I got a 29g tank from a friend who no longer wanted it. It came with 8 fish in it (still working on IDs...he didn't know). See http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=574216. He had it at least a year or two.
By the time I got to his house, he already had the tank torn down, and the fish in a glass vase. I started asking him questions and found out that he did not do regular PWCs...just topped it off. The tank MUST have had OTS from the nitrate and other buildups. Unfortunately, all the old tank water was already down the drain, so I had no way of slowly acclimating them to clean water.
What I ended up doing was rinsing the tank and gravel real good (gravel had a TON of gunk in it). I put the fish in a bucket and slowly drip acclimated them to the water from my 55g over about two hours. I then syphoned water from the 55 to the new 29 and dumped the new fish in there. I transfered my Emperor 400 from the 55 to the 29 since the 29 was now uncycled (he threw away the sponge from the filter he had on it).
Anyway, my question is, does anyone have any advice on anything I can do to make their transition (from OTS to clean water) any easier? They looked good this morning, so I thought it was a good sign that they survived the first night.
Without having any of their OTS water, was there anything I could have done differently to ease their transition?
The plan right now is just to test their water regularly and keep it pristine.
By the time I got to his house, he already had the tank torn down, and the fish in a glass vase. I started asking him questions and found out that he did not do regular PWCs...just topped it off. The tank MUST have had OTS from the nitrate and other buildups. Unfortunately, all the old tank water was already down the drain, so I had no way of slowly acclimating them to clean water.
What I ended up doing was rinsing the tank and gravel real good (gravel had a TON of gunk in it). I put the fish in a bucket and slowly drip acclimated them to the water from my 55g over about two hours. I then syphoned water from the 55 to the new 29 and dumped the new fish in there. I transfered my Emperor 400 from the 55 to the 29 since the 29 was now uncycled (he threw away the sponge from the filter he had on it).
Anyway, my question is, does anyone have any advice on anything I can do to make their transition (from OTS to clean water) any easier? They looked good this morning, so I thought it was a good sign that they survived the first night.
Without having any of their OTS water, was there anything I could have done differently to ease their transition?
The plan right now is just to test their water regularly and keep it pristine.
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I'd like to thank God and my family for always sticking by me. :laugh: Oh yeah, and thanks to everyone at AC where I learned 
