waterfalls and ee

[Guest]

My new waterfall is really cool, the only downside is that I have to pull the whole thing out to clean it. I think that the pump is getting plugged up with the ee, I have it set so that the holes from the nozzle in the pump are half open. Should I open it up all the way (it's just really loud when I do), will the ee not plug it up as much? Or would it be better to replace the ee around the waterfall with gravel?

[motley crew]

maybe set it up on some slate. then they cant bury around it either that might help if you need to do some maintance as well

[Guest]

I place gravel around my filtered water pools. It really helps stop the mess. There is plenty of areas with the EE in it for them to still dig in.

[Guest]

The rocks seem to really work! I surrounded the waterfall with a mix of big and little rocks, I got 2 different bags of rocks and mixed them together, 15 pounds total - 3 to 4 inches deep and approxamitely 1" to 4" around the waterfall. The rock barrier seems to keep the EE out of the waterfall.The cleaning is a big pain, I have to scoop out enough rocks to pull the waterfall out of the corner. The EE mixes all into the rocks, it doesn't look very pretty. What I may do is siphon the water out once a week so I can leave the waterfall installed and then just take it out once a month to rinse it clean.I put a sponge in the base resevoir so that the smaller crabs could get water. When I cleaned the tank the first week after installing the waterfall I noticed that the 2 small crabbies flocked to the salt water dish, I've never really seen them do that before. I thought that they just needed water, and the only one they could find was the salt water dish that I took out of the tank along with them. I also have shells in the base and on the different levels so that if a small crab falls in they can get out.