The paint on my "aquarium" rocks is coming off!!!

[grimlock3000]

I have a 10g tank the currently has 10 small fish in it. My tank is six weeks old and has fully cycled as of a few days ago. I have some shiny green and purple rocks in my aquarium, that I bought in the Wal Mart pet department. As I use the gravel vacuum more, I am noticing that the metallic paint on my rocks is coming off! The gravel vac picks up half poop, and half paint flecks. I have a couple catfish, which I assume are probably getting the flecks in their mouths at least once in a while

What should I do about this? I was thinking about gutting the tank with the fish still in it, and scooping out the rocks, and trying to clean up the flecks with a towel (in the tank). Another idea is to get another 10g as a temp, and then swapping everything over but the rocks. I want a couple more small fish, but I should deal with the rocks first. Or maybe the paint flecks are ok? Probably not...

[bettagirl]

I haven't dealt with this personally, but I would think it safer to remove the paint chips by siphoning. Maybe try siphoning 25% of the water every other day until the paint chips are gone to lessen the impact on your tank balance. If the chips are coming up already by siphoning, I would think this would work to remove them all after a few times?

Also, you mentioned 10 fish in your tank. I believe it's best to have 1 inch of fish per gallon, or 10" of fish. If you have say tetras, which will probably grow to about 1", then you have about what you're tank can handle already.

[grimlock3000]

Only some of the paint chips go up with the siphoning. I would say half make it up the siphon, and the others fall back down. I have a fairly large siphon tube as it is, if I went to a bigger tube I would not have much time before it drained the tank The more I siphon, the more paint comes off as I stir the rocks. The chips are small, almost like glitter, and since the rocks are entirely covered in paint, I figure it would take many months for all the paint to stop coming off.

[TankGirl]

I would get rid of that gravel, but it is very easy to crash your tank's bioload doing this. You just need to remove a little bit every couple of days, like in your case 3/4 cup. I think it is going to be a headache to try and get the epoxy coating off, then you have the problem of whether or not the rock material is inert or not, which is not a problem normally because of the coating. If they are not inert, they will raise your pH. Once you have one side of the tank free of gravel, start adding new higher quality gravel from a reputable [acronym:7aeb5bc275="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:7aeb5bc275] so your biobugs can start growing on them. Sorry about this trouble! It will be tricky to correct, so good luck.

[Zic]

I'm going through the same thing in my tank. My gravel looks like someone tool driveway gravel and spraypainted it! We should both remove it, as I'm sure it's not healthy for our fish. But, you can't just remove all your gravel, as it contains a lot of the bacteria that keeps your water healthy for the fishies. So, I've devised a plan, that I have yet to set in action.

All you need is the new gravel and some kind of dividor. I'm going to try to find a flat piece of plastic as wide as the tank and as tall as the gravel is deep. Anyone see where I'm going with this?

I'm going to take out about 1/3 of the gravel. Then I'm going to put the divider on the bottom, to make an area where the new gravel can sit and not mix with the old. (After I wash the gravel, of course). I'll let that sit for a week and a half.

Then, I'll remove the next third of old gravel, move the divider, pour in more new gravel. I'll let this sit for about two weeks or more(since the next step will remove all the old gravel)

Then, I'll remove the rest of the old gravel and put in the new. Of course I will keep a close eye on my tank specs during this process. But, I think it will work just fine. What do you guys think?

[grimlock3000]

that is a really good idea, i think i have an old tank divider somewhere that is the right width, so i can just cut it down to size and use that.

[bettagirl]

I misunderstood that is was the gravel that was chipping off...was thinking it a decorative rock that was already gone. I'd definitely remove the gravel. Zic's idea of the tank divider is really good. Let us know how it works out!

[grimlock3000]

i headed out to buy new rocks today and went to a full blown fish store instead of a local pet + animal shop. some of my rocks appears to actually be rusting, and others have blatantly changed color somehow (like turning all yellow). i asked the shop owner what i should do and she reccomended a full immediate change of all rocks in the aquarium because of rusting. i tried seeing if doing partial rocks changes would work and that got shut down. now i have some real nice natural rock substrate in medium and small sizes, which totally changed the look of my tank. i left all the fish and water in the tank while changing the rocks. i probably have to cycle my tank again now, hope it works out