Taking Out Gravel

[Fadi]

Well I have a tank with 4 discus and about 5 gourami, and 1 angel fish. It is about 60 gallons. I wanted to take out the gravel in the tank, and was wondering if there were any precautionairy steps to take? I will be taking it out from one side of the tank and let the fish relax on the other side. My plan is to get rid of the gourami and have about 6-7 discus in the tank, with the single angelfish. I do have a piece of driftwood with a piece of slate attached to the bottom, and was wondering if the slate could hurt the discus?

 

[PaulasPets]

There is usually a lot of junk in the gravel. I would probably take it out in a few steps, to avoid the water from getting too cloudy. It would probably be best to scoop the gravel out with a small bucket to get th ejunk out as well. Using just your hands or a net will leave all the junk in the tank.

Paula

 

[xJake]

Slowly remove the gravel over the course of a week to avoid a mini-cycle as gravel contains some of the nitrifying bacteria in your tank. The slate won't hurt your fish unless they hurt themselves on it which can happen with anything in an aquarium. If you're planning on adding more discus and removing the gouramis I would only go up to 5 with the angel as discus need very good water quality. If you removed the angel and heavily planted the tank you could possibly do six.