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I have a 29g and I am strapped on cash at the moment and I was wondering if I washed the rocks with JUST hot water and let them sit and also made sure no debris was left would it be ok to use it? It was from a previous set up in the tank and after I got the fish out due to a major death (I think there was an ammonia spike when I was away due to a neighbors lack of knowledge with feeding fish) and then I let the water evaporate over months because my gravel vac messed up and I did not have time or money to be able to get it cleaned and restarted.

I plan on using a scrubber to get the algae off, and I did not let the fish sit dead in there, I got them out as soon as I noticed they died.

I am really hoping I can reuse the gravel, because it was a lot of gravel that was nice and natural colored, not that neon pink crap.

Any info would be appreciated, and I need to know by saturday because I am going to have some extra cash from this paycheck and I wanted to get my tank set up again so I can start cycling.

WoW Addict and proud of it
1.66g Hex - Nothing as of yet
29g - Nothing as of yet

I would not use old gravel that has been sitting around but that's just me. I understand being strapped for cash and how you would want to use your gravel. If you do I would boil it first and then let it dry out in the sun. This should kill any bacteria that may have formed. In general if you wanted to use old gravel from a running tank I would say yes, as this I way to boost the cycling and many people do it with no ill effects.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

If the death was due to just an ammonia spike and not disease the gravel will be fine.

I'd suggest boiling it for a bit, make sure you can have the windows open though, boiled gravel smells like ... you don't want to know .

A day in spread out in the sun will help too with the UV.

Other cheap sources of aquarium gravel can be found in Homedepot or Lowes, pea gravel or Shultzes aquatic plant soil.

^_^

I might just look at Lowes for what you said Babel because it turns out my paycheck is $50 more then I was expecting so :lol:

Thanks for the info Dj about using the established tank gravel, I might try bumming that off of someone I know.

WoW Addict and proud of it
1.66g Hex - Nothing as of yet
29g - Nothing as of yet

Now that's a nice surprise.

Just makesure whoever you get some gravel from, you trust to have well kept tanks. A lot of times the LFS's will sell their gravel for cycling, but I'd never use LFS gravel, not with the number of illnesses often associated with the gravel .

^_^

I agree with Babelfish about making sure the dirty gravel you get for cycling is from a trusted source. I would only use LFS gravel if an emergency situation occurred, because as stated the disease transferring into the tank. I know that in my LFS every week it seems like a new groups of fish are introduced into the tanks. With this type of turn over and people returning fish and not knowing the condition of the tank they came from, you might be inviting a problem. Not that they are not maintaining their tanks. Its just they are a business and ultimately they are tring to make money.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams