FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I want a new look for my 30 gallon tank. I was thinking of maybe a solid blue background, fine black gravel, and a heavy stock of live plants. Would a piece driftwood look good with this setup, or not really?

Right now I have medium-sized river rocks of various colors thats been in the tank for the past two years. It hides the algae well but my old plants couldn't get a good grip in the gravel. Anyways I want to change the river rocks to fine gravel. How would I go about this without disturbing the tank? Should I gradually add a handful new rocks each week and take out some old rocks? Is it more or less complicated than this?

Hi,
Yes, it is a bit more complicated than that. Aside from
the filter, the biggest bulk of the bacteria that affects
the nitrogen cycle is contained in the gravel. Any time
that you change out the substrate (gravel) you will wind
up recycling the tank all over again.

There are ways to make the recycling go a bit faster, but
recycle it must. To make it happen in a shorter duration,
save some of the mulum (brown "mud" that is in the gravel)
and add it to the new tank, save a handfull of gravel from
the old tank and add it to the new. In essence, in either
case, you are using some of the currently established
bacterial colonies, to jump start the new tank.

Watch your ammonia and nitrite readings, and do 10 - 20%
water changes as necessary.

When redoing the substrate as you are, it is easier on the
fish, and easier on you to simply move the fish to another
container add an airstone, and then drain the tank. Save
some of the old water, and the "gunk" from the gravel to
add to the new. Remove the gravel and ornaments, then
clean (if necessary) and then add the new gravel and
any ornaments, add the water and condition it Then, I'd
wait 24 hours with the new tank up and running, before I'd
reintroduce the fish.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I am somewhat confused. I do not have an "old" and "new" tank. I only have 1 tank. I have 2 year old gravel in there and would like to buy some new gravel to replace the old gravel.

By "old" and "new" what it is refering to in this case is that an "old" tank is established and has bacterial colonies. A "new" tank has just been set up and has no bacterial colonies.

Franks advice is spot on. Your tank is 2 years old....we assume it's fully cycled and has bacterial colonies therefore it is an old tank. With a new tank there would be no worries in stressing the fish since there are no bacterial colonies to destroy to begin with.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

Yes I understand that, but I dont want to transfer my fish to another tank. I want to keep them in the tank, buy new gravel, and discard the old gravel.

Leaving the fish in your tank while switching substrates is a bad idea. It's the same thing if someone was tossing rocks at you.

In order to switch the gravel as Frank pointed out you must preserve some of the old gravel as that is what contains the majority of your biofiltration. If you were to follow Franks advice you would have no problems. If you were to simply remove the old substrate then add new substrate you will put your tank thru a minicyle. If you're unaware of the effect of cycling a tank please read [link=this FAQ]http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]. While the effects may not be as drastic as would occur during a cycle, a minicycle is still exceedingly stressful on fish and should be avoided at all costs.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

I think he's talking about moving the fish out temporarily to a separate container so as not to stress them. Taking all the gravel out of a 30 gallon tank is a big, tedious job and the fish could become extremely upset in the process. I think it would go better for them if you could do as he suggested and put them in something with an airstone while you accomplish this. When you put them back in the tank it will almost be "new" because you will have removed two years worth of bacteria with your old gravel and added none on the new gravel. You will have a re-cycle, but it will be shorter if you can use some of the old water and old gravel. HTH

---

~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I've done this once or twice. You're way better off moving the fish to a temporary home. They will not be as stressed as they would in the tank and one thing to consider is that, while removing your old gravel you will be stirring up a LOT of the gunk, sludge, mulm etc from the bottom of the tank and the water will be very murky until it all settles back down.
Also, you may wish, in order to preserve more of your bacterial colonies, to replace half of the gravel now, and then the other half in a week or so after more bacteria has grown in the new stuff.
Or you may move them to a temporary home for a day and replace it all, retaining about half the water and the sludge on the bottom, if possible. I used a slotted scoop made for digging kitty litter to remove just the large stines and the gunk just filtered back out. Go slowly to stir up less of a mess.
When done, make sure to let the tank stand several hours at least to let everything settle back down and clear up. Good luck. not trying to scare you off, but it is a rather large undertaking.

The mulm that is mentioned is another issue I semi-forgot about till divertran reminded me. I left the fish in one time when I did do a substrate switch. Half the tank at a time from a horrid purple to a nice clean playsand. Halfway thru most all the fish came down with bacterial fin rot from all the gunk that ended up in the water since I changed it while they were in there.

Netting fish out is a big hassle, but so is medicating. And most times you don't end up with dead fish from a netting proceedure.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

No I was not thinking of moving them to a temporary tank. Every week when I gravel vacuum I was thinking of simply taking a small handful of the gravel and throwing it away. Then taking a small handful of newly purchased gravel and putting it in the tank. So therefore removing all of the gravel and replacing it with new gravel would be a slow process of 1 to 2 months. I would even have to handpick out some of the old gravel on those last few changes. I was thinking this would be easy and my water quality wouldnt be thrown off and cloudy. Maybe I didnt fully explain myself. I feel like this is a new idea because no one knows what I'm talking about.

That could work, but it sound tedious. Give it shot and let us know, maybe this will revolutionize substrate replacement.

---

~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Not exactly new, but if you don't mind how tedious it will be go for it. Just make sure you have a tight hold on that gravel as it goes in, don't just drop it from the surface. And hold onto it as it comes out as well.

A year an a half later and I still find purple gravel in the sand on occasion rather annoying really.

^_^[hr width='40%']"Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the [link=pain]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] you feel.
The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I&#8217;ve got another confession my friend, I&#8217;m no fool.
I&#8217;m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."