Idiots Guide To Cleaning Gravel Please

[phoenixgsd]

can i have a step by step guide to cleaning gravel please, do you take out plants, fish, ect first, i have a 'hoover' for the job but am unsure how to do it, i only have 2 fish and 2 shrimps as its a small tank, also do i clean the filter in the water i take out or the new water i put in?

i know these are silly questions but ive had the fish 3 weeks now and have been putting it off as im scared i'll mess it up and kill the fish but i know it needs doing

thank you

ETA forgot to say its only a 20L tank and i have 2 guppys

 

[Tizer]

For a tank that small i would take out the gravel and put sand in, then use a piece of air line tube to siphon out the water when doing a water change and suck up the mess. Then stick a bucket of dechlorinated water at a higher level and use the siphon effect to put water back in.

 

[phoenixgsd]

thank you, is sand less maintenance then? will it not need cleaning or changeing?

how would i go about changeing it, would the fish be ok in a bucket for a short while whilst i did the change over?
sorry for all the questions

 

[Tizer]

yeah sand is easier to keep clean, you dont need to "clean" it you just siphon the poop off the surface as it sits there in an area where there is reduced flow in the tank.

A bit of common sense is all you need to change it over Yes chuck em in a bucket.

Make sure you clean the new sand in a bucket of water until the water runs clear.

I use Argos play sand as its cheap as chips, its quite light though, so you might want something with a larger grain to stop your filter pushing it around.

 

[phoenixgsd]

ok, will deffinately change over to sand, will wait till my next day off to do this as i dont want to rush it and mess it up, thank you for being so patient with a newbie

 

[HayzH]

with Gravel you usually have a wide nozzle type attatchment, which you put on the end of the tube end. Turn OFF your heater and filter and most syphons have a pump mechanisium, pump/squeeze this and it will create a vaccumn once the water is flowing into a bucket etc... push it into the gravel and watch it suck up the muck. Be Careful not to suck up your shrimp tho..lol (spect we've all done this at some point)
to stop flow, pop finger over the end of the end thats IN the bucket, put this in another bucket, remove finger. OR just pull the syphon end (in the tank) out of the water. To get flow going again repeat as before.

with SAND...you dont need the funnel/wide nozzle part..i just swirl the syphon around about a cm or so over the sands surface and it kicks up all the muck.

good luck x