Urgent help needed to save fish

To begin I have no clue about fish, fish keeping or tank care.

Now that's out of the way, we're I work there a fish tank that's been basically abandoned for months. It's situated at a window (I know this much that's it's really bad for algae).

I think all the fish are dying due to lack of water changing (done once or twice in a full year) all I've done is bought fish flakes in an attempt to stop them starving to death since last april.

How do I change the water with the fish in it? I know tap water will kill them due to chlorine but don't know how to go about getting water out and fresh 'safe' water in.

One of the fish (a gold fish afaik) has grown what looks like a pimple near his mouth/gils (possibly an infection) he was constantly sitting were the bubbles come up now he's sitting on the bottom and sometimes almost falling over on his side, he doesnt look like he's having a good time at all.

Would love to help him as he's been my buddy through all of this pandemic and he's really struggling right now but I don't know what to do ?

I think these are the solutions but how do I begin to understand how to use them. Also the water conditioner I presume is the one has very little in the end of the bottle.. does a little go a long way?... Scrap that stuff is out of date since 2018 ?

We need a better photo of the fish in the tank I think I see a neon tetra but he shouldn't be with a gold fish. So photos of the fish. Start with a 25% water change, buy a new bottle of water conditioner and follow the instructions. You need to do at least 25% water changes once a week. If the filter has water flowing through it leave that at the moment. Water changes are the first thing.

I just re read your thread. Syphon the water out and refill through buckets adding conditioner as you go. Any bucket has to be clean and used only for the fish tank so buy a new 10 or 15 liter bucket if necessary.

Hi and welcome to the forum

Because the tank doesn't get water changed very often, you should start out small and slow. Do a 10% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a few weeks. This will slowly dilute the old water with newer clean water and there will be less shock/ stress to the fish.

After a couple of weeks you can do a 20% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a couple of weeks. Obviously if your at work Monday to Friday, just do the water changes then. You don't have to go in on your days off specifically to do water changes.

After that you can do a 30% water change and gravel clean every day for a week.

Then a 50% water change and gravel clean every day for a week.

After that you can do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a week or once every two weeks.

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DECHLORINATING TAP WATER
Any new water needs to be dechlorinated (free of chlorine/ chloramine) before it's added to the tank. In the box of goodies, there is a bottle of Fluval water conditioner. This is used to neutralise chlorine in tap water.

If you can contact your water company via their website or telephone, see if you can find out if you have chlorine or chloramine in the water supply. They are different and whilst most water conditioners will treat both, they normally use a higher dose rate for chloramine. So find out if you have chlorine or chloramine before you do a water change.

If you can get a couple of new buckets and use a permanent marker to write "FISH ONLY" on the buckets, then keep those buckets specifically for the fish. Don't let anyone use the fish buckets for anything except the fish tank.

When you do a water change, you can scoop or drain water out of the tank into the fish buckets. The dirty water can be poured on the lawn or garden. Then rinse the bucket/s out with tap water. Add the required amount of Fluval water conditioner to treat the bucket. The bottle of water conditioner should have directions on it saying 5ml per 20 litres, or something like that. When you have put the water conditioner in the bucket, then fill the bucket with tap water. Put the bucket somewhere out of the water and stir it up with your hand for a couple of minutes to mix the dechlorinator with the tap water. Then scoop or slowly pour that new water into the aquarium.

Further down the road, you can invest in an air pump, some airline and an airstone. This can be used to aerate the tap water and dechlorinator instead of using your hand. If you get an air pump and associated equipment, you fill the bucket with water and dechlorinator, put the airstone in the bucket of water and turn the air pump on. The air pump sits on a shelf away from the bucket and does not go in the water. You let the air pump run for about 30 minutes and this mixes the dechlorinator and water and it also gets the dissolved gasses in the water back to their normal levels. Aerating the water with an air pump and airstone is not essential but it does make the water a bit safer for the fish.

