Gravel changes without losing bacteria

[WetWired]

I was wondering if there was some trick to changing the gravel in your tank without losing all of the bacteria that keep the nitrite levels down. A friend of mine didn't know any better and changed his entire gravel setup without any preperation for the loss of bacteria and lost almost all of his fish to nitrite poisoning.

Is there some trick to this? Surely the gravel you choose when you initially setup your tank isn't what you're stuck with for life.

 

[msjinkzd]

you can hang some gravel in a new nylon stocking under the discharge in teh filter for a couple of weeks to help offset the loss

 

[southpaw]

Or you might could try doing it in sections about once a week...do alittle and leave space between the two.... this will just be taking small amounts of bacteria out at a time that will resolve itself in a few days

 

[drawnon]

im about to change my 29 gallon around and i think im going to do it like this...
im going to vacume the gravel and as its up in the siphon im going to put it in a plastic cooking strainer thats in the tank. im probably going to need 3 of them. in my head it sounds like it will work. the gravel will never actually leave the tank untill i remove the strainer.
what do you guys think?

 

[southpaw]

That would probably work...just leave it in for awhile to let a good bacteria colony build in the new gravel...you could slowly start taking the gravel out of the strainer alittle at a time every few days or week to keep from too big of a mini-cycle starting

 

[jessivore]

make sure to use a plastic strainer lol

 

[WetWired]

A guy at a local petshop today told me of a way he called "seeding" the tank. I said to use a gravel vacuum and suck the gunk out of the gravel - roughly 10-20 gallons of it. Change your gravel out, then use that 10-20 gallons to water to fill the tank back up.

What do yall think of this method?

 

[Radar]

I just changed all my gravel several months ago in my 29 gallon.
My QT tank was empty so I just moved water,fish, plants,heater and filter over to it for several hours to give me time to clean the 29 gallon out.
I kept about 4 cups of old gravel and put them in a knee high stocking.(keeping them wet in the QT tank)
Got the 29 set up with new rock added clean dechlorinated water and transfered everything back to the 29 and all went well no problems at all.
I hung the stockings with the rocks over a air stone next to my filter intake.
As far as the sucking the water and gunk out and reuseing it. I would not put the gunk in a clean tank, The bacteria is on the rocks not the gunk, and the water does not hold much if any bacteria at all. Just try to put everything back in the tank that came out of it (filter,plants,etc.)

 

[jm1212]

the water will have very little bacteria in it. the filter should have plenty though, enough to spring back with the loss of the bacteria on the gravel. you shouldnt change all of it at once though, changing ¼ at a time should be fine though

 

[tankboy_taylor]

Ive done it once with my 46g with no real issues doing all the gravel at once. I tested every day for a week dont think I had an ammonia spike if so it was minor.