Looking for advice restoring an unmaintained tank

M

MYname

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Mar 28, 2010
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I have been through some rough patches recently and my pets are suffering for it.
If you get easily disgusted by people who don't take care of their animals either don't read this or please understand that i haven't been able to cope with some things and i haven't been able to maintain my tank, i feel absolutely awful about it and am looking to do a better job. When the tank was initially set up i had no problems maintaining it very well, i knew what I was doing and had prior success with other setups.
This is hard for me but i really need some advice pertaining to a 46 gallon brackish aquarium whose only resident is a 2year old ceylon puffer.

So the setup i have is a 46 gallon bow front, it is brackish and the last time i checked the salinity was around 1.018 but a considerable amount of water has evaporated and my hydrometers are broken.
I have a heater, bubbler and a canister filter and thats about it.
The substrate is very large gravel that i would like to change.
Before i messed up i had a 10 gallon tank that was used to breed feeder snails and a 20 gallon tall with no particular use. Both tanks have filters and i have a heater for the 20 gallon. Both tanks are unused but still contain water sand and a few decorations.

Here comes the bad stuff
My tank has been unmaintained for months.
I was looking towards the usual steady conversion into full marine for the health of my puffer but didn't have any money for protein skimmers, rocks, sand etc.
the substrate of my tank was leftovers from a previous freshwater setup and is a thick layer of large pebbles, a very very bad idea for a setup with a messy fish.
My saltwater testing equipment (ph, nitrate, etc) as well as my hydrometers are either lost or broken.
My food supply for my puffer has been reduced to freeze dried krill because my snail tank is out of order.
And to top it all off i have lost quite a bit of fish keeping know how.

Ok so it is very well established that my setup is messed up and my fish is unhealthy. I am extremely lucky he has survived this long.
So what i am looking for now is some advice about
changing the tank to marine water.
Re adapting the poor little guy to clean water
Getting better food for him
Changing out the substrate to something cleaner like sand
Getting the equipment i need to sustain the setup once i have it marine.

I need this information so that i can make a plan to get what i need and do what i need in order because i am a high school student and have no money to work with. I can scrape together a little at a time but i need a plan.

Thank you in advance for any help.





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I can't help with the brackish to marine conversion, but my understanding is that for fish that have been keep in very poor water conditions for a long period of time, it's best to make changes slowly. I would start by adding fresh water — in small amounts over several days if the evaporation is extreme. The salinity will have increased as water evaporated, so adding fresh should get it back to where it was earlier. (I think you're going to need to buy/borrow a hydrometer asap.) Once you have the tank topped off, start doing very small water changes (5-10%) daily until the water quality is finally back where it should be. Carefully vacuum a section of substrate daily with each water change, but try to stir the gravel as little as possible so you don't leave a ton of stuff floating in the water column. You can switch out the substrate and make other tank changes later. For now, the immediate need is to improve water quality and reduce the amount of crap in the substrate.

Good luck.
 
^^ as said above, a week before you want to change your 46g substrate take the filter for the 20g and put it on the 46g, a day before the change switch it back to the 20g, and add a nice big scoop of the gravel from the 46g as well, next day move your puffer over along with the filter for the 46g. Empty tank, do your substrate change, put in new water, put your 46g filter back on it. Water test the next day if all is good move the puffer back over.
 
Yep, the key here is slow but steady repair of conditions and I would go about it the way it was discussed above....fresh addition to replace evap and hopefully bring salinity back to "normal" and then replacement of water at correct salinity to get pollutants in check.

I would probably do gravel vacs during these 5ish gallon changes, just focus on one smaller spot rather than the entire tank. Literally force the suction end into the gravel and let it pull rather than stirring it up to the water column.
 
A question, because I know nothing about puffers or brackish stuff in general: is adaptation from fresh to brackish to full marine something that a fish can do back and forth --at least from partial (brackish) to full salt--or is it a one way street, where once they are full salt adapted they can't go back?

Because it occurs to me that if the evaporation has been as extensive as it seems the fish may have already been acclamated to full salt. Topping off with fresh water would serve to bring it back to brackish status, but is that part of the procedure going to help or harm? Would it be better to top off the tank with saltwater and treat it as a salt tank from now on?

other than that quibble all the above advice sounds good. A hydrometer--don't know prices in Canada but they're under $10US here--would seem to be the highest priority acquisition.
 
When faced with tough times it can be a nice escape to involve yourself in your tanks by starting with the maintenance. As much as the thought of tank maintenance repulses me at times, I find that it is actually cathartic to become involved in it. I use it as an escape from the reality of my situation when I need an escape. Our personal lives can be overwhelming but when we have lifeforms depending on us for their survival, we need to push away the self and concentrate on them.

My position is that we can be a certain way because of our situation, or in spite of it. I consider myself to be a survivor and choose to try hard to succeed in spite of my obstacles, and not because of them. Ultimately, the choice is yours and yours alone.
 
Thanks everyone
Once i am able to measure the salinity should i really add fresh water slowly as suggested above? Because i was going to try to keep the salinity the same as what my fish was accustomed to with salt water but i don't know if adding more salt is just going to compound the problem.


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I mean no disrespect at all, but one thing to consider (since it sounds like you have only one fish) is selling your setup(s) and rehoming your one fish. If whatever kept you from doing maintenance (even if that "whatever" is depression) is still around, you may want to just take a step back and focus on rehabbing yourself, instead of your tank. Right now it sounds like your tank is making you spiral into a cycle of guilt and negativity. It's true that aquariums can be very soothing and positive, but if you are not ready - financially, mentally, physically - to take on the task of reentering the hobby, so to speak, you may just want to put it on hold until you are...there is no shame in that, brother :) It is obvious by the tone of your message that you care a lot about your puffer and are not just an irresponsible, thoughtless person.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best.
 
platytudes said:
I mean no disrespect at all, but one thing to consider (since it sounds like you have only one fish) is selling your setup(s) and rehoming your one fish. If whatever kept you from doing maintenance (even if that "whatever" is depression) is still around, you may want to just take a step back and focus on rehabbing yourself, instead of your tank. Right now it sounds like your tank is making you spiral into a cycle of guilt and negativity. It's true that aquariums can be very soothing and positive, but if you are not ready - financially, mentally, physically - to take on the task of reentering the hobby, so to speak, you may just want to put it on hold until you are...there is no shame in that, brother :) It is obvious by the tone of your message that you care a lot about your puffer and are not just an irresponsible, thoughtless person.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best.
Click to expand...

Nope I'm good. Ive done enough skulking and I'm not on this forum for info about personal problems now am I.
I wouldn't have even bothered posting on here if that were the case because my only concern at the moment is redeeming what i lost.

Anyhow back on the topic of fish keeping. Another one of my concerns is the health of the fish. As i have said before his food supply has been reduced to freeze dried krill and the tail end of the fish is looking thin, almost concave. Is this a problem with malnutrition? It was my first guess anyway.




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