easiest way to remove gravel?

[FishBoy185]

Ok with my 75 gallon aquarium I made the decision to put blue gravel in because I thought it would look cool but now I want the more realistic pebbles like stone pebbles. What would be the easiest way to remove a lot of gravel from a 75 gallon tank?
Thanks
Brian

 

[Mebbid]

Time machine?

The easiest way is to empty your tank put all the fish in a bucket and scoop them all out. When you refill just do a standard acclimation to get them used to the big change in water. You will probably experience a mini cycle when you switch over so keep an eye on your parameters.

 

[giffmastaflex]

Just out of curiosity how long does a mini cycle last? Like a day?

 

[Rivers2k]

I did that with my 75 it is not fun at all. It took a long time. I found a platic dust pan worked best for scooping then dumped into a double lined trash bin. the hardest part is figuring out how to get the rock without also getting a bucket full of water. I drained the tank as much as possible then would scoop with the dust pan and let the water run out the handle of the dust pan.

 

[Newkeeperotis]

A square plastic tube drill small holes in the bottom and u have a gravel scope the water can drain out of I did this with my 35 gal

 

[Khazmachi]

I just switched my 75 from gravel to sand. I emptied about 25 gallons into a rubbermaid tub and put the fish in that with a heater to keep the temp up. I scooped out all the gravel with a fish net. Let everything settle for a bit, then vacuumed up all the crap off the bottom glass. Then added sand, topped off the water, let that settle a bit, then put the fish back in! Easy! Most BB is in filter so I had no mini cycle... i'm also running three filters and have a small bioload so be sure to test still!

 

[Mebbid]

Just out of curiosity how long does a mini cycle last? Like a day?

Depends. They can last from a few days to a week from what I've heard. I always go way overboard with filtering my tanks so I haven't had to deal with mini cycles yet.

 

[giffmastaflex]

Well I'm moving my filters from my 55 to a 20 cause I have to return the 55 due to a crack but then move my filters over after i get the new 55