What's the best way to clean a sand substate?

Everything is going well in the tank (except I hate he fish my wife put in). My question is, what's the best way to clean a sand substate?

 

I use a siphon. Don’t hold it too close to the sand otherwise you will suck out a lot of sand.

 

I use a siphon aswell. Although I purposefully siphon out some of the sand (10%'ish) aswell. I then boil it, rinse it off and put it back in the tank.

 

I use a siphon aswell. Although I purposefully siphon out some of the sand (10%'ish) aswell. I then boil it, rinse it off and put it back in the tank.

For what reason?

 

Siphon and kind of wave it to stir up the gunk but not the sand. After a few times you will get your technique figured out.

Siphon and kind of wave it to stir up the gunk but not the sand. After a few times you will get your technique figured out.

 

I just hover a inch or two from the sand.

 

Everything is going well in the tank (except I hate he fish my wife put in).

You're not saying your wife chooses poorly are you?

Yeah, just kidding, but seriously...Welcome to FishLore! I hope you find the site helpful.

 

Yeah cleaning sand is harder than regular gravel. I use Seachem flourite. It's hard to clean as well. I use a cleaner that attaches to the sink faucet, and the flourite is so light that it gets sucked up and stops up the venturI that makes it work. So I do like david1978 said, I fan up the debris while I am siphoning.

 

For what reason?

A sand substrate can hold a lot of poop. The poop doesn't just lay on the surface. To clean a sandbed properly one needs to stick the siphon in the sand aswell which will suck out a lot of sand along with a signiffigant amount of poop.
And I want to clean it off properly while its out and my goto routine for cleaning almost everything that goes into my tank is ''boil and rinse''.

 

MikeRad89 For what reason? Do you have a non planted setup. Just curious why you feel you have to boil stuff before you put it in you tank. Although I do admit that I don't know were in the world you live. I have always had good results with just a good washing. Maybe a little bleach to kill the algae on plastic plants or deco. But to each his own.