# i forgot to rinse off my gravel before putting it



## EMJAY (Feb 27, 2003)

do i have to do a water change? or will it be fine?
its my first saltwater tank, a 10 gallon at that and has been on for about a week and a half. im trying to establish the water in the tank. i was getting it ready and boutght my gravel but forgot to rinse it, now will it be fine or do i have to clean it all out and start over?


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## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

how can you cycle your tank if it has no gravel in it? post this in equipment etc.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Exactly.. theres no point of cycling your tank if your set up isnt complete. Besides, if you do put in the new gravel, your still gonna have to recycle it again. So you might as well take the gravel out, clean it, then recycle your tank!!


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

start again - and no fish here, moved to Equipment questions------------>

Oh, I don't have the power.


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## EMJAY (Feb 27, 2003)

simple you just put the water in, and have a filter cycling on it
why do you need gravel to cycle it?


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## EMJAY (Feb 27, 2003)

so what then, what do i do


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

you should remove the gravel and clean it then look here for info about cycling


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## EMJAY (Feb 27, 2003)

do i have to take out all the water and add new water in, this is a saltwater tank were talking about


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## EMJAY (Feb 27, 2003)

or just remove the gravel and clean it and put it back in clean


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

EMJAY said:


> do i have to take out all the water and add new water in, this is a saltwater tank were talking about


 yes start again









If you didn't add gravel when you added the water it will not have cycled, and the dirty gravel would have caused dirty water - why would you want to keep it?


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Innes said:


> If you didn't add gravel when you added the water it will not have cycled, and the dirty gravel would have caused dirty water - why would you want to keep it?














> why do you need gravel to cycle it?


Gravel has nothing to do with cycling. We're just saying that if you've already cycled your tank, and then added the gravel, then you whole cycling process was just thrown out the window. If you say your tank was/has been cycled already.. then its up to you if you want to add the gravel and start the recycling period over again.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Gravel is benificial to cycling. The good bacteria grows in it Which converts nitrates to nitrites. And so on.


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## jabster (Jan 18, 2003)

First off, just chuck the gravel. Do yourself a favor and listen to me here: use small grained sand in your SW tank! Do it now or regret it later. A fine grained sand bed in SW will allow for improved cycling of nitrAtes out of your water. Gravel will not, and is just a bad idea, IMO. Lots of little critters will live in the sand, that wont in the gravel, plus you get more surface area with the sand for bacteria that will break down nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and waste in general.

Second, it takes a LOT longer to cycle SW than FW. I doubt you're even close at 1.5 weeks.

Add some live rock to that sand bed and let the fun begin! With the sand bed, live rock, and some good critters you wont even need to run a filter, just circulation. Seriously. I have 2 SW tanks and one has NEVER seen a filter, other than one I used to jump start the cycle for a few days.

Try here for some info before even setting it back up 

http://reefcentral.com/

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/

Post some more if I can find them. SW aint cheap, but its a lot cheaper if you do it right the first time


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

Listen to Jabster, he seems to know about SW tanks - I have no experience with them, but all of the ones I have ever seen do use sand


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

I just read this thread and I think most of you are way off. You dont need gravel to cycle a tank, all you need is ammonia and somewhere for the bacteria to grow where the water will flow through it (filter media, sponge). And someone please explain to me how adding gravel to a cycled tank will have any effect on the cycle? 
Finaly, if this was your everyday tank and not sw, I would say your filter would take care of cleaning the water, it will be clowdy for a few days but it will work itself out.

Now, I know squat about sw, so you would be wise to listen to jabster.


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