I'd like to be able to tell you it's easy but I'm afraid it's not. It is time-consuming and messy....I did it.
Regardless of what livestock you have, you'll want to be careful about stirring up all the detritus (sp)/dirt that has accumulated under your CC. I syphoned mine a section at a time( with a gravel vacuum) to get rid of as much of the dit. as I could. Then I used a small strainer to scoop out the CC. I'd do a water change every time I worked on mine. I did a little section every few days to let things settle a bit in-between.
Although it's kind of a pain to do, my tank is proof of how much of a positive change it can be. My CC was leaching phosphates back into my tank water so I was always fighting an algea problem. I also think LS is much nicer looking (IMHO).
You will BTW see/hear from some board members who thing CC is as good/better than LS. My experience with CC was unpleasant so I'm sticking with LS.
Jim
