Gravel cleaning views

[ianocappuccino]

Hi, looking for some opinions!

I upgraded from a 120 to 240 couple months ago! I drained the 120 and transferred the gravel into new tank!
Along with filter and big wood from old tank! So didn't need to be cycled!

Couple days later there was a massive algea breakout and I could see it was growing from bottom of the tank upto 3/4 of the way up the glass!

Didn't know what was causing it but then my gravel turned green and would not come off with normal siphoning! So I decided to remove all the gravel and give it a good clean in a bucket using tank water! U wouldn't believe how dirty the cleaning water turned!
Found out that because I drained the old tank all the waste etc was mixed with the gravel and was all put into the new tank! Anyway this cleans the gravel amazingly and I have never had another bit of algea since!

However, I'm just wondering would this be harmful to the tank if done regularly as it cleans it so good that it removes all leftover waste -amonia therefore disrupting the biological filter?


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[Jmunroe]

If you didn't put a cycled filter on the new tank or media from a cycled filter in the new filter, then just putting gravel and driftwood from an old tank, in a new tank is not cycling. There should not be that much debris in the gravel. Do you gravel vac? What is your stocking and water change schedule? You had an algae out break because you added all the debris to the tank which the algae thrived on since the filtration was lacking. I would consider removing all the gravel but a very thin layer if your not able to properly maintain it.

 

[ianocappuccino]

Yes I used te old filter from the old tank along with everything else! And yes I gravel vac but because I drained the tank before removing the gravel all waste was mixed with the gravel when I scooped it out!

I do 25% w/c every Wednesday along with filter cleaning and gravel vac!
Current stock is 10 neon tetras, 5 tiger barbs, 1 x 12" common pleco and couple other tetras


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[ianocappuccino]

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[NigelK8485]

That's all you have in a 240 gallon tank?


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[ianocappuccino]

240ltr not gallon


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