How to remove 100lbs of sand from a tank?

I have peace river in w/my rays. They seem to like it and it's too big to lift into the water column/filters. I can snap a quick pic if you wanna get an idea how it looks.

PeteLockwood;3924524; said:

I have peace river in w/my rays. They seem to like it and it's too big to lift into the water column/filters. I can snap a quick pic if you wanna get an idea how it looks.

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Yes, would like to see how it looks.

Ignore the water marks on the glass. And yes, tank isn't big enough but their new tank is being worked on and will hopefully be getting wet inside a week

Jkessler623;3923035; said:

id just scoop it out with a net.

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That's what I have done. Then siphon whatever is left

mareshow;3925523; said:

is it good for babies too though?

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I can only guess that they'd be fine with it but the smallest ray in that tank (the male) is still probably 5" across. The gravel really is quite small, I doubt it would trouble even a 3" ray to flip it up onto its back.

I started this tank bare-bottom since I was new to rays and didn't know how much they'd eat and how dirty they might make gravel. At first after adding the gravel to 2/3 of the tank they crowded into the bare 1/3 but after a day or so they got used to it. Funnily enough I actually siphoned the gravel out today because I needed to move the tank - took about 5 minutes (to remove the gravel not move the tank ).

BTW, that's a 125 gallon tank (6'x18" footprint) and that's about half of the 40lbs of Peace River I bought. I like that it's not too deep and when I siphoned it out it was totally clean, no crud caught up in it.

This is how I clean a sand/gravel...

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cleaning_sand.php

Good luck !

mareshow;3925514; said:

does it get tossed around a lot? and sucked up by the filter?

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It does get moved around a bit by the rays. I have a sump so all water goes over the top of the overflow towers and into the sump. Some sand has made it into the sump by that's no problem for me.

Is there anything like the Caribsea sunset gold but in black? Ive been looking for a black substrate like that for my stingrays... They are getting farely big and I don't want sand anymore because they stir it up too much and it makes the tank cloudy also it gets into the overflows.. Where do you guys buy Caribsea sunset gold and possibly black at? I need to fill up my tank with it right now I am doing bare bottem but would love to have some type of substrate for them.. Let me know thanks.

Trevor