I had read fishdude's tip about seeding a new tank by putting some gravel in an established tank and thought I would try it in setting up my angelfish tank. I planned to put some of the gravel in with my goldies. First of all, the gravel that came with the tank I bought was so dirty. The lady had put it in a huge bucket and it was full of leaves and what looked like dead grass. It's a royal mess. I took out several cups of gravel, washed it really well (took forever to get all the trash out) and boiled it for about an hour in dechlorinated water to disinfect it.

I poured off most of the water but there was some left in the bottom of the pot. When the gravel cooled and I went to put it in stockings, the water was full of yucky, gunky stuff like you vacuum up out of a tank. I was afraid to put it in the tank with my goldies since the water looked so bad, but all the nasties should have been zapped by the hour of boiling, shouldn't they???

How can I get rid of all this gunky stuff on the gravel before putting it in my new tank??? I don't want to put it in the tank, add water and have yucky stuff floating all over.

I think that after an hour, it should be fine. Whe you put used gravel in, yucky stuff will always float around, but it will eventually settle. When we got the 130gal, it looked like the gravel hadn't been vaccumed in a year. When we filled it up, the yucky stuff floated around for a while and settled. Then, over time, I vaccuumed all of the old yuckies out. Crystal clear!. I'm sure someone else wil be able to help you more htan me, but that's just my experience.

Since you've already boiled the gravel... There is no point in adding that gravel to your angel tank to help seed the tank with biological bacteria. All the biological bacteria were killed by boiling.

You can clean most the gunk out of the gravel by putting into a large pot and filling it with water. Then stir the gravel, and pour off the water. Keep doing this until the water is clear.

If the gravel is as dirty as you've discribed... I wouldn't use any of it without boiling all of it for at least an hour before using it.

What I was going to do was boil it to disinfect it, then put it in stockings and put it in my goldie tank for a couple of weeks. Then put it in the new tank when I get it disinfected and cleaned. Would that work???

Yes - that is an excellent plan!

Bac2it, as usual, though, has good advice. I would suggest that you scoop it out and put it in a clean bucket and rinse again. Scoop it out and rinse again, until the water rinses clean.

Boiling will definately kill all the nasties that are on the gravel, for the heat reaches all the pores and crannies in the rocks. But the action of the rolling boil bounces a lot of the gunk that had settled into those pores and cannies out - hense the yuck that was left in the bottom of the pot. It is a good thing - having all that gunk out not only removes excess material (albeit sterile material) from the gravel, but opens up the pores of the gravel, giving it more surface area for the beneficial bacteria to colonate and more open areas for the water to circulate through - both excellent things!

So, rinse away, and then bag that stuff up and into the goldies tank with it.

You are doing GREAT!

If you have any of the biomedia you are planning on using in your angel fish tank's filter, yet, bagging that up and sticking it in the goldfish filter or in the tank will also help seed well. Biomedia has even more surface area for the beneficial bacteria to colonate!

Thanks Bak2it and Daryl! I'll rinse the gravel until the water clears, then boil it again before adding to my goldie tank. I didn't even think about the biomedia! Yes, I do have my biomedia and will put it in the tank also since the filter is completely filled up.

I hope by doing all of this, it won't take the tank very long to cycle. I'm ready to see some fish swimming it...so tired of looking at an empty tank!

Is it ok to put the biowheels in the goldie tank also to seed???

I so not see why not. Biowheels do a fair job of providing a platform for the beneficial bacteria - not as good as the biomedia, but certainly well worth having. If you can stand the look of those things floating around in there - go for it!