Advice needed for Removing gravel

[nessybehr]

I set up my tank a year and a half ago being a nubie and added way to much gravel. I'd say I have almost 5 inches. I need to remove almost half of it because it's just caused way to many ups and downs with my water parameters. Any advice? I'm so scared that it will affect my fish in a bad way at first if it causes a high nitrate spike. I have 1 dwarf gourami, 1 flame gourami, 1 angel, 4 tetras, 3 platies, 1 panda molly, and a golden ram. I feel like even moving them into a bucket while I do so will stress them out more but could be safer whole I remove gravel and do a 50 percent water change.

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[enrgizerbunny]

I would do several water changes and focus heavily on vacuuming the gravel as much as you can in order to remove as much waste as possible before removing the gravel. Then just remove the gravel and keep an eye on parameters. If you stir up enough waste to make the water cloudy then additional water changes can help to remedy this.

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[PB_Smith]

I'm going to assume you are not using an undergravel filter?
If that is the case and you have a 5" substrate bed in place for a year and a half, you may risk stirring up pockets of anaerobic bacteria if the gravel bed hasn't been regularly stirred/mixed.

My advice is to set-up a temporary home for the fish/plants.
Take the top 2-3 inches (or however much you want) of gravel off and save. (A fish net or cat box "pooper-scooper" works great)
You can lightly rinse it in TANK WATER, not tap water. Tap water will kill the bacteria you want to preserve. This will be the portion with the most aerobic bacteria that you want to preserve.

Then just clean out the remaining gravel and re-assemble and let it settle before putting the livestock back in.
If you encounter any "rotten egg" smell, than you will be glad you removed the fish first.

 

[nessybehr]

Thanks so much!

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[nessybehr]

What about removing a little bit every day along with a small water change, that way it would be a gradual change for the fish

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[PB_Smith]

Let me also add that you MUST resist the temptation to completely clean the gravel you are keeping...
DON"T DO IT!!!!!!
Rinse it lightly to remove the "loose" detritus, but you want to leave it a little "dirty".
One error many make when doing a switch over like this is they clean TOO much and wipe out the BB colonies.
Also reserve about 50% of the original tank water for setting back up.

 

[PB_Smith]

What about removing a little bit every day along with a small water change, that way it would be a gradual change for the fish

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Yeah, but with such a deep bed that old, if you have grown any pockets of nastiness in the gravel bed and the hydrogen-sulfide gas it produces is released into the water, it can kill a tank in about 15-30 minutes or less depending.
So I would suggest against it.


if you can see all around the tank. look for any black spots in the gravel bed,, you don't want to disturb them.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

I guess another question is whether or not the gravel has been regularly vacuumed. I have probably about 3-4 inches in the bottom of my tank that gets vacuumed with every water change, all the way down to the glass on the bottom. I don't do that to the whole thing, but probably 60% gets vacuumed to the glass every month and I take the decor out and vacuum under them every few months. If it's been vacuumed regularly there shouldn't be any issue with anaerobic pockets.

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[PB_Smith]

I guess another question is whether or not the gravel has been regularly vacuumed. I have probably about 3-4 inches in the bottom of my tank that gets vacuumed with every water change, all the way down to the glass on the bottom. I don't do that to the whole thing, but probably 60% gets vacuumed to the glass every month and I take the decor out and vacuum under them every few months. If it's been vacuumed regularly there shouldn't be any issue with anaerobic pockets.

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Yup

 

[nessybehr]

Yes I vacuum it as much as I can without draining to much water. I guess I can keep it just have to clean it well a little bit more. It's just that even after a good water change I cannot get the tank crystal clear like my ten gallon is. I was thinking that the large amount of gravel might be my problem. Idk how to clear up my water even though I keep trying. Even when my parameters are fine it just seem clear enough and it's frustrating.

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[NewToFish1989]

I'd remove half one month and the other next month, I removed mine all at once, not thinking and started off a mini cycle, luckily it settled after a week of water changes but still.

 

[nessybehr]

I just did a deep cleaning and water change and it was so dirty idk why I never vacuumed that well before. Holy filth

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[enrgizerbunny]

I just did a deep cleaning and water change and it was so dirty idk why I never vacuumed that well before. Holy filth

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Given that you have been vacuuming your gravel, the risk of anaerobic pockets is probably very low. At this point it is all personal choice as to how you proceed.

Personally I would just vacuum the gravel thoroughly. You can get more vacuum time if you put the siphon bell all the way to the bottom, it won't draw water as fast and it will stir up the gravel in the bell to remove waste. It would take a few water changes to go through the whole tank, but after that you could just scoop out what you gravel you don't want and then do a water change to remove as much of the waste that you stirred up in the process.

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[nessybehr]

That sounds like a plan

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