Rather than scooping the gravel out use a large diameter hose to siphon out the gravel.That way you can do it when you would normally do your water change and as stated before do half at a time.
From Substrate to Bare bottom?
- Thread starter AttackFish
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I added a sponge onto my powerhead about 2 weeks before I removed my gravel, and removed it 2 weeks after removing the gravel and used it to seed a filter for a new tank. water quality stayed pretty close to normal. tank is 90 gallons used a 6" round sponge.dmopar74;2800734; said:
Cheers
Stan
the amount of bacteria in the gravel shouldint affect your filtration much since you dont have a heavy bioload. i would recommend taking out as muck gravel as you can during a routine water change and then topping the tank off
wait a week or two and then water change again
wait a week or two and then water change again
exoticsfanatic;2800977; said:
Except for all those fish that live in glass bottomed lakes
I think BB is ugly, personally. I would much rather have a habitat than a big glass box with a fish in it... but that's just me.
Go get a dust pan from the dollar store, clean it up, then poke holes at the bottom for water to drain. Bam! Gravel scooper. The same can be done for a [new] cat box scooper.
Dude...trust me. I've removed all my gravel at once with a much heavier bio load with MUCH more sensitive fish several times as I get bored with the same aquascape for too long. If you only have two fish, I'd remove it all at once. You can even use a large regular fish net to remove the gravel...that's what I used. Likewise, every time I've switched substrates, I did it during a water change. Like I said, just don't change any media in your filters and you should be alright. Good luck on whatever method you choose. Bottom line is it is really not that big a deal. I don't foresee any disasters happening with any of the suggestions given so I'd just do whatever you feel comfortable doing. There's always more than on way to skin a cat
Well IMO a lot would have to do with the filtration you are running. Pretty sure it's not a UG filter 
. If you have a HOB or canister the majority of your BB will be there. Yes the will be some BB in your gravel but since there is not a constant flow of water with oxygen, ammonia and nitrites through the gravel like what is pumped through your filter the BB content of the gravel is very low in comparison.
Best way to remove the gravel is to siphon it out, this will cloud the water the least and you could do without moving or stressing the fish.
. If you have a HOB or canister the majority of your BB will be there. Yes the will be some BB in your gravel but since there is not a constant flow of water with oxygen, ammonia and nitrites through the gravel like what is pumped through your filter the BB content of the gravel is very low in comparison.Best way to remove the gravel is to siphon it out, this will cloud the water the least and you could do without moving or stressing the fish.
yup, it all depends on your filtration and bioload. if youre relying on your gravel for bio filtration, then you are way underfiltered!!!!
