How to remove life rock "crumbs"

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Hello everyone!

I have a bare bottom 13.5 gallon nano that I filled with caribsea life rock and when I was finally happy with the scape and epoxied everything in place small pieces of rock about the size of some coarse ground pepper flakes covered the ABS plastic. I originally didn't worry to much about it and figured I'd just siphon it out but after trying this several times- the flakes are just heavy enough to suspended in the tube but not actually get siphoned out. I've been trying to not let it bother me but its making me nervous about using my magnetic algae scraper (I'd really hate to scratch the glass) and I'm also planning on adding a mp10 near the bottom of the tank to stir up and flush detritus from the rockwork but I'm worried the pieces of rock could damage the impeller.

Other things I've tried include using a turkey baster (fall out to quickly), a larger hose (tank drains to quickly) and a squeeze siphon starter (creates a pause that drops the flakes). The last thing I can think of is to remove the siphon portion and you just use the smaller diameter hose but I feel like the flakes are at the size that they would just clog it. Also an oversight in where the tank was placed means I'm dealing with about 3 and a half feet for gravity to help with the siphon.

I'm hoping I'm just missing a very obvious and easy to employ solution but I'm open to all suggestions, photos of the tank included so you can see what I'm working with and for some size reference the shell in the close up photo is about half an inch- Thanks in advance!

 

[James M]

Take it out with a water change

 

[Hemmdog]

Use the big hose and drain into a filter sock, put water back in the tank via the sump if you have one, or just a 5gal bucket or whatever.

 

[Tumey]

If you’re able to lift the completed scape out and get things perfectly clean again you could go this route too.

Tumey

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Thanks everyone!

Take it out with a water change

I’ve been trying to but as mentioned above my current waterchange routine doesn’t create enough suction to pull it out.

Use the big hose and drain into a filter sock, put water back in the tank via the sump if you have one, or just a 5gal bucket or whatever.

I think that may be the simple thing that I missed, just add the removed water back to the tank a few times- I’ll certainly give that a try!

If you’re able to lift the completed scape out and get things perfectly clean again you could go this route too.

Tumey

Unfortunately the structure is only epoxied enough to keep pieces from falling over, not enough to support its own weight. Plus it took me almost 2 hours to get it all in there in three separate chunks- I’d really prefer to not go through that again;Hilarious

 

[Kyuss414]

I’ve been trying to but as mentioned above my current waterchange routine doesn’t create enough suction to pull it out.

If you're vacuuming with one of the siphons with the big tube for a vacuum, try sucking them up with just a hose. Using just a 1/2" hose will have plenty of suction. My siphon I can easily just pop the vacuum off its hose. Just be careful getting near anything you don't want to suck up.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

If you're vacuuming with one of the siphons with the big tube for a vacuum, try sucking them up with just a hose. Using just a 1/2" hose will have plenty of suction. My siphon I can easily just pop the vacuum off its hose. Just be careful getting near anything you don't want to suck up.

Thanks!

I'll certainly give that a try as well this wednesday!

 

[jsvand5]

Yea. Just use a plain plastic hose with no attachments. Those pieces will gets sucked up very easily.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Yea. Just use a plain plastic hose with no attachments. Those pieces will gets sucked up very easily.

Thanks! I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes after the next water change!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Just wanted to let you all know that I removing the siphon and just using the hose, it worked like a charm!

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Before and after photos below