tank&gravel question

Question
hey chris i have a 10 gal tank and 2 fish an algae eater and a green puffer. i would like to know a few things. do i have to have gravel cuz that seems to be a large part of keeping the tank clean and how do i make the walmart brand stuff clean the water better. i upgraded the filter to the 20 gal version to circulate the water better and clean more. i change 25% of the water about 3-4 weeks and replace the filter every 2 weeks for maximum cleaning but the algae eater is doing his job all that well and now the tank is getting cloudywith algae. the tank is going on being a year old. do i just need to restart the environment and introduce the fish into a clean tank or what. thanx in advance Jonathan

Answer
Hi Jonathan;

Gravel could be removed but it looks nice and anchors the plants and other decorations. It is also a source of beneficial bacteria for your system. It is best not to throw away your old filter pads too, especially if you decide to remove the gravel. The beneficial bacteria is what keeps your tank water clear of ammonia and nitrites. These are very toxic to your fish. Rinse the filter pads in a container of tank water every couple of weeks so that the beneficial bacteria is preserved. Only replace them if they are so old they are falling apart or if they can't be rinsed enough to allow water to flow freely.

If there is a lot of crud in the gravel and filter, there could be problems with overfeeding, overcrowding or not enough maintenance. Puffers can be very messy guys because of their diet and so can algae eaters. If they are getting larger and messier you may want to get a bigger tank with a more powerful filter.

You really need to be making water changes and vacuuming the gravel every week. There is no substitute for that and no filter is ever going to be efficient enough to prevent weekly maintenance. Replace 25% of the tank water every week and vacuum the gravel at the same time if you decide to keep gravel in there.

Weekly water changes does several things. It helps the system remain more stable instead of changing drastically after 3 or 4 weeks and stressing the fish. Waiting a long time between changes causes water chemistry to degrade too much. It never really gets clean and fresh enough if they are done too far apart. Water changes also removes dissolved invisible organic wastes such as Nitrate. Nitrate is the end result of your biological filtration. It cannot be filtered out. It must be manually removed. Nitrate is also a food source for algae. Algae blooms can be the result with too much of it in there. Water changes also add back trace minerals and other elements to the water that are "used up" over a period of time. Waste and respiration by the fish has a major effect on them.

Avoid changing the whole system to start over. Your tank will then go through a "break-in" period that can be deadly to your fish. I hope everything goes okay.

Let me know if you have more questions...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins