how to change gravel in established tank??

[palehorse78]

i want to take out my river rock and use a some tahitian moon rook the tank is full with fish i have a place to put the fish for a day. so how should i go about the process of tasking out like 30 lb of river rock

[Andy16]

I took out all the decor and old gravel. Then put in the sand and the decorations again. You will need to take a lot of the water out, meaning you will need a lot of 5 gallon buckets depending on your tank size.
the water will be cloudy for like a week. Rinsing the sand very well will help but it will still make the water cloudy for a while.

[Cearbhaill]

I just removed a sand substrate from a tank without taking out the fish.
I used a new rubbermaid shallow container and a new rubbermaid dustpan. I just set the shallow container on the bottom of the aquarium and slowly scooped sand into it with the dustpan. As the container got full I brought it out of the aquarium and dumped it into a handy garbage can.
It actually went much faster and easier than I could have hoped :D

[KateA.]

I would worry about losing beneficial bacteria, if this is your substrate. If it were me, I would only remove one 1/2 of the tank first, wait a couple weeks, then remove the other 1/2. And try not to let it get too mixed up in the meantime.

[steeltown]

empty some tank water into a few buckets. seperate your filters/fish/decorations into respective buckets

use some cheap panty hose (rinsed well) and use it to make several "bags" of gravel. Keep them wet in the old tank water.

empty the tank and use this time to really scrub it clean (no detergents).

Add your new, well rinsed, substrate. and begin filling the tank using the old tank water and new treated tap water.
(Using the old water helpes make the change a little easier on the fish)

Add back all of your filters/decor and then the fish. Add a "bag" of gravel into your filters and lay the rest on the new bed of substrate.
This way it keeps a fair amount of bacteria in the tank and you can remove the "bags" later when your tank is settled.

It worked very well for my tank. Fish did fine. Having an extra person made it easier also. So toss back a few and have at it.
:D

Lots of work but my end result was worth every minute.
Good luck:D

Last note.... In my earlier days, I scooped gravel out of a tank and didn't realize how much I scratched up the inside of the glass in doing so. :( Scoop gently.

[ArkyLady]

steeltown has great advice with the baggies of gravel. That's how I did my last substrate change and everything went great. No ammonia spikes or any problems at all.

The only other thing I would stress is to be sure to rinse your new substrate well before adding it and put the water back into the tank SLOWLY. The extra time and patience required to do this is well worth it when you don't have water so cloudy you can't even see into the tank for days :)

I recently changed a tank over to onyx sand and since it's so fine it was hard to wash. I ended up putting a couple of cupfuls into a large mixing bowl (I used one that was shaped to pour from one end, made things much easier), then run water into it while I swished it around with my hand, then I'd pour the dirty water off of it and do it again. Took about 5-7 rinses per bowlful, but I had zero cloudiness in my water when I was done. Not sure about the new rock you plan to use, but that onyx sand has some nasty foamy stuff in it :)

[WolfPup522]

A few weeks ago, I changed the substrate in my tank as well, and did it very similar to steeltown's advice. Everything turned out much better than I expected, as far as how "easy" it was and how well the fish did. I actually bought a 20-ish gallon storage tote at KMart and used that to keep the fish and some of the old tank water in until I had finished re-filling the tank with the new gravel.

Good luck!

[ROLLIN]

You guys mention the water getting cloudy when taking out the gravel, do you have a few inches of substrate? I keep very little in my tanks, and Ive taken out all the gravel before with no cloudiness at all. A thick layer of gravel collects a bunch of crud, and you see that when you take it out. Less gravel = healthier aquarium. Theres no way anyone can get all the waste out of a thick layer of substrate by vacuming it every week, or twice a week. There will always be some that gets burried and fouls up the tank. Remember people, more isnt always better. :)