coffeebean

i have a 10 gallon planted tank with a sand bottom that is being used as a nursery. i have 6 baby swordtails in there as well as baby cherry shrimp. the sand is starting to look pretty poopy.
how am i going to clean it without sucking up little babies? this is also the first time i have had a sand bottom so im not really sure what to do.
any suggestions?

Shawnie

thats the hard thing about a fry tank...when you have a subtrate of any kind, its hard to keep clean..most fry tanks are much easier with a bare bottom as they need so many water changes to keep it prestine....at this point, sucking out what you can with maybe a turkey baster ?

coffeebean

i tried the baster but the poop would fall out before i could get it up and out of the tank.


how often should i be doing water changes on a 10 gallon fry tank?

Shawnie

at least 2 times a week...are you going to keep that as a fry tank? it might be easier to remove the sand and use soemthing else to keep it cleaned easier? just a thought

Red1313

you could try using air line tubing into a bucket. Once you're done let the water settle then use a flashlight to make sure that you didn't suck anybody up?

coffeebean

i want to breed my shrimp in it with it fully planted. the fry were unexpected arrivals. lol.

Shawnie

ive never bred shrimp so no clue there for ya but I do know all fry and babies need water changes often for good healhty growth and nitrates should be under 10 at all times ...5 is even better when growing babies are being raised. ....i hope some shrimp breeders can help more! (ive always been intimidated by sand not knowing if i could keep the gas pockets out and keep it totally clean)

Red1313

I suppose what you could do is really heavily plant the tank. Similar to how you would with a silent cycle. If you do that you could probably get away with not cleaning the ground as often as regular since the plants would just use it as a food source, the ammonia released would be quickly absorbed by the plants.
...
However I've never tried doing that sort of thing myself so I don't know if that would be an option for you.