swift/urgent assistance please

D

dreamweaver219

AC Members
May 23, 2006
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texas
while I was vacuuming my daughter's bedroom about an hour ago,my 2 year old son took it upon himself to feed the fish.He dumped an entire,brand new 1.0 oz (28g) container of tetramin tropical flakes into my 10g fish tank.It is my fault for leaving the fish food on the kitchen counter where he could reach it, but it still had the foil on the top of the container and was still in the bag, i had just purchased it the night before.


Anyways, the delimma is.............what should i do?The tank contains,a betta,2 dwarf affrican frogs, about 15 tiny trumpet snails and a small pleco.The frogs are VERY sensitive to chlorine,I cant do a complete water change...i would begin a new cycle,im affraid that i may not even be able to do a 50% water change.How can i get my tank clean w/o sucking out too much water? There are mounds and mounds of fish food on the bottom......how can i clean the rocks w/o starting a new cycle?
Here is my plan, tell me if it is a decent one or not.........i have a huge pot strainer, covered in coffee filters that i plan to run the water through.Maybe pull about 3 or 3 gallons at a time and run it through this strainer into a pot, then place it back into the fish tank.Maybe remove the top layer of rocks first and plants and rinse them in water but...just lightly rinse enough to remove the food,not do a full on scrub?Also do a 30 % water change of course.Remove the pump filter for now until ive gotten most of the mmess cleaned,then replace it and clean it once a day for a week? lol this is my plan for removing the fish flakes....think it will work? But, im also worried about chemical build up that may have accured.But im thinking i would have to do the water changes over a few days slowly because of the frogs.
Anyone have any better ideas? please? lol has anyone ever delt with this issue before and came out on top?Please, fill me in ....
all sugguestions VERY welcome.
 
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Hi dreamweaver219,
I am so sorry to hear about your problem.

How big is your tank? If it is not too big, you can go to the grocery stores to get water from the refill machine.

You can add water conditioner into your tank before changing the water though. I think the water conditioner works instantly. You can use small siphon to vacuum the entire bottom of the tank. Please don't take your gravels out and wash them. All healthy bateria will be death. You can change 40% water plus vacuum and do it again the next day though.
 
how long has this tank been running?
if you have established bacteria you can change a lot of water with little effect to the bacteria.

I've changed as much as 80% in an established tank with no effect to the beneficial bacterai.

if you are concerned about chlorine just get a good water conditioner.

I keep discus and I never worry about chlorine/chloramines. I use prime and add it directly to the tank.

but if you want you can premix the dechlor with the water in a bucket(5 gal), get the temp close too. take 5 gals out and add 5 new water
 
its a 10 gallon tank and no, its not going through a cycle, ive had it for..........well so long i cant recall.lol

Im affraid too much of a water change at one time would upset my frogs...they are very sensitive.One frog has been dealing with some sort of weight problem sence i got him.He turns pale ,almost white and stays pretty thin.Ive been hand feeding him sence day one to help maintain atleast a little bit of body mass on him.Other than that he seems healthy.But i know too much going on in the tank could really stress him, i just dont think he is healthy enough to handle too much.
Also, you guys gotta understand, its just a 10 gallon tank, 2 seconds after i put the vacuum in there....over 50% of the water is going to be gone......lol.And nowhere near enough of the food from the bottom will be removed buy that time.
I do have water conditioners and algea growth chemicals for just so emergencies.Im not to familiar with the algea...whatever....chamicals though and most likely will not use them....would have to be a worse case senario before i did.
Bottled, water...i do have i keep about 20gallons in a closet that i use for water changes.Should i still use the conditioners with the bottled water? Its infant water...the kind you purchase for newborn babys,its suposed to be packed with...|vitamins| lol , get it because the chlorine content is little to none.last time i used faucet water and put a water conditioner in there...i still managed to kill most of my fish, lol...............so i for sure use the infant water now.
Washing the rocks...i dont want to "wash" them, i want to put them in a HUGE pot with some of the tank water and run some of the bottled water in there, stir the rocks around, then dump 60% of the water and place the rocks back into the tank.My hubby and i call it.."rinsing the rocks" where as "washing" them would be placeing them in a strainer and....running warm water over them to steralize and clean......thats what you do with a new fishless tank that is about to be cycled or after a mass mysterious fish loss and...well..cleaning and starting over with a new fishless cycle.THats not what im wanting to do here.
There is soooo much food in the bottom of my tank, you wouldnt BELIEVE lol. And i dont know how to get it out w/o taking out too much water..you know?

ok, let me run this one buy you. maybe i can remove the rocks and plants and place them in a pot/bowl with some of the tank water,begin running the tank water through the strainer and clean coffee filters,change 30-40% of the water,run it through the filters again if needed, clean the pump filter,rinse the plants, stirr the rocks and run...the tank water that the plants and the rock are in through the filters.Place the rocks back in the tank.And all the while of course use the bottled water and conditioner.............lol.....did any of that make any sence?? lol anyone following me here? bassically, what im saying is...i need a complete tank cleaning and water change but i cannot do that.I also MUST becareful of the frogs.Siphoning is tricky because of the tiny snails as well.I want to run the water through something that will remove as much fish food as possible...hinse, the coffee filters.The fish food at the bottom of the tank and on the rocks serves a huge issue as well.Because mearly siphoning isnt going to do it.
lol, this is the hugest delimma yet, i've never delt with this before.My 7 year old once brought home 3 crawfish from a ditch outside that he so lovingly and innocently plopped into my fishtank.........mud and all...Lmbo but never an issue like this before.lol

I haven't done anything with the tank yet,im still trying to decide what to do.
maybe i can ....remove the aquatica from the tank, siphone the entire amount of water out,remove the plants and rocks...place ALL of it into a bucket, .....stir it all around with my arm and run 2 or 3 gallons of water through the filters...stir....run through filters...stirr.......change 30 - 40% water,plop in some conditioner...stir it all up again...than place it all back into the tank?? lol...maybe?
 
