DIY Aquarium Gravel

[tom91970]

Buying gravel at a LFS or other retailer can be expensive. I’ve seen a 25 pound bag sell for $20.00 and a small 5 pound bag sell for nearly $3.00. You can go to your typical yard and garden/home improvement outlet (Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.) and pay much less. I’ve paid less than $3.85 for a 25 pound bag of river rock and that included tax. I recently purchased a 25 pound bag of pea gravel for just over $4.00. If you’re prepared to put a little effort into cleaning you can save a lot of money.

Here is a step-by-step procedure I use to clean gravel.

First, you start out with your 25 pound sack of gravel.



Make sure you have several buckets and something to agitate the water with. Having something like a colander is helpful to have, too.




I like to use several different buckets to wash equal parts of gravel. Stirring a bucketful of rock can be difficult and tiring.

The gravel you buy will be dirty…real dirty. Would you want to dump this into your aquarium?



Stick your water hose down into the gravel and turn on the water. In just a few seconds you will find out just how dirty your gravel is:



Pour out the water, and repeat the process. Then repeat…and repeat. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it!

Stir the water real good:



Stir some more, pour out more water, add more…get the idea?



Now the water is starting to get clearer.


Once you get most of the dirt separated from the gravel and the water is mostly clear you can pour the gravel and water through a colander. The dirty water ends up in the bucket, and you can dump the clean gravel into another bucket.



Clean gravel:

[tom91970]

Pretty soon you have a nice full 5 gallon bucket of gravel!



Here is a close-up using a coin to show the size of the pea gravel:



After you have cleaned the gravel you need to make sure there are no rocks that will alter the water chemistry, such as limestone or anything with calcium deposits. If you are unsure you can pour some vinegar over the gravel and if it bubbles or fizzes you need to remove those pieces.

You might need to spend a little time sifting through your gravel to remove the bad stuff, such as marble, dolomite, limestone, and shells/fossils.

In this picture, bowl #1 is unsorted. Bowl #2 contains pieces of limestone, fossils, and other rocks that can alter the hardness or pH level of your water. Bowl #3 contains the gravel that will go into the tank.



Close-up of #3:

[tom91970]

this should have been posted to the original thread...can't seem to delete it

[Guysy1110]

Good if theres nothing bad left in it *tumbsups also good for the natural look

[christinap]

Awesome! Thanks~

[Orion]

haha, i caught the second post and had no idea what your were talking about. This makes much more sence. I went ahead and merged the two for you.

neat little project!

[Guysy1110]

lol, i didnt see the first most either. i was just going on the second. Nice DIY.

[tom91970]

Originally Posted by Orion

haha, i caught the second post and had no idea what your were talking about. This makes much more sence. I went ahead and merged the two for you.

neat little project!

Thanks for merging them. I couldn't figure out how to delete the second thread.

[Jake]

I agree with you it is cheaper in the start. But if you calculate the time it took, and the amount of water, plus buying buckets I would stick with LFS buying. And save yourself the time.
Good DIY Project though

[tom91970]

Originally Posted by Jake

I agree with you it is cheaper in the start. But if you calculate the time it took, and the amount of water, plus buying buckets I would stick with LFS buying. And save yourself the time.
Good DIY Project though

The cost is still cheap. The buckets you buy can be used to do water changes. Water is cheap, and time is free.

If you have the money buying at the LFS is the way to go, I agree, but if you're on a budget, then DIY is great.

Thanks for the comment, though.