how can I change my gravel??

[cherrybarbbaby]

Hello Everyone!

I want to re decorate my 20gl and I want to change the gravel
My gravel is sooo ugly. Its a mix of blues /tans/brown and a little pink...don't ask
needless to say it looks a little depressing.

I think that I want white gravel and colorful plastic and silk plants.

My tank has a biowheel filter so I was told that I could change the gravel at one time since my biowheel is supplying my tank w/bacteria and not the gravel

Is this true?

 

[BobTheDog]

Hey. What is your current fish load in your tank? The biowheel will have lots of bacteria but the bacteria will be growing on every surface in the tank, including the gravel. There is a chance changing out all the gravel in your tank at once is going to throw your tank into a mini-cycle. The larger your bioload, the more severe this mini-cycle could be. If you do it all at once, you need to treat the tank like it is just cycling.... check water parameters daily and be prepared to do partial water changes if readings get too high.

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

On my first tank, I was nagged by my kids to get multi-coloured gravel which IMO looked very tacky :lol. Anyway I changed it to sand by carefully removing a quarter of the gravel at a time. When I slowly put sand back in, I retained some of the old gravel and put it in an unused mesk wahing tablet bag to retain some of the bacteria until the mini-cycle had finished. Maybe not the easiest way but it worked for me, and I only lost one small harlequin in the process.

 

[cherrybarbbaby]

Oh my goodness....it is really tacky its driving me CRAZY!!!!!
I don't even think my fish like their tank!

In my tank right now I have 3 small tiger barbs 6 small albino barbs 2 cherry barbs and 3 platies. I took out 3 cory fish amd moved them to a 10g a few days ago because I felt I was a little over stocked

I don't mind doing testing and extra water changes .... I just got my first nitrate kit a week ago!

Maybe I will remove the gravel slowly....I'll try to be patient!

I do gravel cleaning once a week and one partial water change mid week. If I take half the gravel out this week and the other half out following week, do you think that will be safer?

I'll continue to check my levels ofcourse!

 

[crazie.eddie]

I would not suggest white...it seems to reflect too much light. Some fish do not like it. I know my clownloaches didn't like it and hid most of the time. After changing over to deep river gravel, they are out most of the time. I read other people have the same problems with their fish when using white gravel.

I actually changed mine without any problems. One week, I took out about 1/4 of the gravel, and replaced it with new gravel. I put a plastic divider in between so the new and old gravel would not mix. Each week, I just kept doing the same thing. Eventually, all the gravel was replaced. I monitored my tank and had no signs of a mini cycle. I think what helped me out was my huge filter. The filter on my 55 gallon tank, was rated for a 150 gallon tank. Having a large filter, I also had a large bacteria bed in the filter.

I would suggest buying another filter or maybe borrowing a spare one from a friend. Let it run on your tank for a few weeks, so the bacteria will colonize the media in the new filter. This will allow you to have another source of benificial bacteria.

 

[cherrybarbbaby]

I will have to find another color of gravel besides white. Something cheerful

I do have another filter from a spare tank........

Thanks for the info!

 

[Loupe]

You could use sand.

 

[Artuk]

This is something I have been considering, less because I want to remove the gravel as I want to deepen it. We just didnt start with enough gravel.

We have a bed of what seems to be fairly largish blue aquarium gravel. I would like to put sand over it to provide a softer bottom my Otocinclus can better feed on. I think a lot of the crud is falling in the gravel and he is too small to get it.

Would it be ok just to put an inch or so of sand over the existing gravel or will that create some new and unforseen problem?

Regards,

Artuk

 

[BobTheDog]

Would it be ok just to put an inch or so of sand over the existing gravel or will that create some new and unforseen problem?

I would definitely advise against this. First, you don't want your substrate too deep. With a deep substrate in freshwater, unless you have critters to stir it up like in a marine tank, you will end up with areas of low oxygen(anaerobic). When this occurs, you start breeding bacteria which produce all kinds of lovely toxins. Also, with a sand substrate, you need to periodically stir it... nothing very vigorous, but just run a stick through the stand from end to end a couple of times. Since sand is much smaller particles it tends to compress and you can end up with the anaerobic areas in with a shallow substrate. When you stir it over the top of the gravel, it is going to work its way down into the gravel and provide even more opportunity for the anaerobic conditions. I would follow some of the recommendations above and do a slow change out.... 1/4 a week maybe.

 

[cherrybarbbaby]

you know I really like the idea of sand!

But isn't it harder on your filter? and who do you clean it?

I'm sure my cories in my cory tank would LOVE it!
I hope it would be fine as well for the my betta who live w/my cories


Anybody have any info on on sanded tanks or where I can find some?

 

[Max]

try keeping some gravel on the bottom, then put the new color on top, keeping to bacteria and also looking better?