yea im going to empty to 50 % then scoop out gravel, empty to 15% then put new gravel in then fill it again.
Removing gravel from full tank
- Thread starter CanadianKeeper
- Start date
Did this three times within the last month. Gravel vacuum it very well then you could pick up the gravel with a fish net. You can remove the fish if you don't want to stress them but mine seemed to be fine with it.
I gravel vac pretty often and the tank hasnt been set up for very long I dont think there will be very much to stir up
This is what I do if I can't remove the fish from the tank, its alot of stress and waste to expose your fish too in one go ime. Otherwise I use a wider diameter hose ( most harware stores sell the clear pipe we use for syphoning)... and syphon it out with the hose taking out however much to do a decent water change on the tank.. rinse repeat. no matter how well you syphon your gravel pre removal your going to miss alot. I also make sure all my filter media has been cleaned/rinsed thoroughly in tank water so it can work at max capasity in removing any solids.. but its what you don't see thats mast dangerous.. and the deeper the gravel bed the more dangerous it is.
imo the deciding factor is what fish species are in the tank and how hearty they are. if they are delicate species, can never be to careful. if heartier then you have more leeway in general.
Oscar, red tailed cat, florida gar, Peacock bass, ID shark, all very hardy. I dont think I have much to worry about.
That is correct. Much of the beneficial bacteria live in the substrate. Removing all of it at the same time could very easily upset the parameters of the tank especially if the bio-load is heavy and you are close to equilibrium. By that I mean, not a whole lot of flexibility in the bio-capacity. If you are right at the maximum in terms of bio-capacity, removing say half could be bad for the system. I would recommend taking the old substrate out and saving it in a bucket of tank water, stir it up and pour the water through a sponge, capturing the BB. Put the sponge back into the tank or the filter after the new substrate is in place.
It has been done and went off without a hitch. I emptied the water too 75% Left the syphon in the tank pulling out water while I started to dig out all the gravel to grab all the crap I was stiring up. By the time I had all the gravel out the tank was at 40% water level. I then refilled the tank and turned everything back on (filters heaters ect.). The tank is crystal clear and fish dont seem botherd at all and it was several hours ago. The filter Has a bunch of bb in it. Im sure if I cleaned the filter it would be a diffrent story. But im going to do that next week.
I have a 1 1/2 inch hose from our pool that I have used to remove all the gravel works great (can fill a 5 gallon bucket it 13 seconds)
