I've changed the substrate in my tank from a few small rocks to a layer of coarse gravel. I've manually removed the really small bite-size pieces. Is vacuuming the gravel once a week enough maintenance to keep it from going toxic?

Thanks for the help!

Hi

You can keep the gravel clean by vaccuming it every week...Just make sure you clean really good you dont want any areas of the gravel not getting any fresh oxygen...that can lead to problems such as toxic gas that can be realsed when a fish moves or plays with gravel and can breathe in the substance and die

If you just make sure that you clean you gravel weekly all the way down to the glass you should be fine!

Just a little heads up....the bottom of your Tank will probably not be as clean as when you had river rocks/pebbles....there just so much easir too clean with river rocks and theres no where for the gunk to hid unlike gravel when your vaccuming.....But the look of gravel is sometimes worth it and in that picture it sure is....WOW very nice job

Yes Albert,your tank looks wonderful! Nice job!

Thanks. I was actually looking for large river rocks for the tank (can't find anything less than a 50lb sack...) when I found those rocks. They looked like they would be perfect for the tank. They really give the tank dimension, which was lacking with the white pebbles.

Oh....My lf's have a lot of river rocks in many diffrent size bags...uh i depends on your location I suppose.

Like I said before...You should be fine with the that new gravel as long as you do weekly vac. and good ones at that.

But other than that your tank does look very nice and amazing!!

Would it be over-cleaning if I changed 25% of the water and cleaned 1/2 of the gravel twice a week?

No that is not too much, that is what i do, especially with goldfish, they are messy fish. Sometimes i am too busy and only do it once a week and that seems fine too. But for sure vaccuum your gravel every time you do a water change there is salot of gunk in it that might change your water quality for your fish.