keeping my tank clean

Question
Dear Karen,  I was hoping you might be able to tell me if I have a 30 gallon tank
and one African Cichlid and I use sand as my bottom, how often will I need to
vacuum it? If I can ask one more,.... is there a certain tool that you would
reccommed to vacuum sand?

Answer
Hi Sharon
The amount of maintenance you do to sand somewhat depends upon the depth of sand. Logically, of course, the deeper the sand the more you must pay attention to it to keep from anerobic spots from developing (anerobic simply meaning poor oxygen areas where 'bad' bacteria develop) and probably the best depth is about 1-1/2 inches at most. It's important to keep the sand bed disturbed regularly to keep oxygenated water flowing into it and prevent clogging.

The best tool to clean gravel or sand is an aquarium gravel vacuum from your petstore. Smaller vacuums have less power, so the chance of siphoning a lot of sand is much lower. Hovering it at just the right high above your sand bed should do the job to clear it of debris.

I would vacuum it as often as needed. At every water change ideally. It depends upon how messy your fish is. It's always best to do weekly/twice weekly water changes on most tanks.

I hope this helps and best of luck!
Karen~