Reusing Gravel

S

Sam Puter

AC Members
Feb 13, 2005
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~hey~
i have these rocks from my first ten gallon and when i moved up to a 55 gallon i emptied out the tank and i couldn't get the gravel clean. So i asked my mom what i should do and her and me aren't fish experts so she said we could try and bleach them so we bleached them and let them sit outside and they were rained on heavily about 4 times and now they are sitting in a plastic bag. Can i reuse this gravel for my ten gallon that i am gonna start up again? OR do i have to rebuy gravel? :confused:
 
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I think I would rinse them many many times, bleach is pretty potent! I would rather over rinse, than not do it enough!
 
Unless the previous tank had known problems, I think bleaching the gravel is too much problems than it's worth.

I had a friend give me his old tank, and I didn't do anything special with the gravel.
I just reused it.
I think there was some "good" bacteria still on it, as cycling the tank back up was nearly instant.

I would only bleach the old gravel if you know there's bad stuff (i.e. parasites, ich, etc.) prior.

Getting all that bleach out is a bigger chore!
 
I've been recycling gravel for 40 years. All I do is rinse well (usual bucket and water bit with stirring), then if not to be re-used immediately I spread on fiberglass (large commercial foodsafe trays) trays to dry, then bag in heavy ziplocks for storage.

If the tank had one of the horrors (Neon Tetra disease, or TB) I treat with OxiClean, rinse and dry as usual.
 
Since the gravel has sat for so long, rinsing it to clear any stale water should be sufficient. Gravel isn't absorbent, and chlorine gases off pretty quickly. If you can't smell it, it's gone. Rinse and re-use, or dry and store as RTR recommends.
 
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