Removing gravel

[GrubbyGirl]

I just wanted to run this by you good folk to see if my plans will work. I want to remove the gravel from my 4ft community tank. It's been in for years and is now unbelievably mucky. My other tanks are bare bottom aqnd I find them so much easier to maintain so that's the way I want to go with this one. I want to do it all in one hit and empty the tank give it a good clean and replace the backing. So this is my plan.

I have a 2ft 6in tank to decant the inhabitants and the filter to so it's not all a mad rush. I know it's not an ideal size but it's better than most fish shops and it's just for a few hours (I hope). I have enough buckets to be able to keep about half the water. I intend to siphon out the gravel some of which will be used in pots for the plants. The rest will be discarded. To cope with the loss in bacteria from the gravel (and there must be tons of it from the states of it :whistle: ) I am in the process of cycling an extra internal filter. That filter is already cycled for 4ppm but I am being extra cautious and upping that to 8+ppm. The plan is to then gradually remove the sponge from the internal over the next couple of months and let the external gradually take over.

I'm planning on doing this in mid july. Anyone see any flaws in my system?

 

[Joby]

Perhaps you could rinse out some of the gravel in tank water so its not too dirty and put it in stocking within the tank so as to keep the bacteria but be able to remove it easily as your tank adjusts again

 

[Doodles]

Perhaps you could rinse out some of the gravel in tank water so its not too dirty and put it in stocking within the tank so as to keep the bacteria but be able to remove it easily as your tank adjusts again

Thats a good idea, i was wondering if the gravel was going to be 'cleaned'.


It sounds like a well thought out plan, Ive only removed sand but was happy to do 30% every week or so until it was gone.

 

[foti]

gravel removel is dangerous on fish espesally if dirty in the example being used as an underground filtering system! moving it aroung will release toxic gasses that will cause even death in fish so grubbygirl plan is well thought out if not that dirty then any of the other 2 options will also be fine

doodles was best in saying take out a hand full or 2 everyday im sure in a month it will be all gone!

 

[Scroggybank]

I've done this before by doing a water change every few days & siphoning some of the gravel/muck out at the same time. If you keep this up until there's no gravel left it gives the filter more time to adjust to the change in bacteria, will be less stressful for the fish & you wont have to worry about buckets to save half the tank water in.

 

[GrubbyGirl]

Thanks everyone. I had thought about removing a bit at a time but I really want to change the background and I can only do that by moving the tank and that can only be done if empty

 

[Doodles]

I think you will be ok just don't scrub or boil the gravel, you could just give it a good rinse in some tank water, that way it should still have bacteria on it when you put it back plus the filter you are adding.

 

[DJ-don]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29740
here is a very similar thread on planetcatfish which you may find helpful for your gravel change!!! good luck. i have no experience trying this because i get paranoid easily!!