Removing sand in planted aquarium

Dan · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

Looking for advice:

I have a heavily planted 75 gallon aquarium with about a 1.5 to 2 inch layer
of Flourite on the bottom of it. On top of the Flourite is an inch to 1.5
inches of sand. I have had it this way for about a year now. The sand is a
real pain to keep clean without disturbing it too much. What I want to do
is somehow remove it and replace it with about 1.5 inches of pebble gravel.
In this way I will better be able to clean it without having a big
disturbance inside the aquarium. Does anyone have any ideas how I can
remove this sand without disturbing the waters too much and then replacing
it with the pebble gravel. Your advice is appreciated.

Dan

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>freshwater>plants

Dick · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 133

On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 20:50:38 -0600, "Dan" wrote:

>Looking for advice:
>
>I have a heavily planted 75 gallon aquarium with about a 1.5 to 2 inch layer
>of Flourite on the bottom of it. On top of the Flourite is an inch to 1.5
>inches of sand. I have had it this way for about a year now. The sand is a
>real pain to keep clean without disturbing it too much. What I want to do
>is somehow remove it and replace it with about 1.5 inches of pebble gravel.
>In this way I will better be able to clean it without having a big
>disturbance inside the aquarium. Does anyone have any ideas how I can
>remove this sand without disturbing the waters too much and then replacing
>it with the pebble gravel. Your advice is appreciated.
>
>Dan
>

I do not understand this thing of cleaning tank bottoms. I have 5
tanks. I change 20% twice weekly with the syphon inlet hanging in the
middle of the larger tanks. All my tanks are heavily planted. The
only time I disturb the bottom is while I am pulling excess growth.

The largest tank, 75 gallons has been set up for 3 1/2 years. I know
there is stuff on the bottom as I can see it when larger fish disturb
the bottom. The stuff either settles back down or the filter picks it
up.

Considering that my filters only filter, that is, strain the tank
solids, thus not actually removing them, why all the fus?

My filters have not active chemicals. I figure any solids held back
by the media eventually return to the tank as erosion reduces their
size.

dick

Richard Sexton · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 210

In article ,
Dan wrote:
>Looking for advice:
>
>I have a heavily planted 75 gallon aquarium with about a 1.5 to 2 inch layer
>of Flourite on the bottom of it. On top of the Flourite is an inch to 1.5
>inches of sand. I have had it this way for about a year now. The sand is a
>real pain to keep clean without disturbing it too much. What I want to do
>is somehow remove it and replace it with about 1.5 inches of pebble gravel.
>In this way I will better be able to clean it without having a big
>disturbance inside the aquarium. Does anyone have any ideas how I can
>remove this sand without disturbing the waters too much and then replacing
>it with the pebble gravel. Your advice is appreciated.

Siphon it through a seive and replace the flourite that comes out.

--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net