Removing substrate

[sivic]

Well im turning my 55 gallon into a planted tank and need to remove all my onyx sand to put down my eco complete. Im moving all my fish into a holding tank while i do the change but my question is how would you recommend getting all the old stuff out without draining the water completely?

In my last tank i had gravel and i used a net to scoop up all of the gravel but the real small pieces are still in there and i have no idea how to get them out. They are too heavy for the python to get them but too small for the net to get them.

So this leads me to wonder what exactly can i do with the onyx sand. Some of it is big enough for a net to get but then there is also some fine pieces that i need to devise another approach. If worse comes to worse i can leave alittle bit of the sand on the bottom and just put the eco complete on top but i would like to have it all removed if at all possible.

:help:

 

[rohnds]

IF you are moving you fish to a holding tank while you do this, what reason do you for not emptying the water out of the tank and then dumping the sand.

Unless you are worried about loosing the beneficial bacteria! FYI: You beneficial bacteria is not in your water but in such surfaces as filter media and substrate.

Only solution I have for taking the sand out is scooping it with a cup or some kind of container. But you will never be able to completely remove all the onyx sand.

Rohn

 

[pophead]

are both substrates same color? if so you don't even need to worry about getting all the onyx out! also isn't onyx sand good for plants? :huh:

 

[sivic]

are both substrates same color? if so you don't even need to worry about getting all the onyx out! also isn't onyx sand good for plants? :huh:

I believe it is good for plants but im wanting to put it in another tank.

 

[Kasakato]

I never got the final bits of gravel out of my tank. I just used my fingers for any last possible bits. And now theres a very small amout of colour in the Eco-Complete. It looks better if anything.