Grandparents are finally seeing the light and letting me redo their tank.

Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo

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Jun 27, 2010
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Fairfield, CA
My grandparents have a 55gal very ugly and overstocked tank. My grandmother has MS and over the years has reverted to a childlike mentality and demands she gets things her way. After 2 years of convincing shes letting me redo her tank.

This is it now.....
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Currently stocked with 2 common plecos and platys. And rotting plants with an UGF that's older than I am. Also about 3-4 inches of clown puke that has never been siphoned.

I was thinking of sand, driftwood, new bulbs and low light plants. As for fish, I dnt know what to get. She wants fish in for this weekend, I explained cycling and doesn't want a fishless tank for her laborday party. So idk what to put in there....
 
Well, if they only need to be in for labor day, you could get some mollies to look nice for the day, they are very hardy fish, and can live through almost anything (good god, I should know, mine were once in a tank with detergint(clothing) and bleech that spilled in, for 2 days without death!). If you don't want to cause the fish any suffering, you can leave the tank as is for now and get back to making it pretty when the party is over. Gives you time to get everything you need for the initial re-scape and re-build ready.
 
The plants don't look to be in too bad of shape...the crypy definitely needs to get out of the plastic pot though and probably can be separated.

Be careful of doing too large of changes with the current fish still in the tank. Also if a lot of gunk gets stirred up while siphoning.

There may be some bacteria in there, really hard to tell if it is cycled or not without any specific params.

I think the first step at this point is to find new homes for the plecos, assuming they are one of the "common" species.
 
Do some reading on the subject of "old tank syndrome" before starting the cleanup.
 
jpappy789 said:
The plants don't look to be in too bad of shape...the crypy definitely needs to get out of the plastic pot though and probably can be separated.

Be careful of doing too large of changes with the current fish still in the tank. Also if a lot of gunk gets stirred up while siphoning.

There may be some bacteria in there, really hard to tell if it is cycled or not without any specific params.

I think the first step at this point is to find new homes for the plecos, assuming they are one of the "common" species.
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They are common. I plan on posting them here if no one takes them my LFS will.

That's where I'm stuck. They want fish, and want the tank changed later. I don't know what to do with the fish when I'm changing things. I can seed the 350 with some media from my tank.

Ill take my test kit over when I go tomorrow and get params
 
Honestly, I would tell the grandparent's that they need to be patient and these things take time. Show them one of your tanks, then tell them that they can have just as nice a tank, if they let you work at your own speed. Of course, do so politly, using as many logical, emoptional, and realistic arguments as possible. However, that's just me.
 
Kashta said:
Do some reading on the subject of "old tank syndrome" before starting the cleanup.
Click to expand...

Can that effect the restart? I don't intend on reusing anything in the tank.
 
Cycle wise, why not just throw one of your filters on there? You could always take it back once it's cycled...
 
yes going from bad water conditions to pristine wateer conditions can shock their systems and kill them. Best to do partial water changes to slowly reacclimate them to good water conditions rather than plopping them into good water conditions all at once.
 
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