Can I take the stones from one aquarium and move them into another without causing harm to the fish in it.?

Question

I want to remove the red and black gravel that I have in my established aquarium and put in stones that i have gotten. I have boiled the stones and am going to put them in another aquarium until I can get that one to cycle. Once it cycles, can i take all the old gravel out and replace it with the stones? Will this mess everything up or should I just add some of the stones a little at a time until i have replaced all the gravel?
What would be the best way to do this?

Answer 1

The bacteria you need for cycling attaches to the surface of the gravel and filter media in your tanks. So if what you do is move the gravel to cycle a tank, and then remove it, you're taking most of the bacteria with it. This would leave any fish in the "old" tank exposed to ammonia without bacteria for converting it to nitrate.

I'm not really clear on if you're planning to eventually use both tank, but a better approach might be to remove half the gravel and move it to the new tank while leaving the other half in place. Divide the stones in half, and put half in each tank so bacteria will colonize them. Then slowly move the gravel stones from the container you don't want them in to the one you do.

If you're only going to use one tank, add the stone to it with the gravel, and over the next few weeks, slowly take out about 1/4 of the gravel each time you clean the tank. This lets the "new" rocks become colonized while your fish get the benefits of the bacteria in the "old" gravel.

NOTE: If you're going to use two tanks and split the gravel, you'll still need to provide an ammonia source so the bacteria have it for their energy source. This can be pure ammonia (no cleansers or additives) at 1 drop per 2 gallons of water, a pinch of fish food, or a single hardy fish.


NOTE 2: You don't want to wash the gravel - doing so, especially with tap water, can kill the bacteria you want to keep.

Answer 2

Ok, if you have gravel in one cycled tank, and plan to put the new gravel into a new tank, cycle it completely, then transfer it to the older tank, you should be fine. As long as the gravel is not out of water long enough to dry, and the gravel you add is from a fully cycled tank, you should have no trouble. If you have a power filter on your tank you want to put the new gravel in, the one that has gravel and is cycled already, most of the bacteria are in the filter anyway, so the gravel shouldn't be a problem. The best way to do this would be to carefully remove all decorations, scoop out the gravel in there now, into a bucket of tank water if you want to preserve the bacteria, then put the new gravel from the other tank into another bucket of tank water, and carefully scoop it into your tank, a little at a time, not dropping the gravel on the heads of your fish. Good luck.

Answer 3

yes but wash them with warm water and then with cold for about five mintues etc. then let them cool off and put them in when you change the water