hi everyone...as usual i'm sleep depriving myself with this site but it sure is worth it! I was just wondering if anyone has a video of how they clean their tanks with sand as a substrate. I know you don't actually go into the sand with the vacuum but wasn't sure if there was a trick to it so you don't suck up the sand while vacuuming...if anyone has a video or a link to a video on the web I would appreciate it.

What I do is use the same hose that I syphon the tank with. It's 1" diameter braided plastic tube. So, whilst syphoning the water (straight out of the window) at the same time I hold the tube and hover it over the sand. Getting the distance from sand right is easy, just need to be close enough for the crap to get sucked up but no so close that the sand goes with it.

Thanks...so you just use the hose portion of the cleaner and not larger gravel vac tube part, correct?

I don't use a gravel vac at all. My tank is too deep. It's 26" and I've never seen one long enough. I bought the hose from a pond place, sold by the meter. 3 meters cost me a little over £5. With it being braided it's very strong and doesn't kink or squash. To start the siphoning I just hold it to the outlet on my FX5 filter and then move it around the sand to siphon the crap up. It's done very quick this way.

for vaccuuming the sand in my tanks i use a 1 inch vac tube and hose to get the job done. i prefer the 1 inch vac mainly because it gives me more control with the vacuuming and allows me to get into smaller areas thus eliminating the need to move all the decorations. the tube itself i picked up at petsmart and they come 36 inch lenghts. this allows me to reach the back corners of the my 220 gallon tank which is about 30 inches high going through the canopy.

with or without substrate, i don't have problem with waste in my tank. they
all go to the pre-filter tray which i used to clean regularly. as i always
emphasize, intake and discharge arrangement plays very important role in my
filtration. no matter how big is your tank, you can create directional current
wherein waste are always driven towards the suction line.

I was going to get the python cleaning system since I don't wanna carry buckets and I don't have a window I can drain it out of nearby...can the end be taken off that you think so its just the tube or are there smaller gravel vac tubes that could be put on it...like the 1" you are talking about?

i do my vacuuming into a bucket. usually only takes one bucket to totally vacumm my 180. for the water change part i use the python just drain into my floor drain. before i moved i use to drain straight into my bath tub.

The trick to not sucking up heaps of sand when you are using a gravel vac is to angle the vac when it is very close to the sand, you may find some of the sound will get sucked up into the vac but if it is at an angle it should just fall straight back out again, if you keep the vac completely vertical than the sand is more likely to get sucked up through the tube. The beauty with sand is that the debris doesn't get embedded underneath like gravel, so you should just be able to use the suction to lift any debris rather than shoving the vac into the sand

Thanks for the input...does anyone know if the part of the python that attaches to the faucet can have a hose attached where the water comes out. I have a faucet in the basement but no sink so I wanted to run a hose from there to a drain a few feet away. If not i'll just have it go into a bucket and just pour the bucket into the floor drain.

Sounds like sand is nice for a few reasons...glad I found this site or I never would have really thought about sand as I've always seen gravel in freshwater tanks. Looks much nicer in my opinion and seems like a breeze to clean.