Gravel Worries!

[HeatherMW]

Hi Everyone !

I've become super picky about the decor in my aquarium lately and I want to change my gravel. I have natural beige gravel in there now and I would like to change to black gravel.

Is it risky to remove all the gravel?

What is the best way to go about changing it?

Should I just empty 50% of the water and then start grabbing handfuls of rocks?

...and finally, should I remove the fish to do this? I have two pregnant mollies...one very pregnant, due any day. Will this stress them out too much?

THanks for the help! Sorry for all the questions

Heather

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I prefer to remove the fish, sometimes moving them is less stressful for them then having them cower in the corner in fear while you work on the tank.

The easiest way that I know of is to use a (clean) dust pan to scoop out the gravel. Save the water change for after you do the substrate change because the water will be pretty gross from everything that gets kicked up.

Whether it is safe or not to do a full change at once depends on your filtration. Most filters hold more bacteria then any other part of the aquarium because water is continously forced through the media. If you have an undergravel filter then the gravel becomes an integral part of the system, and it would be important to change it a portion at a time.

Using canister or hanging power filters I have done 100% substrate switches without a problem. Some tips to make it go smoothly and act as precautionary measures:

-Don't clean the filter within a week before or after doing the change
-Feed lightly for the first week after the change
-Try to do two or three water changes through the course of the first week

 

[bulldog188]

to seed the new gravel you can put a load of the old gravel in an old pair of tights and tie them up this can then be placed in the tank ontop of the new stuff to help seed it.. after a week or so this can then be removed and disposed of or put straight in to another tank etc..

 

[HeatherMW]

Wow thanks guys!

I took your advice and moved the fish to my three gallon "emergency tank".

I have a hanging filter so I decided to just scoop out all the gravel.....what a MESS!

Once everything settled down on the bottom of the glass I used my gravel vaccum to suck about 75% of the debris. I removed about 50% of the water with it.

Then I thoroughly rinsed my gravel and put it into the tank. I added my decor, more water (pre-treated of course! ) then I slowly put my fish back in.

So far so good, everyone seems happy!

I've pretty much determined that I am overfeeding my fish since lately I've been growing a bit of fuzzy slime ontop of the gravel.

Based on having 5 fish (3 platys, 2 mollies) how much should I be feeding them? When I drop the flakes in, they scatter about across probably 50-75% of the surface. Is that too much? Any way to describe how much food.....i.e 5 flakes, 10 flakes etc.

Again, thanks for the help!!

Heather

 

[bulldog188]

you would be better off feeding your fish small amounts a few times a day instead of a large amount in one go.. I know it takes longer but what I tend to do is take a small amount of whatever food they are to be having at the time and drop it in and watch the fish eat it all [it should take no longer than 2 mins for the fish to eat every bit of the food you give them] then if I decide they still need more food then I just add a little more etc etc until I feel they have had enough.