gravel

[baggins22]

ive been wanting to change my gravel and over all color of my tank. is this possible? i have already cycled and have fish in there. my concern is taking out the gravel might take a lot of the bacteria out of my tank.

 

[jordank]

It says you have an underaground filter, so basicly if you take all the gravel out, yes the bacteria will go. I'm not 100% sure but yes, it might cause your tank to recycle

 

[baggins22]

any ideas how i might be able to do this??

 

[Kasakato]

What I did is:
1. A few weeks before the change, I put extra filter media in the filter to get more bacteria build up, in your case try to get a HOB filter.
2. I took out the fish and put them into another tank. This extra tank can be keep it the dark to keep the stress levels low
3. I took out all of the old gravel and put about 2 cups of it into a nylon stock and tossed that into the tank
4. Add the CLEAN new gravel and put the fish back in.

Notes:
-You want to take out the fish becase there will be a big pop storm when you start to move the gravel.
- You might want to lower the water lever to about 50% because adding/talking out the gravel may splash some water

 

[baggins22]

thanks for ur help,

i was thinking about going to black gravel, i think this might be a nice contrast with some bright color fish. i have been looking online for some pics of setup and cant really find anybody with black gravel (another reason y i want to do it this way).. i want to look at a real tank with this setup, anybody know where i can find a pic of a tank like this??

Thanks

 

[Holly9937]

this might be a dumb idea, but could you just take out the gravel gradually, and replace it with new? Like maybe find some sort of divider you could use and just do a small section at a time? Or just push alot of it to one side and make it deeper for a little while as you make the transition? I would think even if its not perfect you could hide the few bits of old gravel you miss, then the new stuff could be gradually building up bacteria

Alot of gravel vacs before you start to move things should help keep the waste stirred up to a minimum. I realize its only one fish, but I've kept up with my 10 gallon betta tank very well, and I hardly ever see anything vacummed out when I do it!!

 

[nvan2]

Black and dark blue gravel is a great combo

 

[Rudy_627]

hot pink and teal blue is what i have in my 15 gallon and i have that as a QT or breeder tank so hope that helps but my reason(dont know why i think this) why i have it as a spare is because i think the bright colors will give the fish a shock and kill them :-/ well anyways

HTH