Can't Clean Colored Gravel

Hi. Yesterday I bought a new tank and got some black gravel (only because they ran out of small packages of natural gravel and I couldn't carry 10 kgs of it home by myself..)

I put it in a bucket, poured water over it, and washed for a few minutes then let it soak for a few minutes. It seemed ok and the water was barely dirty.

I put it in the aquarium over a layer of special dirt/gravel for plants, but as soon as I added water to the aquarium it was super dark and cloudy! I vaccumed the gravel with a gravel cleaner and changed the water, the left the filter working all night. When I woke up it seemed ok but as soon as I liked the dirt the water was starting to get cloudy again. I changed the water again but the water is black again!

I really wanted to just throw out the gravel and get new natural gravel, but it's a problem to remove the gravel bc its already a but mixed with the plant gravel, which starts getting dissolved if you put force on it, like a paste. I can't afford to buy new plant gravel...

What should I do? How long before it stops shooting black paint everywhere? Is it better to keep changing the water and waiting it out or should I just remove the black gravel by hand and buy new natural colored gravel?

 

It "sounds" like you have stirred everything up a bit, which is quite normal in new aquariums

I used TetraActive plant substrate with silica sand and gravel on top and that went cloudy initially too

When you started to put the water into the aquarium did you just pour it in onto the gravel mix or did you diffuse it by putting a plate onto the gravel mix and pouring the water onto that and let the water rebound out onto the gravel mix?

If you didn't diffuse fill the aquarium then you will normally get a lot more of the clouding but it will settle eventually....you can help that by adding something like Reeflowers AquaClear, a 5ml treatment will grab all free floating particles over an 8 hour period and stick them onto the filter media for you to scrape off later

I use the Reeflowers AquaClear after every water change and have found it to be very effective at cutting down the cloud of mucky stuff given off by gravel/plant substrate mix

 

How much gravel did you put on top? Could be its not deep enough.

 

I put about 3kg in a ~15L tank. When I initially added the water I used a plate to make the stream softer, when I added water today I didn't (the bucket is heavy and I was alone)..

How much time does it take to clear up? How many water changes?

 

IME a better tool to pour water into a tank is a colander it will disperse the water great and you can rest it right on top of the tank and some have a handle that will sit right on the rI'm of your tank. It should eventually settle you will need to be more gentle with WC’s till everything settles good. I did an outside 29 with organic soil and a PFS cap and it was a mess in the beginning but after a few WC’s its since settled and imo is looking good

 

Another idea to help keep the cloudiness down. Try not to use anything larger than a 2 litre pop bottle for pouring your water into the aquarium. Smaller pour spout = more controllable pour rate and you can move it around the aquarium and not concentrate on the one spot easier too, thus the "shock" of water being added to the aquarium won't be so great and the substrate will stay put better too

 

Hi. Yesterday I bought a new tank and got some black gravel (only because they ran out of small packages of natural gravel and I couldn't carry 10 kgs of it home by myself..)

I put it in a bucket, poured water over it, and washed for a few minutes then let it soak for a few minutes. It seemed ok and the water was barely dirty.

I put it in the aquarium over a layer of special dirt/gravel for plants, but as soon as I added water to the aquarium it was super dark and cloudy! I vaccumed the gravel with a gravel cleaner and changed the water, the left the filter working all night. When I woke up it seemed ok but as soon as I liked the dirt the water was starting to get cloudy again. I changed the water again but the water is black again!

I really wanted to just throw out the gravel and get new natural gravel, but it's a problem to remove the gravel bc its already a but mixed with the plant gravel, which starts getting dissolved if you put force on it, like a paste. I can't afford to buy new plant gravel...

What should I do? How long before it stops shooting black paint everywhere? Is it better to keep changing the water and waiting it out or should I just remove the black gravel by hand and buy new natural colored gravel?

just a day or so of waiting for and you are good

 

Thanks for all the replies! I did a few more water changes and cleaned the filter and the gravel seems ok now. There's no color in the water and none coming from the gravel when I move it around.
Have a nice weekend!