substrate question

[scotbehot]

I currently am using crushed coral in the bottom of my fish tank for 10 months and was considering removing it and going bare bottom for ease of cleaning purposes, will this throw off my levels, and is it a good idea at this point? I would be most concerned about the bulb anemone currently in the tank.

[crvz]

when you remove it, you may stir up all the junk that could possible be trapped in the substrate. If you simply siphon out a bit at a time, you can easily mitigate this risk, as well as allow the tank time to adjust to the different biological filtration loading (though I'm certain your rock is plenty, it will take a bit of time for the tank to rely solely on that).