help! Shrimp gravel crumbles to powder :(

[wandaywang]

hiii so i used the small black round gravel meant for shrimp tanks into my 1 ft rectangular nano tank.
For a loooooong time (2-3 years?) i have been battling with a problem of this greyish powder that forms on the surface of the gravel and haven't really kept shrimp in there while i was trying to fix this.
yesterday, i ended up rinsing a small hand full of gravel on a flat surface, and that annoying grey powder came out! then i pressed some of them, realized it could be squished and discovered they actually crumbled into that annoying grey powder.

1) any shrimp keepers here find the same problem?

2) how often, if ever, do you change the gravel in your shrimp tank?

I recently added trumpet snails into the tank, which are now feeding my dwarf puffers, so i feel bad emptying out the entire tank (and killing some snails and having to cycle it again! oh no...) but this gravel turning into powder thing is really not sustainable. because i will eventually end up with an entire base of powder please help!

[onlyyouknow]

Is it a type of soil you used? If yes, then it will disintegrate over time.

[wandaywang]

Originally Posted by onlyyouknow

Is it a type of soil you used? If yes, then it will disintegrate over time.

no it wasnt soil.. it was sold as gravel for shrimp.