Am I crazy??

[wesleydnunder]

There is one issue that needs to be considered.

If his water quality is poor because he hasn't done water changes for a very long time and then suddenly does a massive water change he can seriously stress the fish out due to the sudden change in water chemistry.

Fish adapt to poor water quality because the change is gradual. Sudden changes (even if for the better) can be lethal.

If you do do regular large volume water changes that's great. The water never really changes that far between water changes. So there really are no abrupt changes in water quality.

I would recommend starting with weekly 25-50% water changes and after 2-3 weeks increasing the volume to 50-75% once the water quality has started improving and gotten closer to what the incoming water is.

Andy

+1

Mark

 

[Wild West]

I have inherited some really dirty tanks before. A 60 gal comes to mind, the gravel was bound by sludge. I literally had to shake the big tube to break the clods of gravel up (pinched the out take hose as needed) No idea why the fish were still alive. I took almost 50% of the water out during several thorough hydro cleanings a few days apart. Everybody survived and were much happier with clean water. Not being able to breath is swimming in polluted water.

 

[Wild West]

And the response from someone was was, "Sorry, but pulling everything except the fish and stirring up the substrate would kill the fish, not help!"

Tell him to put them in a bucket while he works on the aq?