How to clean gravel in a fish bowl?

Question

I have a fish bowl that is a little larger than a gallon. I do a complete water change with aged water (let to sit out a few days to dechlorinate) every week. (actually, I keep two bowls in continuous rotation)

If I were to put a little gravel on the bottom of his bowl, how would I clean it? I'm one of those nervous types that likes everything spotless - would it need to be washed every week?

How would I add a plant to this if I were to get a larger bowl?

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I too am somewhat obsessive about cleaning and certain things, but trust me, when it comes to the best health for fish, spotlessly, squeaky clean is the worst thing you can do. Because a bowl is so unbelievably tiny, and I really have to put in my two cents worth and say please, please choose to upgrade to at least a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter, your water changes definitely need to be at least weekly and possibly bi-weekly, depending on what fish you're keeping and a back up rotation bowl is a great idea, thank you for that! But, when it comes to the gravel, never scrub it spotless, never let it dry out and never rinse it in chlorinated tap water and never scrub your bowl squeaky clean either. This is because very important beneficial bacteria grow in the gravel and on the bowl surface and in the filter media. Cleaning too well kills this good bacteria. Save the old water and rinse your gravel in that and then transfer it to the new bowl. This is the best and healthiest thing you can do. A bowl is just too tiny to add plants. You can only have plants if you upgrade to a larger filtered tank.

Answer 2

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RE:
How to clean gravel in a fish bowl?
I have a fish bowl that is a little larger than a gallon. I do a complete water change with aged water (let to sit out a few days to dechlorinate) every week. (actually, I keep two bowls in continuous rotation)

If I were to put a little gravel on the bottom of his bowl, how would I clean it? ...

Answer 3

How To Clean Fish Bowl

Answer 4

first of all bowls are very crual. also if you wash the gravel in the bowl all the time no nitrafiying bacteria will grow so just change 1/2 the water a week also this depends on the fish if we're talking goldfish here oy you need a bigger tank like a 5 gal and a filter. if it's guppies or bettas then once a week sould be fine. not changing the water compleately or washing the gravel will decrease nitite and ammonia levels

Answer 5

First, snails only green algae on the gravel, not the waste produced by the betta. Second, because betta is a slow swimming fish, l wouldn't recommend medium to big snails because they'll grasp on the betta's slime coat. In my experience, I wouldn't use a snail in a fish BOWL, because it's too small to provide enough algae for the snail, especially during water change. But if you want something to clean the food waste and some algae, I suggest ghost shrimps or very small snail (difficult to keep alive when water is changed constantly)

Answer 6

I've had my fish tank (& gravel) for nearly a year and it's never looked dirty. I hoover it with my special manual gravel hoover once a week when I clean and it removes the fish poo ect. It's good for heavy waste fishes (goldfishes,platies ect).

Answer 7

If you want plants and gravel, get a 5 gallon tank and use a siphon hose and bucket to clean it out!

Answer 8

When you clean the fish bowls, you remove the fish and dump out the water... well when there are ROCKS or plants in the bowl, just empty the water into a Colander (that big bowl with holes in it that your mom uses to drain spaghetti)... that will catch all the rocks and you can spray them with your faucet sprayer or just run fresh tap water over them and shake them around with your fingers to make sure all the rocks get rinsed well and then plop them back into your fish bowl, add water and the fish and voila.

Answer 9

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