How to Change Fish Tank Rocks

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Eric with the World of Wet Pets Tropical Fish in Portland, Oregon and I'm here to demonstrate how to change aquarium rocks or substrate and gravel. In most cases we generally wont be changing gravel very often. The gravel is a very important part of a lot of system. It's where a lot of the biological filtration takes place. But in the event where you need to change them or you just are just tired of the old gravel and want to change it I'll show you a few steps in doing it. Generally unless you're moving the tank or want to make a big process of this we can leave the fish in the aquarium and just simply remove the gravel. We can do it by scooping it out using any container that's suitable for the task. Small cups work really,really well. They can take awhile. We would just put them into a clean bucket. Another way of going about it is to use your aquarium net. It's a little quicker and easier because it'll self strain so when you pull it out of the water the water stays in the tank and it's fairly easy then to remove your gravel, okay? Don't worry too much about the fish, they're going to go to the other end of the tank while you're doing this. They're going to stay far, far away. Generally once you have all of the gravel out you can put in your new gravel. Rinse it before you put in in so that any dust particles you can rinse out of it before you put it in the tank so you don't cloud the tank up. In case you're using under gravel filter it's not a bad idea to leave a couple of large rocks on top of the filter. That'll keep it in place while you're changing gravel."