substrate swap.

[fishingaddict]

right now i have sand in my 125 gal. i plan to remove all the sand and go with black gravel. what would be the best/easiest way to remove all the sand? and how many pounds of gravel do i need?

the dimensions of the tank are 72x18x22,

thanks.

 

[CHOMPERS]

To get the sand out without upsetting everything, go to Homey Depot or Lowes and go to the plumbing isle. Get a 1/4 inch copper tube (or what ever) and then go to the isle with the clear tubing. Find a good match so that the copper tube fits in the tubing. The copper tube will act as a cleaning wand and you can use it to suck all of the sand out. Just have a bunch of five gallon buckets on hand and a place to put the sand. You can suck up about 50% sand and 50% water without loosing syphon (maybe more). The process seems to go pretty fast. I sucked out around 150 pounds of sand in about half an hour or so this way.

 

[ewurm]

That is what I would have said. You should be able to syphon it out with enough suction.

 

[CHOMPERS]

Oh, by the way, get the copper tubing used for air conditioning or for running water to a refrigerator. It is soft and maliable so you can bend it by hand to reach around things in the tank. If you use rigid copper pipe, it will not bend.

 

[jerppyjerp]

Isnt copper bad for fish?

 

[fishingaddict]

so basically use a siphon?

 

[Dr Joe]

Isnt copper bad for fish?

Same as what is used for your drinking water (and fishes)(somewhere between your faucet and the city/county water supply is a bunch of copper pipe), and it's only for temporary use. Copper (in its chemical form) is used to kill algae, it's ok for about 80% of the fish.

CHOMPERS is just trying to give you something malleable to help get in tight spots if you have lg rocks etc. in the tank you don't want to remove.

Dr Joe

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[CHOMPERS]

Isnt copper bad for fish?

Elemental copper is not soluble in water (i.e. it does not dissolve like sugar or salt). Aqueous copper and Cu2 ions are where the problem comes from. Trouble is, in these discussion boards, no one knows the difference so everyone repeats what the last guy said (monkey see, monkey do).

A mind is a terrible thing to educate.

 

[CHOMPERS]

Yeah, what he said.

Dr Joe

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So what are you doing up at 3:00am? I'm still dealing with the obstructive sleep apnia and insomnia. Now that's a weird combination.

 

[nuth88]

Chompers - Just to give you some love....

I am still up depressed about Da Bears, and was actually removing all of my white/crushed coral from my 125, to replace it with black gravel.

Freaking Ironic!

I'd say 125 Lbs. should be enough, I hope so, since that is what I bought.

a 24 Hour LFS is REALLY hard to come by, I'd like to know as well, since if it is not enough, off to the LFS in the AM for me anyway....