View Full Version : Little boy messed up my tank, help
Well he is only 6 years old, and usually does not have access to fish food, but I forgot this time and left the bottle by the tank. He poured the whole thing into a 20 gallon tank (large can of food), which was sparkling clear and in perfect condition prior to this (no nirite, ammonia, etc.) sometime last night. Now, this morning, the tank is completely clouded, but it seems that all the fish are alive, and the bottom is totally littered inches into the gravel with food.
My problem is that it will take several sweepings to completely clean the gravel up, far more than a 30% - 50% water change. I have done one five gallon bucket so far and I have barely done 1/6 (less actually) of the gravel. I have no place else to put the fish, so they have to stay in the tank. Any suggestions? Can I just do a 100% + water change as long as I keep adding stress coat to each bucket as I refill the tank? I only have one size gravel cleaner and I cannot go buy a smaller one, all the stores are closed on this holiday day.
Well, thanks for any suggestions. It seems the fish had a good thanksgiving day meal. I hope they don't all die.
epro
Richer
11-28-2002, 4:42 PM
If you have always done 30-50% water changes once a week, then your tank water should be similar to that of your tap water. I see no problems with multiple gravel cleanings, as long as the water going back into the tank is the same temperature as the fish usually live in. Since you will be doing multiple water changes, this is especially important.
HTH
-Richer
FISHGUY_CA
11-28-2002, 10:46 PM
Originally posted by epro
Well he is only 6 years old, and usually does not have access to fish food, but I forgot this time and left the bottle by the tank. He poured the whole thing into a 20 gallon tank (large can of food), which was sparkling clear and in perfect condition prior to this (no nirite, ammonia, etc.) sometime last night. Now, this morning, the tank is completely clouded, but it seems that all the fish are alive, and the bottom is totally littered inches into the gravel with food.
My problem is that it will take several sweepings to completely clean the gravel up, far more than a 30% - 50% water change. I have done one five gallon bucket so far and I have barely done 1/6 (less actually) of the gravel. I have no place else to put the fish, so they have to stay in the tank. Any suggestions? Can I just do a 100% + water change as long as I keep adding stress coat to each bucket as I refill the tank? I only have one size gravel cleaner and I cannot go buy a smaller one, all the stores are closed on this holiday day.
Well, thanks for any suggestions. It seems the fish had a good thanksgiving day meal. I hope they don't all die.
epro
Dear EPRO,
This is not a big deal however I need to know one thing, what kind of fish do you keep in your tank right now my dear ??? So long as you make sure the water you add into your tank is the exact same temp as the water in the tank right now you'll be ok if you wanna go ahead with a thorough full out tank cleaning. Just be careful not to bump any fish when you are rearranging the rocks and plants because it may cause overstress and you'll notice after you're finally done cleaning the tank (which I know is a pain in the arse) you're little guys will be sitting in the top corners of the tank seemingly having a heart attack so just make sure after you clean the tank you've also made sure to clean the filters otherwise the uneaten food will cause the water to remain cloudy and smell gross for quite awhile. Also when you clean the glass I always use a soft lint free cloth instead of those stupid magnetic algae scrapers. All those do is **** the fish right off causing them ALOT of stress and scratch the glass to no repair that's why if you're careful and don't splash the water around when you are cleaning the tank, your fish will be much happier with you trust me :D I wouldn't worry about your fish dying unless they are Goldfish. No offence but Goldfish are so unbelievably stupid it is undescribable. Yes they are VERY hardy and easy to take care of but you will find yourself forever cleaning the tank because they make a huge mess ALL the time and grow very rapidly and if overfed, they are so stupid they will eat anything they can find until they explode. Yes I'm serious we have a large pond in our backyard and the larger Koi will eat until they float they get so fat it's ridiculous actually. Best of luck withyour little "problem" and always remember this as it was the same thing I was as a child....
If you wanna feed them just ask because I know you like them but if you don't know what you're doing to them they will die and that is not good because I'll kill you my dear. :p Good luck and happy fishkeeping I wish you the best of luck in the future :) My e-mail is high_flyer19@hotmail.com if you wanna let me know what happens with them. Talk to ya soon and one oher thing I'll tell you, always change 20% of your water twice a week in the tank because if you think about it, fish can't live in the same yucky water day after day forever right ???? Bye for now and best of luck .....
Sincerely Yours :D
FISHGUY_CA
Serrateeth_2002
11-29-2002, 12:30 AM
What's your point FISHGUY_CA,i mean what does water changing have to do with stupid goldfishes and bumping fish?You net the fish first before doing a water change right?
Originally posted by Serrateeth_2002
You net the fish first before doing a water change right?
:confused: :confused: :confused:
I a case like this, vacuum the gravel as much as possible to get all the decaying food out !!! Then do a 70 or 80% waterchange and another one tomorrow, you should be rather save then. Just keep an eye on those waterparameters and be prepared to do a waterchange anytime (as soon as your fish would act strange).
I have a small battery operated gravel cleaner that works very good. The debris is sucked up from the gravel and is collected in a small cotton bag above the water. That way it's possible to seperate waterchanges and gravel cleanings. The water just goes back into the tank, all the debris is going in the bag. If you have something like this, you can clean your gravel thoroughly, without having to suck out all the water.
Serrateeth_2002
11-29-2002, 3:27 AM
i mean u place them somewhere esle when doing a 100% water change
Faramir
11-29-2002, 4:25 AM
Yes, you would, but our friend here doesn't have the facility.
Go with the water changes - your fish will die if you don't. I find that as long as the new water is similar composition - hardness, pH in the right general range, temperature - the fish can cope. Certainly much better than they'll cope with the soup that they're currently swimming in.
No. You don't remove fish when doing a water change...goldfish or otherwise.
