removing crushed shell gravel

[PsychFish13]

My ground cover particle size is too big. Any ideas how to get it out without distrubing the tank too much? or accidently removing critters?
is about half the size of a Pea and an inch thick in a 75gal.

-Greg

[DeletedAccount]

I would personally just add some fine sand to the mix. If you take out the current substrate you will kill the population of critters that are living in there. If you SLOWLY add fine sand it will totally change the way the substrate looks without killing off the beneficial critters.

[Tim Marvin]

The problem with adding the fine sand though is: it will eventually settle to the bottom and you'll have all the crushed coral on top again. It does look good though with the mix.

[kakfish]

I would agree with mixing in finer sand. However if you really want to take it out, here is an idea.

Get 6ft of flex 1 1/4" One plastic trash can and one bucket.
You will need two people to do this.
Place the bucket inside the trash can.
Start the siphon and lead it into the bucket.
One person on the floor end and one on the bucket end.
You should be able to remove the entire floor with about 25 gallons of water. The person on the bucket end can control the flow with the palm of the hand. Don't want to remove your fish.
Pump the water back to the tank once setteled and remove the bucket with the gravel in it.

[Tim Marvin]

Kak, that is a brilliant idea! The silt is always a problem and the bacteria can be a problem for the fish if it is clouded all up in the tank.

[PeeJ]

for what is worth, i stripped out my whole sand bed to switch subsrtates....boy..ill never do that again.


it was horrible.. i couldnt see any fish for several days...its pretty bad when you cant find your 30 inch zebra moray in a littl 75 gallon. what a mess

kak i agree that is a bad *** idea. perhaps you gould even come up with some way to mount some pvc to the bucket, and put a filter sock or micron filter over it to filter out all the silt from the draining water?? it might be too fine though.

[matt]

Actually, I kind of like the idea of removing the gravel a la kakfish, putting in the fine sand, then putting some or all of the gravel back on top to innoculate the new sand. then, when the fine sand is fully innoculated, remove the gravel!

I actually think this would eventually result in the best sand bed environment, but it's ALOT of work. Much more complicated than the other suggestions. As far as the cloudstorm, you could "cure" the sand in a big tub; meaning circulate some saltwater in a tub and add the sand; add a few gallons of your tank water, too. This will allow the dust to settle outside of your tank, and coat the sand with bacteria. Then, when you put it in your tank, it will settle MUCH faster, like in several hours rather than days.