Changeing gravel

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Alex33

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Messages
88
Can you change gravel in a established tank ? If so how ?
 
I switched my tank from gravel to sand about a year ago and the way i did it was to remove about 1/3 of the existing gravel and replace that section with well cleaned sand leaving a bare spot seperating the two. i left it like that for a couple days, then did the next 1/3, and then a couple days later the last 1/3. I kept it in smaller increments due to the fact that alot of debris was kicked upwhen pulling out the gravel and really clouded up the tank. also inbetween i would rinse out the debris in the filters. worked good for me, im sure there are many other ways to do it and someone else can chime in on how they did it.

-Scott
 
I have a moss ball my tank is 8 months old doing real good and I have basic blue gravel from pet smart.
 
I switched from gravel to flourite on a tank that had been established for years. it was an 18 gallon tank. I put abut 4 gallons of tank water with my fish in a 5 gallon bucket. Removed & disgarded the rest of the water. carefully took out all the plants. then went to work throwing out the gravel and giving the tank a nice clean out with a vinegar/water spray, rinsed with tap water.

After the new substrate was in, just filled, put my fish back, was all good.

Just be sure to not mess with your filter. I was running two HOBs at the time, I continued to have one circulate in the bucket with the fish during this time.

Had one day where my ammonia rose to .25ppm. Dosed the tank with prime, all good since.
 
Just scoop it all out with a cup or bowl. If you have a bigger thank that a broom dust pan can fit in that works very well. As long as the dust pan is rinsed off good. Then just rinse the new gavel and dump it in a bowl or cup at a time, and watch out, you don't want to crush and slow moving fish. It might be cloudy for a little but no big deal, what's one day. Good job getting ride of the nasty fake colored gravel!
 
Oh yes, I forgot, you can leave the fish in the tank they will be fine, but if you aren't comfortable with that just put them in a holding tank while you do it.
 
I've changed both my tanks from gravel to sand. I used a 50 gal sterilite container to hold my fish. I ran both filters in the bin. I changed all the gravel out at one time. My 125 didn't see any mini cycle my 72 showed ammonia for a couple days I just did a few pwc and its been great since. Emptying the tanks completely I think was easier and allowed for a good cleaning but each tank took me about 8 hours. That's with a few breaks though and chasing around a 1 and 3 year old.
 
Thanks I have a 29 gal. Tank how you guy recommend I change?
 
Alex33 said:
Thanks I have a 29 gal. Tank how you guy recommend I change?

Really just comes down to personal preference. To me it seems like it would cause the fish less stress to be in a tank or bin that's not being constantly dug in and stirred up.
 
Really just comes down to personal preference. To me it seems like it would cause the fish less stress to be in a tank or bin that's not being constantly dug in and stirred up.

It would also help to thoroughly vacuum the sections you are going to dig up. I haven't changed gravel but it would be nice if you could seed the new gravel somehow. Maybe someone here has any ideas?
 
Amicus said:
It would also help to thoroughly vacuum the sections you are going to dig up. I haven't changed gravel but it would be nice if you could seed the new gravel somehow. Maybe someone here has any ideas?

I didn't seed mine and I only seen a very minimal ammo spike. Never went over .25 and I only did one pwc during the week or so that it elevated. If your doing fish in swap then yes vacuum it really good first. For me it wasn't necessary since I completely emptied the tank and tossed the old gravel in the trash. And that was my on my 72. My 125 seen no spike when I did the swap.
 
Back
Top Bottom