angelfish tank not cleaned in 5 years???

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kieshaloquiesha

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Jan 18, 2006
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A friend just gave me a fishtank (with 2 huge angelfish) she had not cleaned for 5 years. The water is almost bluish-black, you can't see the fish. I put the fish and some of their original water in a five gallon bucket with an external charcoal filter on it. I wiped the tank and sucked up the goop (and chunks of dead fish) from the bottom. I am going to fill the tank with tapwater treated with aqua-safe.

If anyone knows... How long should I wait before putting the fish back into the tank? I didn't get the gravel squeaky clean, so some good bacteria would be left. Does the tank have to run for a while before it's safe? How should I transition the angelfish to the clean tankwater? I hear they are pretty sensitive to that sort of thing.

Thanks!
 
You would want to acclimate them the same way you acclimate them when you take them home from the fish store. Make sure their water temperatures match then slowly drip acclimate them to the new water and dump them into the tank when they are acclimated.
 
First do what rrkss said. The tap water parameters (gH, kH, pH, nitrate) are most likely completely different from the existing tank water. Definately make sure the tank water is the same temperature as the bucket water. The angels are under enough stress without a temperature shock.

Some question for you...

1. How big is the tank? How big are the angels?
2. Are you using the same filter as the previous owner?
3. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

If you can get the angels to live through this initially, you will need to buy a test kit to test for ammonia and nitrite. You will also need to complete the gravel cleaning job over the next few weeks. Clean gravel while changing maybe 25% of the water at a time until the tank water parameters more closely match your tap water parameters. After the parameters are close, you can change up to 50% or more at a time.

Good luck!!
 
Ideally start with small frequent water changes and work your way up to larger water changes. Since you have already taken the fish out and removed a pretty good volume of water Acclimation will be rough. A tank that has sat for that long without maintenance will be very high GH, and TDS. While it is very low pH. I would almost say change 10% water in the conatainer they are in. Do this twice a day until the water comes close to that of the main tank and then acclimate them over to the main tank. This will all depend on the size of their temporary housing and the cycle situation with both tanks.

These two articles may help with the whole picture and answer some key questions for you.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/small/ots.html

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/otswater.html

Dave
 
The tank is 35 gallons, I think. The tank had an undergravel filter (!!!) but I put an external filter on it. There is no heater; here in Louisiana we're wearing shorts and t-shirts. I had the water tested at petsmart and they said the nitrate was extremely high, which makes sense. I bought some "prime" which is supposed to lower nitrate and dosed both the bucket and the tank with that. I know a little about the nitrogen cycle in theory, though I'm not sure about how to help it along in an aquarium besides buying bacteria culture from the pet store. I put a bunch of anacharis in the tank which I hope will help. I'm almost done acclimating the fish to the tankwater. I figure I'll go ahead and get them in the tank since they're already in nasty water and gradually try to lower the nitrates. So how abot some info about the nitrogen cycle? Ideally I'd like to have natural N-fixing.

Thank you all for your knowledge!!
 
I put some Wisteria in my tank that had Nitrates and now my Nitrates are 0! I need more Nitrates!

I think the plants will help, but I'm still learning myself.
 
The PH is probrably complete different from the tank. test it and then test what your tap water is.
 
Kieshaloqueisha, In the artical section of this site there is there is an artical on tank cycling. It is pretty informative, and it helped me out quite a lot. I'd put a link on here for you, but I have not figured out how to do that yet. sorry. hope this might help you out.
 
id keep them in that murky water (thats treated for nitrates) and change the same amount of water every day for a week or so until the water is clear.. then again, im a beginner and im sure my advice isnt the best.

best of like to you and the angelfish- hope you enjoy them!
 
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