large rubbermaid containers make awesome temporary housing for fish and are large enough to run your filters and heaters (if necessary) to keep your fish healthy during the switchout. and they work awesome for fishy stuff storage when you're not filling them with tank water.
Still not good enough for the AFC North. I'm not very optimistic about this season.
On your gravel change. I removed all the fish, deco, everything and placed the fish into temporary housing ( cooler with an airstone ). I removed all the old gravel and added the new rinsed sand. From there I used the Python system to do water changes until the water was crystal clear. From there I drained the water to fit the 20-30 gallons in the cooler. I had the cooler set up off the ground so I could siphon from the cooler to a bucket, from which I added the old water back to the tank. The water in the tank was already treated with Prime, so in effect it was just a 60% water change. The fish were fine and I had no mini-cycle ( I use ALOT of biomedia in my sump ). If you do regular water changes this should be no problem. If you do not do regular water changes you may want to start slowly increasing them over a few weeks until you're at 50% or so/ week. A rapid change in water chemistry caused by infrequent water changes can cause an ammonia spike that can be dangerous to your fish. I've found that I can do 75-100% water changes with no ill effects as long as they're done regularly.
I took out all of the gravel and it was a nightmare but i left all the fish in the tank when i was doing this.. get you a plastic spatula and a heavy duty fish net like the ones from bait stores that catch minnows..
Scoop out the gravel and when you think your almost done take the plastic spatula the bigger the better spatula and start from back to front scooting the gravel leftovers to the front when done scoot the gravel to one end of the tank and finish netting gravel out this step may need to be repeated several times do to cloudy murky water you will not see a thing in a well established setup.. good times aye..
Justa - thanks for the advice. It will save my equipment.
Reframer - never thought about sand cutting up my fish, so I will look into the Estes sand.
Betta - I actually have a large tupperware that is not being used. I don't know why I did not think of that, since I had my Afra living in a bucket with a hob for a week.
Afro and Pitt - as always, thanks for the feedback. I need to remeber to check with everyone here on the forum before making any changes from here on out.
Oh, and Afro, I will be pulling for your team for all but 2 games this season. You fans need something good to happen with the Clowns.
Yeah afro what mcybyk said about the clowns hehehehe GO COLT"S hey mycbyk whats wrong with Benny Poo did he get hurt again i seen him limping off the field last week with practice..
