More Sand

Hey everyone,
I've not been online for a couple of weeks, it's been my sons birthday been busy baking and organising, in the meantime my fish have been doing really well, my flame tetras are really vibrant, my corys which had frayed fins have all healed back to normal (one didn't look too good for a day but I did a few water changes, my ammonia & nitrite were both 0 but nitrate was creeping up, and the little guy is back to normal, even my amano shrimp are very active day & night! (Can't believe how brave these little guys are, tetra near me what tetra!)
My cherry's still hide themselves away.
I was really happy that my fish all looked happy & decided last night to clean out my filter for the first time  I just wondered how often I should do this & if there's anything to look out for after cleaning the filter
Thanks guys 

The filter needs cleaning when the media get covered in brown goo, or the water flow drops. At first you can check the media at every water change, and clean them if they need it. If they're not covered in goo don't clean them. You'll soon get to know how quickly the brown goo builds up, and therefore how often you need to clean them.



Adding more sand - make sure the new sand is throughly washed and add it when ever you want. Since you are just adding a bit more you don't need to remove the fish unless you have plants growing in the sand which will need to be replanted.
Try cutting the bottom off a 2 litre pop bottle and using that as a funnel to direct where the sand goes.

Thanks Sue & Matt I'd held off doing my filter because I didn't want to get rid of all the good bacteria but I thought now it's cycled properly it was time and it was indeed gooey!
There's so much to Learn with keeping fishies, but I'm really enjoying them and learning (thanks to this site!)