Note: this was in reply to your first post:

Your biofilter resides in your filter media, NOT the tank water. You can change water to your heart's content and not damage the biofilter.

Here is what I would do:
Use the gravel vac to give the gravel good cleaning. It is just fine if you suck out 75% of the water in the process. Add a full-tank dose of dechlor. Add new water at roughly the right temp. The the dechlor in the water will take care of everything. Since there is so much food in the tank, I'd repeat the process after a few hours.

If you are really worried about chlorine, put the fish in a bucket with some tank water before adding the new water to the tank and then give the filter a few minutes to circulate the dechlor'd water before adding the fish back.

SirWired
 
dreamweaver219 said:
its a 10 gallon tank and no, its not going through a cycle, ive had it for..........well so long i cant recall.lol

Im affraid too much of a water change at one time would upset my frogs...they are very sensitive.One frog has been dealing with some sort of weight problem sence i got him.He turns pale ,almost white and stays pretty thin.Ive been hand feeding him sence day one to help maintain atleast a little bit of body mass on him.Other than that he seems healthy.But i know too much going on in the tank could really stress him, i just dont think he is healthy enough to handle too much.
Also, you guys gotta understand, its just a 10 gallon tank, 2 seconds after i put the vacuum in there....over 50% of the water is going to be gone......lol.And nowhere near enough of the food from the bottom will be removed buy that time.
I do have water conditioners and algea growth chemicals for just so emergencies.Im not to familiar with the algea...whatever....chamicals though and most likely will not use them....would have to be a worse case senario before i did.
Bottled, water...i do have i keep about 20gallons in a closet that i use for water changes.Should i still use the conditioners with the bottled water? Its infant water...the kind you purchase for newborn babys,its suposed to be packed with...|vitamins| lol , get it because the chlorine content is little to none.last time i used faucet water and put a water conditioner in there...i still managed to kill most of my fish, lol...............so i for sure use the infant water now.
Washing the rocks...i dont want to "wash" them, i want to put them in a HUGE pot with some of the tank water and run some of the bottled water in there, stir the rocks around, then dump 60% of the water and place the rocks back into the tank.My hubby and i call it.."rinsing the rocks" where as "washing" them would be placeing them in a strainer and....running warm water over them to steralize and clean......thats what you do with a new fishless tank that is about to be cycled or after a mass mysterious fish loss and...well..cleaning and starting over with a new fishless cycle.THats not what im wanting to do here.
There is soooo much food in the bottom of my tank, you wouldnt BELIEVE lol. And i dont know how to get it out w/o taking out too much water..you know?

ok, let me run this one buy you. maybe i can remove the rocks and plants and place them in a pot/bowl with some of the tank water,begin running the tank water through the strainer and clean coffee filters,change 30-40% of the water,run it through the filters again if needed, clean the pump filter,rinse the plants, stirr the rocks and run...the tank water that the plants and the rock are in through the filters.Place the rocks back in the tank.And all the while of course use the bottled water and conditioner.............lol.....did any of that make any sence?? lol anyone following me here? bassically, what im saying is...i need a complete tank cleaning and water change but i cannot do that.I also MUST becareful of the frogs.Siphoning is tricky because of the tiny snails as well.I want to run the water through something that will remove as much fish food as possible...hinse, the coffee filters.The fish food at the bottom of the tank and on the rocks serves a huge issue as well.Because mearly siphoning isnt going to do it.
lol, this is the hugest delimma yet, i've never delt with this before.My 7 year old once brought home 3 crawfish from a ditch outside that he so lovingly and innocently plopped into my fishtank.........mud and all...Lmbo but never an issue like this before.lol

I haven't done anything with the tank yet,im still trying to decide what to do.
maybe i can ....remove the aquatica from the tank, siphone the entire amount of water out,remove the plants and rocks...place ALL of it into a bucket, .....stir it all around with my arm and run 2 or 3 gallons of water through the filters...stir....run through filters...stirr.......change 30 - 40% water,plop in some conditioner...stir it all up again...than place it all back into the tank?? lol...maybe?
Click to expand...

Here is what I would do:
Put all the aquaria in a bucket with 4g or so of the old tank water. Try not to get much crud in this saved water. Do not run it through the coffee filter unless the coffee filters are unbleached. Run your powerfilter on this bucket if you can rig this up. (If you are using a UGF, then you have a problem.)

Dump out the rest of the tank water and then clean the gravel through whatever method. Put in 6g of water with whatever water source at approx. the right temp you normally use and add dechlor. Give it a good stir, along with the gravel to get all the dechlor done. Add the filter and let it run for a few minutes. Add your fish and saved water and you should be fine.

Since the biofilter is mostly present in the filter media, you don't need to worry about it.

Don't use that "baby" water. Your fish don't need vitamins.

SirWired
 
you may have very big siphon though. I have very small siphon. It takes me over 10 minutes to drain just 5 gallons of water out of my 29-gallon tank.
 
lol, that baby water is the same as most bottled water, it just conains a higher standard on the chlorine content...less of it.no real vitamins.
and yes i have a large siphone that i use 4 a larger tank.lol, i have that 10 gallon emptied in like 3 minutes flat.
ok, so, i have a plan in motion via your sugguestions.The anabantoids in a bucket......with 4 1/2 gallons of water, pleco in a sandwhich bag....floating him in the larger tank...gonna put him in there for now incase it takes me too long to do what i need to...
And am about to siphone and stir stir stir,lol
 
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