Best way to remove existing gravel without causing undo stress to skittish discus

[BaileyF]

I'd like to take the gravel out of my 55 gal, the three discus (I've had them about 9 months lost the other 3 to internal parasites sadly i didn't know what was happening till it was too late) this is my first bout with keeping discus... The ones that are left are very very skittish and hide i'm surprised they haven't injured themselves in the process...

What would be the best way to go about removing the gravel should i move the fish to a smaller tank? or will that just cause unneeded stress?

Like many i didn't realize how much more work a discus is than a normal tropical tank and my upstairs bedroom and being 7 months pregnant makes frequent water changes a challenge so i'm thinking removing the gravel will at least help target what needs to be removed,

Also i'd like to add some maybe 2 more How long after I remove the gravel should i wait to make this purchase? (i'll be ordering these from an online dealer as the store near me feeds live worms and i really don't want to go threw the parasite situation again, it was agonizing watching the fish basically starve themselves)

I have one bio sponge i'm running a back of the tank filter with bio wheels seeing i'm removing the gravel should i add some other type of bio filter to make up for the good bacteria that will be removed with the gravel?

Thank you in advance for suggestions and sharing your knowledge

[Chicago Discus]

I turned my 120 to bare bottom tank and I did it very slowly Everytime I did a water change I took some gravel out it took about two weeks but I did it that way so wouldn't disturbed the bio in the tank. just the way I did it .........Josie

[BaileyF]

Josie,

thanks for some reason such a seeming obvious answer didn't even a cure to me.

[ShinShin]

If you have no undergravel filters, there is very little aerobic bacteria growing there, and if your gravel is to thick, you could have an anaerobic colony going on, which is not a good thing in a discus tank. I would move the discus into another tank, remove the gravel, clean up the bottom some. You can even wipe it down, after you dry it with a paper towel, with alcohol. Any residual will be consumed by bacteria.

Your discus will not be that stressed by such a move. I move fish at will. They aren't that delicate that you cannot move them about from time to time.

I am glad you connected live CBW's and health issues instead of blaming something else. I would never feed them again, personally. Adding 2 more is no problem. Remember to QT them first and buy the same sized fish.

Mat

[Keith Perkins]

LOL, and I'd take a completely different approach. Remove about 4 gallons of water to a 5 gallon pail and put the fish in the pail. I'd give them an airstone and heater, but honestly if you don't waste too much time you could probably do without them. Take a small plastic shovel like the size for cleaning cat litter and scoop out all the gravel. Follow that with a 100% WC and replace the fish. You've got bio going in your hob, bio-wheels, sponge filter and every surface in the tank. Worst case scenario I'd say you might have to do one or two extra WCs in the first two weeks to let the bio catch up, but I doubt it.

Josie's way would probably work too, but I prefer one big mess for an hour or so as compared to lots of small to medium size ones over two weeks.

[nikond70s]

if your gravels are small...heres what i did to my 135 gallon....

i brought in my garden hose. used that as a suction. everytime i do a waterchange i would use the hose to suck out the gavels as well. keep doing it till you get everything out. it took me 1 week, 3 water changes to get all the gravels out. thats the easiest way i can think of without taking the discus out and stressing them. its basically a waterchange but your sucking gravel out as well. simple clean and hassle free.

[BaileyF]

".....Josie's way would probably work too, but I prefer one big mess for an hour or so as compared to lots of small to medium size ones over two weeks......"

that was why i was thinking move them to another tank to do it... its amazing how many different approaches and answers there are for the care of these fish, ever since i bought the first 2 I've been reading and researching (mind you i should have done this first i honestly had no idea i'd be walking out of that store with those quite expensive interesting looking fish that day... ) and it seems like every one question there are ten completely different tactics...

and because of the already mentioned fun with internal parasites i'd like to try to clean out any chance of one of the healthy fish digesting any infected fecal matter.... So all at once might be the better option so that after qt new fish i won't have to worry so much about that happening again...

[chiligum]

It all depends how much gravel you have in there as to how many water chages you will need. I have only a thin layer of sand that i can completely syphon out every time i do a water change in one go, obviously if you have loads more than it will take you a lot longer! I would go for the bucket option if you have no smaller tank to use and just put your fish in there until you've scrubbed and cleaned down your tank and put them back in afterwards, they wont be overly bothered by it all. As for getting more fish, i would do that as soon as possible, it would help calm down your excisting fish and make for a much more happy tank!

[Keith Perkins]

[QUOTE=BaileyF;836086]... its amazing how many different approaches and answers there are for the care of these fish.../QUOTE]

Well you've learned at least a couple things hanging out here. :) There are definitely more than one right way to do most things with discus. Some work better than others, but in the end you have to find the ones that work best for you and your fish. My thoughts are that if you make it too difficult you can get lax about tank maintenance and that can become a vicious circle. That's sort of why I suggested just moving the fish to a 5 gallon pail for the hour or so the degraveling process will take rather than bothering setting up another tank. Both will work fine, just a matter of what's easier. Good luck with the clean out, and even more so with your little event two months from now. :D

[seanyuki]

As mentioned from others.....perhaps first using a plastic shovel and then use a wet dry vac to suck up all the remaining gravels.

[BaileyF]

[QUOTE=BaileyF;836086]... its amazing how many different approaches and answers there are for the care of these fish.../QUOTE]
Good luck with the clean out, and even more so with your little event two months from now. :D

Thank you!

chiligum "i would do that as soon as possible, it would help calm down your excisting fish and make for a much more happy tank!" ~ i'm definitively going to look into getting them from a different source im in RI. there is one of the admin's...Ctdiscus about a 2 hour drive so I've been thinking i might see if he has any available and take a road trip , i just want to be sure the tank is stable before i put any new ones in but i miss seeing my fish!

thank you everyone for your suggestions I've got my old 29 up there on the floor ready to hold the discus and a good amount of water so that my tank doesn't need to recycle after i remove the gravel.

[chiligum]

You say you miss seeing your fish?...you wait until you add some more to the group, you'll be seeing them all the time!


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[shoveltrash]

siphon with a hose - easy, and sucks up the nasties. I used a pvc pipe attachment to the hose, because my tank is so tall!
best thing I ever did, going BB!!!! and btw I removed all the gravel at one time, monitored water params, saw no change at all (worried about disturbing bio).
good luck :)

[Cevoe]

All good ideas.
When I switched to bare bottom tanks I used a large fish net and just scooped it out one net at a time.
Once almost all of it was out I did a water change and sucked up whatever was left with the Python.
I never took any fish out and didn't have a problem with any of them.
This was on a 100 and two 55's.
Good luck whichever way you choose.

[BaileyF]

You say you miss seeing your fish?...you wait until you add some more to the group, you'll be seeing them all the time!


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trick is going to be finding a local breeder, waiting to hear back from brewmaster15 from what i can find he's the closest one to me.

[Keith Perkins]

You might want to check MMORRIS. She's in Al's neighborhood and has some nice fish when she has some available.

[BaileyF]

You might want to check MMORRIS. She's in Al's neighborhood and has some nice fish when she has some available. Thanks i did, she's actually a little closer to me than Al. hoping to have some new additions by next week