottom of the tank so clean? Looking at everyone's pictures, it look spotless. Everywhere else on my tank is clean, but it gets really messy down there and the water is not cloudy, but clear. So what do you guys do to keep the bottom clean?

ps.
I searched and couldn't find anything on the topic

afallan

[grey goose]

If you have a bare bottom tank, it's much, much easier to keep clean. Most stuff can just be netted out, in some cases you'll notice "dead spots" where the water doesn't circulate as well and it just settles there. Get a large turkey baster at the 99 cent store and use that to suck it up and squirt it out into a bucket (like a mini water change). I also do a 30% water change every two weeks and siphon the stuff out then......

[SpotsMama]

Ditto what grey goose said. I think too that people tend to take their pictures right after a good cleaning!

[octpusgirl8]

I have a little battery operated vaccum that works really well for picking up debris from the bottom of the tank. A gravel siphon works really well too but the vaccum os good for quick everyday maintenance because it doesn't take any water out. Here's the one i have, but there are a varitey of different kinds out there: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/P ... 004+113164

[kikicool]

Like Octpusgirl8, I have a battery operated vaccuum. I'm not very good at scooping stuff out--it all seems to fall back down to the ground, out of the net, etc. This is much easier. Just stuff the little vaccuum bag with filter floss (you can buy a huge bag for like $7.00). Vaccuum, throw away the filter floss and rinse the bag! Takes about 5 minutes.

[DavidY]

Hey, i got one of those from my old freshwater fish tank days! Thanks for reminding me. That's a great way to do daily spot cleaning without having to do a water change. I like the filter floss idea too!

[kikicool]

It's great! I take the turts out while I do it because Herman has decided the vaccuum is his enemy. VERY hard to vaccuum while he is kicking up all the crud and trying to eat said vaccuum.

[octpusgirl8]

Haha Turtley is always getting in the way when i'm trying to vaccum, but he doesn't bite it or anything, and he seems like he enjoys wrestling with it so i leave him in for daily tank cleaning