Changing Gravel

[shahdi]

i have a 80gal tank which i want too change the gravel. what is the best way of doing this. thinking of putting water, wood, fish and filter into a holding tank or something alike and clean out tank and put new gravel. anyideas on the bast way. thanks

 

[dthoffsett]

Several months ago I switch out substrate in my 75gal mbuna tank. This is what I did:

The night before the change I took out all the rock (130lbs) and cleaned the new substrate to make things easier the next day.

The day of the change I moved all the fish over to a 10gal I keep for QT/Hospital and ran a filter, after draining about 80% of the water to catch them easier.

Kept all of the filter media from the 75gal wet, but not running.

Removed rest of water, and substrate.

Scrubbed out tank really well.

Added rocks, filters, heater, then new substrate (in mbuna tanks you want the rocks on the bottom to avoid cave-ins)

Filled with water (and dechlorinator obviously), waited for it to reach temperature, then added fish.

While about 90% of your beneficial bacteria lives in the filters, some bacteria will live on every surface in the tank, so to avoid any mini-cycle I fed very lightly the week leading up to the change, and then lightly for a few days afterward. I didn't have any problems.

Oh, I also highly recommend having another person or two to help.

Hope what I did helps you out. -Dawn

 

[Thirdfloor]

dthoffsett has it right, thats a very efficient way to do it. The only thing I did differently was to bag my fish as I took them out, made it a bit easier to wrangle them around (my lfs gave me a bunch of bags, i just asked one time)
Its very important, as stated, to keep your filter media wet during the process so your bacteria dont die, if you have a small bucket that hasnt had soap or chemicales in it, toss your media and an airstone in if you can to keep it happy til your done, make sure you use tank water.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi shahdi

I would do what dthoffsett suggested. It sounds like work, but in the long run it will probably be easier than having to deal with the dirt that will get stirred up by taking out the old gravel and adding new. It will also be easier to work without the fish getting in the way.

The only thing I would really do differently is to try to save some of the old water and add it to the tank when I refill it. I find that by using 1/4 to 1/3 old water it seem to keep the formation of tiny bubbles to a minimum.

 

[shahdi]

wow thanks for the help everybody. mite have to plan abit before going ahead with this.

thanks

 

[shahdi]

how long can fish be in a tank without a filter. saying this only because i only have the canister filter which filters the main tank. i dont have another filter to filter the holding tank. what other ways can i go around this problem??

 

[Thirdfloor]

they should be fine for a few hours, depending on how many fish there are and how many gallons the holding tank is. At least long enough for you to change out the gravel.

 

[vinylman]

wow thanks for the help everybody. mite have to plan abit before going ahead with this.

thanks

That's the absolute best thing you can do; decide what you're going to do, where everything's going to go, then stick to it. Don't rush it and it should go absolutely fine. I recently had to move my 4ft into the kitchen and back again after the living room was redecorated. The biggest step is actually starting!!.