angelfish tank not cleaned in 5 years???

[daveedka]

?Nitrate fixing in freshwater tanks is usually an excersize in futility. It can be done, but it's generally more work than simple water changing. Additionally Nitrate fixing does not deal with other pollutants that we cannot test for. Water changes will deal with pollutants of all types. Plants do consume nitrates, and anachris is great at doing so if it has enough light and other nutrients. You will still need to do water changes to deal with the other pollutants though.

To the best of my knowledge Prime does little or nothing for high nitrates. It does help with both ammonia and nitrite, but not nitrates (someone pleae correct me if I'm wrong) Notrates are not highly toxic short term, so if you slowly bring the levels down, the fish should be fine.
Dave

 

[rrkss]

Dave is right, high Nitrates are the least of your worries right now. Just get the fish acclimated to the new water and all should be well as long as the biofilter is intact. The new water should be low in Nitrates anyways so the problem will be solved as soon as you transfer the fish to the tank.

 

[kieshaloquiesha]

"Tanks" for the info, y'all! After switching water back and forth all day yesterday I put them in the tank. Mainly I hurried it up because one of the angels kept ramming her face against the side of the bucket and I was worried. The tank looks beautiful, even though the water is slightly discolored. I expect that to clear up after a week or two with the charcoal filter. The fish don't seem stressed at all. Those are some tough little guys!!

I have a new question about the angels (yall are just so full of info I can't resist)
I think they may be a bonded pair. I think so because I have had cichlids before and the angels are behaving like a bonded pair, the larger one which I think is the female is very aggressive and the smaller which I think is a male is pretty passive. They stay together all the time. It would also explain why three of the five angels died. I put a little spotted catfish in there to help with some of the remaining fish meat pieces that I can't seem to get rid of by vaccuming. Do you think they will kill him? The previous owner said there couldn't even be a plecostamus in the tank with them, though she has the idea that angels are poisonous, which sounds preposterous to me. I figured that because of their bonded state they were just super-agrassive. Or perhaps she was just dumping the plecos into the nasty water, thereby shocking and killing them.... Any thoughts?