Woah!

[cynthia]

Andrew - I have that very same sand, it packs down real tight. Most all debris in your tank will stay on top of the sand. With gravel it settles into the cracks so you don't see it as much.

I use a little battery operated vacuum to clean the top of the sand. I take off the wide end attachment though.

You could probably just use the syphon hose without the big gravel attachment on it to suck just above the top of the sand and clean all that out of there.

Your axolotls will be happy to be back in their tank.

 

[andrew]

Okay thanks for the tip!

 

[anne-marie]

I think that the brownish powdery goo is just normal rubbishy stuff that you normally can't see if you have gravel and rocks due to the colour and texture of both of these - it tends to sink to the glass bottom of the tank but can't do so if the sand you have is dense.

When I was dismantling one of my smaller aquariums, it appeared on the glass bottom when everything else had been removed. Its like brown dust.

Its just normal bio rubbish which can be removed easily with the vacuum - dont' be concerned about it.

I am more concerned about your axies

- the sooner you get em back in that tank, the better.

 

[andrew]

Okay, so all my axies currently reside in the fridge, nothing living has been in my tank for DAYS and my white sand is COVERED in that brown stuff.... Really bugging me

 

[cynthia]

Andrew - You need to clean the brown stuff out daily , when I changed from rocks to sand it took quite a few days to get it all out.

Remember how black your water was, all that stuff has to settle some where.

Did you try using the syphon with out the gravel vacuum attachment on it?