How best to remove sand

[Teelie]

I'm wanting to remove my pool filter sand from my 10 gallon Kuhli tank and replace it with Tahitian Black Moon sand but I'm not sure how to go about doing it without making a big mess. I can probably just shovel or scoop most of it but how do I get the rest of it out? Adding it is no problem, it's changing it out.

The way I'm planning is to use a net to get as much as I can that way then use a flat head shovel or spoon of some sort to get whatever else I can but I'm not sure if that will get the rest of the sand grains.

Plus I'll have to do this relatively quickly as I'm going to be keeping the Kuhlis in a bucket of tank water while I do the change out.

 

[Torrean]

take out all the water. dump the sand. put in sand and old water. what do you think.

guess that might not qualify under the avoiding big mess thing but oh well.

 

[Synirr]

take out all the water. dump the sand. put in sand and old water. what do you think.

guess that might not qualify under the avoiding big mess thing but oh well.

Yep. Sadly, there's just no good way to change substrate

 

[Dorkhedeos]

or you can fill it with water and siphon it all into a bucket

 

[Teelie]

take out all the water. dump the sand. put in sand and old water. what do you think.

guess that might not qualify under the avoiding big mess thing but oh well.

I was hoping to avoid emptying all the water, remove all the decorations from the tank, the heater, the filters then picking up and shaking the tank itself. Granted it's only a 10 gallon, but it's a lot to do like that.

Fortunately I do have a 20 gallon plastic tub to drain the water into if it comes to that... I forgot I had that.

 

[Torrean]

I think that actually sounds like the easiest method to me. a lot easier than shoveling sand with a spoon anyway.

 

[Teelie]

I was trying to find a way that avoided emptying 10 gallons of water and moving the tank off the stand. I guess this would be the easier way, but it means slightly more work.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Teelie

I keep fine gravel in my breeding tanks when my corys are spawning and remove it when they are finished. To do this, I scoop out as much as I can and then start the gravel vac. Once the water is being siphoned out, I remove the big plastic part at the end and siphon with only the hose. Since the suction is greater when it's being pulled through a 1/2 inch hose, it sucks the gravel right out. It does a very good job of it too.

I never tried this with sand, but I don't know why it wouldn't work the same way.

 

[Teelie]

I've vacuumed my sand before and fortunately in most cases it's too heavy to vacuum out all but the smaller particles. If I had a mechanical pump, that'd work but then I'd probably damage it with the sand grains.

 

[nightlife20]

when i took my 2ft apart (was gettin rid of it) i used the syphon to remove the sand...

i know it seems like alot of hard work it isnt realy that bad.

best way is to do as inch said... thats how i did it.. my syphon is a mouth starting one many a time iv had sand in my mouth

 

[Teelie]

Like I said though, my sand is too heavy to be siphoned in any real quantity.

 

[itZme]

The sand is too heavy to be sucked out with the syphon (gravel vac) in its normal state. If you remove the large plastic chamber and use only the hose as Inchworm suggested I know for a fact that the sand will be sucked out through the hose. You may have to add water a few times so that you can remove the sand from all of the corners. I have done this myself when cleaning out a tank for storage. I is the least damaging way to do it since any scraping of sand will scratch the glass or acrylic of your tank.
Good luck,
itZme

PS. don't forget to unplug your filter while moving sand around or you may damage your impeller.