Upgraded tank size. How long till i can remove old gravel??

[yankeeslover]

I upgraded a 29 gallon to 75 gallon last week.. I also went with pool sand in the new tank and filled up pantyhose stockings with old gravel from old tank and used the old filter media to help with mini cycle. Of course stupid me added new fish at the same time(all make mistakes). Anyways i have noticed that for the first 4 days or so that my ammonia was going up to around .25ppm but the nitrites all stayed the same... i did pwc daily and used prime. Now finally today my ammonia seems to be steady at 0ppm and fish are now acting much more at home.. my nitrites are still zero... is this normal for just ammonia to spike for awhile but no nitrite spike? and last question is how long until I take out the old gravel? its an eyesore in there but thats ok if its still helping for now... i am running two filters.. my old AC 70 and i have a new AC 110....thanks for helping....

 

[Luananeko]

It's usually safe to pull the media/substrate that you're seeding the tank with after a couple weeks (or a month if you want to play it safe). Not seeing a nitrite spike on a mini-cycle is not completely unheard of. If I remember right, the nitrite eating bacteria usually grows faster than the ammonia bacteria. By having a thriving colony already established it sounds like it was able to multiply fast enough to keep up with the ammonia eating ones.