If you are absolutely wedded to that gravel you can safely just rinse it off in
treated water and return it to the tank without destroying the biobug colonies. Use
a colander and run the treated water over it. dont put a lot in at a time. I have
had gravel sitting in a 5 gallon container for months and they instantly cycled tanks
(drip filters). If you can run your hands thru teh gravel then there probably isnt
much rotting stuff in there.
so you dont have any big rocks or decorations or plants in that gravel? no place the
organics could accumulate and not get siphoned clean?
lots of people have low pH water and the fish do fine. however, GF do best in
slightly alkaline water because there is sufficient buffer system to keep the pH from
swinging up and down. if that is the pH of your water out of the tap then it is
fine.
sounds like the pH is dropping. you need calcium. find some organic dolomitic
limestone from a gardening center or LFS, but test it to make sure the pH doesnt go
up up up and not stop around 8.4 or so. it has both calcium and magnesium and forms
a fine buffer system. baking soda is temporary. Ingrid


"Kodiak" wrote:

Hi Ingrid,
Tank has been running like that for a few years, i never pull
the gravel out to give it a thorough wash. I'm afraid I'll kill the
good biobugs. I use a gravel siphon with a 3/4" hose attached,
and run the hose downstairs from the 2nd floor into the garage.
The vacum is amazing, it really sucks out all the crud. By the time
i'm finished, there is no dirt left, if you run your hand through my
gravel, very little comes out, and my water is crystal clear. Can it
still be loaded with organics?

Do you really think I need to absolutely remove the gravel
every 6 months or so? If so how do you wash? Should i use
a pressure washer? Should i use a bit of bleach? If so what
concentration?

Please comment on low KH, can low KH stress the fish?
Besides crashing the PH...

Did a 25% last night, heater is back in at 72degF, PH is back
up to 7.0, but KH still at 20ppm, I'm afraid PH is gonna crash,
add baking soda?

...Kodiak


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