Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

The gravel in the aquarium serves not only for beauty, but also in order to hide excrement. You need to know how to properly wash your gravel when cleaning your aquarium. Our article will help you.

Steps

1. 1 Catch the fish with a net and place in a clean container. Before doing this, fill it with lukewarm water and wait 15 minutes for it to cool down to room temperature. You can use a bowl or even a cup as a container, as the fish will not be there for long. You can pour them into a bowl with water or quickly catch fish with a net and place them in a container, just do not grab a lot of excrement.
2. 2 Place the aquarium in a clean sink or bathroom. This is a time-consuming process, so be sure to find an area with enough space to clean your entire tank.
3. 3 Clean the decor first. Remove all decorative items from the aquarium and wipe them gently with mild soap. Rinse well.
4. 4 Take a colander and pour the aquarium water and gravel into it. This may sound disgusting, but this is the easiest way to separate the excrement, unless you want to manually pick it. You can buy a separate colander for this procedure. You do not need to pour out the water from the aquarium beforehand.
5. 5 Shake the colander when the water runs out. The excrement will likely run out with the water, and if you feel disgusted, try not to look. Shake in a circular motion, back and forth, to better clear the excrement from the gravel.
6. 6 Add some mild soap to the gravel. Here you will have to get your hands dirty a little. After washing the excrement off the gravel, wipe it with soap. This helps to clean it better than you might think. You can buy specialty soaps from the pet store if needed. Rinse it off carefully and thoroughly.
   • Be sure to rinse off the soap completely! This is very important. It must not be allowed to enter the fish's body.
7. 7 Put the gravel into the tank first, then add the water. You may need to spread out the gravel to create a nice, even layer, and then lay decorative elements on top of it.

Tips

• You can wear gloves when cleaning the gravel.
• Wipe down the bottom of the aquarium so that no excrement is left and it doesn't get back into the gravel when you spread it.
• Be sure to rinse off all soap as it can be harmful to fish.

Warnings

• Without soap, gravel will also rinse well, but to make it cleaner, soap is needed. Check several times that there are no bubbles on any pebbles.

What do you need

• Net for pulling out fish
• Strong colander
• Mild soap