I looked through the information about changing the gravel in an aquarium on this site and others, but I don't feel as if I have enough information to proceed. I have a cycled (but recently cycled fishlessly and had zebra danios in it afterwards) 10 gallon aquarium with 3 good-sized bunches of Hygrophilia difformis (Water wisteria) along with one largish lava rock, a small lava rock covered by Hemianthus Micranthemoides (Baby tears), a small Buddha figurine, and plans to get some wood (real or fake). I have an Aqueon 5-15 filter with a sponge (more like a rectangle of floss really) that came with it for biological filtration bacteria. In the tank I just put in my new baby dwarf puffer (female I think) that I shall name Penelope. She is about ¾ of an inch long. My water right now is pretty well perfect (0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate, heater at 79 because I have read DP like to be warm) and I plan on weekly 25 to 30% water changes to keep it that way.
My question is, can I in a week or two to allow the puffer to acclimate to its new home (or longer if you guys think that is better), change the gravel? I want to go to more of a biotope setting and I picked out some pretty tacky gravel originally (oops
). Given the plants, the biological filtration sponge, and the rocks, will there be enough bacteria to prevent a mini or complete cycle? I know puffers don’t survive the cycling process, so I want to avoid this. I also plan on keeping bags of the old gravel in stockings with the new gravel to help with colonization of the bacteria, but I want to make sure all of this is enough so I don't hurt my puffer. Thanks for all your help. Your information is quite helpful, especially about the puffers.
-Antagany
