changing gravel

[WaterPond]

Hey everyone, i want to change my gravel in ove of my planted tanks, how would i go about doing this without having it cloud my water very badly. I am scared to do this, but i really don't like the look of my current gravel. help please, TIA

 

[sabbott1877]

which planted tank?

Has it been set up for a long time? Becasue I would imagine that would make it worse.

However you go about it be sure to either not change it all at once, or save some old gravel and put it in a mesh bag in the tank to help seed the gravel with bacteria...

What are you thinking of putting in it for substrate?

-Steve

 

[WaterPond]

Its my 5gal

It has been set up for about three months i think now, fully cycled.

That idea sounds pretty good, My filter would be loaded with bacteria. I mighht try the mesh bag thing, if i can find mesh with holes small enough.

I was planning on putting in either black gravel or black sand. Probably geosystems.

I havnt decided if i will go throught with it, i want to, but if it is too much trouble i wont do it.

Thanks for your help, does anybody have any more input?

 

[WaterPond]

peer pressure! i saw all of you'r tanks in the gallery with the nice black gravel and the beautiful plants that look nice aqainst it. Thought i would try for myself and now i dont like it so much. lol. it will need some fine tuning.

 

[bman]

That should be easy to change a five gallon tank. Get a five gallon bucket, transfer four gallons of tank water over with the fish, then get a pair of pantyhose and stick some old gravel inside (to help transfer the bacteria) and stick that in the bucket. Then clean out the tank totally and set it up like you want it, then transfer everything in the bucket back over to the new tank and keep the old gravel in the nylons as set it in there as well. You may have to top off since you will have lost about a gallon, but that is similar to a pwc amount anyways.

If you plan accordingly, you should be able to do the entire process in less than an hour.

(BTW, I think the planted tanks you have seen have been ecocomplete gravel which has nutrients in it to help plants, not just plain black gravel - but you probably already know that)

 

[WaterPond]

yes i know that, this is geosystems gravel, thats all they sell around here. I already was done with it when i made my last post and i did exactly what you said. It was pretty easy. Thanks for the help anyway. I just need to find a way to make it look good now.

 

[hc8719]

before i had a gravel vac, when i changed my goldfish, i would stir up the water before i pwc'd, so that the filter could pick a lot up, as well as the me emptying water

 

[WaterPond]

dont worry, i had lots of CRAP in my gravel, now i know where my algea pellets go. lol, my filter is jam packed with bacteria, i didn't clean if for two months because i palnned on changing the gravel, somehow it still flows pretty well.