penna32

i have finally built up enough courage to change the gravel .. i have currently white, and 5 lbs of black mixed in (what a waste . it looked horrible, but i love the look of just black) .. so tomorrow im buying about 15 -20 lbs of black gravel, and popping it in

my procedure is :
put my 3 danios, 3 barbs, 1 gourami,
in a 5 gallon bucket with aquarium water
along with the fish, will be my plants, ohh man

2 kribs, 2 rams, and 1 otto inside my little 10 gallon tank

i am going to scoop up the gravel ..and put it god knows where lol, ill find a place sooner or later .. i will have water in the place so the bacteria colony is all good to go

i will have the washed gravel and put it in the tank .. then sit for about 5 minutes to rest .. and admire the beauty =]

refill the tank with water

let the gravel settle .. re plant the plants, and hopefully my new driftwood in!

put the fish in ..
now heres my dilemma .. in my sig. it says i have a 10 gallon tank .. i want to make that tank for ADF's, andmostly ADF's .. but im really scared cuz i dotn want to brin gthem into the 20 and then have too many fish, .. i already have a lot of fish for my tank, but i have put them in very slowly so the colony is just beautiful =]


... does this procedure sound good?
what should i do with the old gravel .. as i will need nitrates in my tank, and these along with the plants hold some .. i tink im gunna put some of my gravel in the center, but kinda on the bottom .. so its not visable ?

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BJP

Find a knee high stocking and readd as much of the old gravel as you can stand to look at to reseed the new gravel. Feed lightly and monitor the ammonia and nitrite for the next week or so. If you can stand it pick as much of the old black gravel out by hand and remix it in with the new black gravel.

I sprinkle unwanted gravel around in the driveways, use it to weight down soil in pots for my ponds and as filler for the bottom of regular pots to keep the holes open and the soil in.

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penna32

thanks BJP, glad someone replied

.. but i did it this morning, and it was successfull .. i left about 1.5 inch of old gravel on the bottom, and about 3-4 inches of new gravel on top . beautiful
testable nitrates up to 20ppm, no nitrites or ammonia .. im so proud!

i sprinkled the old gravel in my moms little flower bed, she loved it

ill send a pic, i dont have one of my old tank, well not right before i changed the gravel, but i have one pretty recent .. and one now =]

before : http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n...rent=fish1.jpg


after: http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n...nt=newtank.jpg

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Tommy Gun

Wow, that is a big change Penna! I think it looks great with all black gravel. Personally, I tend to lean towards black gravel or sand as a favorite as well. I think it makes everything else really 'pop' as far as colors go. I am also glad that things went smoothly for you. Be sure to keep testing your water parameters since you could still experience a mini-cycle from this gravel change.

penna32

thanks tommy!
ya i wanted to do black sand, but theres such high demands, i couldnt find any! lmao

but yes black gravel is my favorite =] i will keep testing for any minicycles .. now my next chance is to turn my 10 gal into a fully sand ADF tank

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Tommy Gun

Try a hardware store for black sand...even home depot might have it. That is where I get mine from. I found a pretty good technique for cleaning and getting past some obstacles associated with sand. I will see if I can find that post again and give you the link.

penna32

i could do that .. but i like the way the tank looks now .. and i plan on just using regular sand for my 10 so i can actually find the froggies .. of course 2 of them disappeared so i think they are hiding in the holes in my decor .. oh man thts gunna stink i loved the little guys

ps .. im surprised my otto survived .. i couldnt find it when i was taking out the fish, and when i finished i saw him squirmy around nd i was like ooops!

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penna32

my tank is currently going through a mini cycle

looks really clowdy .. wow i didn't miss this part of fish keeping at all!

it should be over soon, i have almost 0 nitrites

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