Serrateeth_2002
11-29-2002, 8:02 AM
If you can't remove the fish,use gravel cleaners like others have said and at least 50% water change,after that,let filters do their work,somebody correct me if i am wrong.
Faramir
11-29-2002, 8:32 AM
You would remove the fish if doing a 100% water change. This would be highly irregular, however.
keely
11-29-2002, 10:27 AM
It's a bit late now, but you don't really have a choice; you have to vacuum until you get all the food out. Change the water 20x if you have to. Make sure you wash all the food out of the filter too, preferably with dechlorinated same-temperature water to save as much of the biofilter as possible.
Don't worry about saving any old water... the fish will not thank you for saving the water that had fish food soaking in it overnight. A spoonful of rotting fishfood will kill more fish than 100 buckets of fresh clean water will. If you do regular water changes, big water changes are nice for fish, not dangerous. In this situation, new vs. old water is the least of your problems.
The tank is likely to be a bit unstable for a while afterwards; it would be a good idea to keep a close eye on ammonia/nitrites for a couple weeks and do more large water changes if necessary.
If you use simple dechlorinated tap water in your tanks, it's very easy. If you use pH adjusters or otherwise make the water different, it's more work, but it needs to be done. Hope everyone survived so far.
Rocketman
11-29-2002, 3:45 PM
Most importantly make sure the kid doesn't do it again... Have him vacuum it!
Just kidding...
even if you did multiple 50% water changes you wouldnt have all new water as long as you refilled before taking more out. you will just have a lesser concentration of your original water. I did 4 50% water changes within a day when i ripped out my UGF. the fish where just crammed into a 10 gallon tank all day, then put back at the end of the day. No deaths resulted
ryan
good point ryan, I do 50% water changes on my tanks every week, which sounds like a lot until you think it takes about 6 changes of 50% to remove 99% of the original water.
Serrateeth_2002
11-29-2002, 5:48 PM
I usually do 100% water changes,its risky but so far i never had deaths from it before,IMO,100% is the fastest,i get a pail inside with water parameters i dun noe(dun bother),neutral usually,dump all fish inside,dump the water in the tank,refill it,add anti chlorine and beneficial bacteria to speed up processes,wait for four hours,check water parameters,do decor,cloudy water would have cleared up but the bigger the tank the longer,then dump all the fishes in,i got no probs with sensitive fishes like clown loaches before,sometimes you need more experience than logic.Remeber it is risky because if you add the fish in too quickly,they will die.
fishbrain
11-29-2002, 6:18 PM
Originally posted by Serrateeth_2002
I usually do 100% water changes,its risky but so far i never had deaths from it before,IMO,100% is the fastest,i get a pail inside with water parameters i dun noe(dun bother),neutral usually,dump all fish inside,dump the water in the tank,refill it,add anti chlorine and beneficial bacteria to speed up processes,wait for four hours,check water parameters,do decor,cloudy water would have cleared up but the bigger the tank the longer,then dump all the fishes in,i got no probs with sensitive fishes like clown loaches before,sometimes you need more experience than logic.Remeber it is risky because if you add the fish in too quickly,they will die.
When doing100% water changes ,wouldn't that cause your tank to go into a mini cycle?
Serrateeth_2002
11-29-2002, 6:26 PM
Mini cycle?i just dump all old water out,put new water in,then i dechlorinate the new water and add beneficial bact,photosythesising bacteria,black water essence,i let the filter run after i put the water in,i tot it is a major cycle.
Twilight
11-29-2002, 8:09 PM
You maybe could try to sweep it out into another container or the tank it-self but let the water run through some kind of thin net or old panty hose to catch the food, etc. Then you can put back the filtered water.
I did 50% water change yesterday, and vaccumed out all of the food. I ended up letting it settle in the five gallon bucket, then putting the top water of the bucket back in the tank, and then vaccumed again and again. It took 8 5-gal buckets to get the can of food out of the gravel. There was soooo much food in the gravel it was unreal. The water smelled pretty bad, and fish were gasping at the surface. Now, today, I did another 50% water change. The parameters are (just before I did the water change), Nitrite 5.0, Nitrate 150 or off the scale, and ammonia is surprisingly 0, or maybe just a very small hint of yellow, but the test tube is basically clear, and ph is up to 8.2 somehow (comes out 7.6 out of my tap). Before my son dumped the can of food in the tank, about a week ago, Nitrate was less than 5.0, 0 Nitrite and 0 ammonia, and ph was 7.6. I guess the food had a chance to rot overnight and spike all these values. I wish I would of seen it right away rather than the food sitting in the tank all night until the next day. One little neon fish has died so far. Today I bought a big air pump and am ciruculating the hell out of the water, fish are swimming around and seem ok. (7 neons left, 4 cherry barbs, and 4 small corys, and one otto cat, and 2 small glass fish, not those poor colored ones). Thanks for all your help. I guess my tank is cycling again based on these values, huh. I will keep doing 25% water changes everyday for another 4 or 5 days, does that sound ok?
Richer
11-29-2002, 10:03 PM
your nitrites are a bit high for comfort, increase that change to 40-50% perday, or as nessessary to keep nitrites as low as possible.
HTH
-Richer
quick061
11-30-2002, 6:55 PM
Originally posted by fishbrain
When doing100% water changes ,wouldn't that cause your tank to go into a mini cycle?
not necissarily. as long as you just rinse the gravel and filters when you do the change, none of the nitrifying bacteria gets removed. since those are still there then i don't think it will cycle again.
this is what i used to do with my 20gal. (single inhabitant) tank. it does work suprisingly well and i've never had a problem with it. but now that i have a larger tank (90gal.) i'm cycling it and planting it before i transfer my fish over.