Gravel change help

[earhtmother]

Easiest way to change out gravel in a 30g shrimp omly tank
GO

 

[ZxC]

Easiest way to change out gravel in a 30g shrimp omly tank
GO

1) Drain 3/4 of water into a rubbermaid tote.
2) Hook up filters/heaters onto the rubbermaid.
3) Gravel vac the heck outta the old gravel with the remaining 25% water into a pail.
4) Dump gross water pail.
5) Take a scoop (dust pan works great here) and scoop out old gravel.
6) Clean glass and anything else that needs cleaned.
7) Put new substrate in (assuming it was properly prepared)
8) Scape tank the way you want.
9) Fill with some old water (from the rubbermaid) and plant any plants.
10) Fill tank half way with rubbermaid water.
11) Add livestock, the rest of the water, and then 25% new fresh tap water (with conditioner of course).
12) Plug in all filters/heaters
13) Test water daily or twice daily to ensure no mini cycle.
14) Enjoy.

 

[earhtmother]

Thw cleaning & changing I can handle it is the catching of shrimp & fry that has me worried - some of these guys are SO small they don't even register on phone's camera & as you can see from pic there are too mang places for them to hide themselves

 

[ZxC]

slowly start removing everything, and eventually you'll have a bare tank with just gravel, then it's easier to see/catch small inhabitants.