When I was cleaning my planted tank last weekend I removed a medium size mesh bag of established gravel I had used to aid cycling. I just stuck it in my 5 gal bucket and went on cleaning the tank. I cleaned the sponge filters out in the bucket, refilled the tank and sat back to enjoy my nice clean tank. An hour or so later I took the bucket to the kitchen sink to dump but the water was so nasty I decided to dump it in the toilet. 1/2 way through pouring the water in I heard the splash and my stomach dropped. When the water cleared the mesh bag was gone! I spent the next few hours plunging, dumping bucket after bucket of water and fishing around with a coat hanger to free it up. From now on I'm keeping 2 buckets with me to clean tanks. 1 for water only and 1 for plant debris or anything else removed from the tank. I probably won't dump tank water in the house any more either.
Dumb lesson learned
Dumb lesson learned
