New additions dirtying the tank

Question
Hi Karen,
I have a six week old tank, with 7 Hengli Rasboras and 4 Panda Corys.  We test
our water weekly and it always tests really well, so this week we added two
new fish, Rainbow Platys.  Unfortunately, I feel they are eating far too much
and this has led to the tank floor being absolutely covered with their
excrement.  We've never had this problem before, and I worry it is making the
water unhealthy for all the other fish.  We have sand at the bottom, making
vacuuming impossible.  We feed the fish every other day, with floating pellets
for the rasboras and 2 tiny sinking pellets for the corys.  They've never had
overfeeding or constipation problems.  Now, the platys eat some of the other
fish food and are continuously snacking on the algae.  The result is that they
constantly have long, trailing bits of feces and the bottom of the tank is
covered with it.  Any advice you have would be very appreciated!

Answer
Hi Lyndsay,
Platies can be quite the polluters.I understand what you mean you about that!

Since your tank is still somewhat new, you must be very careful with allowing waste to build up. And even then with an established tank, you must try your best to keep it as clean as possible.

There is a way you can vacuum sand and this is a must-do for any tank. Just try hovering the vacuum an inch or so above the sand bed depending upon how powerful your siphon is (perhaps your siphon is too large and you need a smaller one so it doesn't have so much force)

But definitely work on vacuuming your tank at each water change. There's not much you can do about the platies but avoid overfeeding them.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Karen~