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GRAVEL CLEANER
To remove water and clean the gravel at the same time, get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. It will allow you to clean the gunk out of the gravel without removing the gravel from the aquarium. You can buy gravel cleaners from any pet shop and ask the shop assistant to demonstrate its use. You can also look on YouTube and search for how to use a gravel cleaner.

When you get a gravel cleaner, don't buy a fancy super duper you bute one with bells and whistles, they are completely unnecessary. Just get a basic model like the one in the link. If you can't find one, let me know and I can tell you how to make one from a plastic drink bottle and garden hose.

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TOPPING THE TANK UP
I'm not sure how full the tank is, but it doesn't look full. Before you do a water change, you can slowly fill the tank up so it's a couple of inches below the top. Make up some dechlorinated water and slowly add it to the tank. Don't add too much each day. Try to add about 10% of the tank volume each day until it is full. Then start doing the daily 10% water changes.

The fish remain in the aquarium when you do water changes. Just leave them be and scoop or syphon some water out.

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CLEAN HANDS
When you work in the aquarium, rinse your hands down with straight tap water before doing anything in the aquarium. Make sure you don't have any moisturising cream, perfume, oil, grease, disinfectant/ hand sanitiser, or anything else on your hands. These things can all poison the fish. So clean hands before you work in the tank.

After you have cleaned the tank and put the fish buckets and sponge away, wash your hands with soapy water. Fish tanks are full of micro-organisms and you want to wash these off your hands after working in the tank.

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CLEANING THE GLASS
You can use a sponge to wipe the glass down and get rid of the algae. Make sure the sponge is Soap Free and does not contain mould inhibiters or anything else. Generally the cheaper sponges don't have anything added to them and they are usually safer.

If you buy a new sponge, wash it with warm soapy water a few times and then rinse it really well. Most sponges have green or yellow dye in them and this can leach into the aquarium if the sponge isn't washed first.

Make sure you use a soap that does not contain antiseptic or disinfectant, and no perfumed soap. Just use a bland boring soap that doesn't smell pretty. Then rinse the sponge really well to remove any soap residue.

When you have a clean sponge, keep it with the fish gear and don't let anyone use it for anything except the aquarium.

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THE FILTER
If you can post some pictures of the filter, we can tell you how to clean it. As a general rule, you do not replace the filter media/ materials unless they start to fall apart. The filter media holds gunk and good bacteria. If you throw the old media away, you get rid of the good filter bacteria and the tank will have water quality problems.

Don't bother cleaning the filter just yet. It probably needs a clean but show us what type it is first and then we can take you through the process of cleaning it.

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THINGS IN THE BOX
There are a couple of bottles of plant fertiliser in the box. Do not add any of that to the aquarium. The same with the salt, don't add any salt to the aquarium. And the remaining bottle is white spot medication, again, don't add any of that to the tank.

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STARTING NOW
From this point on, contact the water company to find out if you have chlorine or chloramine.
Top up the tank with dechlorinated.
Try to find a gravel cleaner.
Start doing small daily water changes and gravel clean part of the substrate each time you do a water change.
Take pictures and post details of the filter.

Colin_T said:

Hi and welcome to the forum

Because the tank doesn't get water changed very often, you should start out small and slow. Do a 10% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a few weeks. This will slowly dilute the old water with newer clean water and there will be less shock/ stress to the fish.

After a couple of weeks you can do a 20% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a couple of weeks. Obviously if your at work Monday to Friday, just do the water changes then. You don't have to go in on your days off specifically to do water changes.

After that you can do a 30% water change and gravel clean every day for a week.

Then a 50% water change and gravel clean every day for a week.

After that you can do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a week or once every two weeks.

--------------------
Any new water needs to be dechlorinated (free of chlorine/ chloramine) before it's added to the tank. In the box of goodies, there is a bottle of Fluval water conditioner. This is used to neutralise chlorine in tap water.

If you can contact your water company via their website or telephone, see if you can find out if you have chlorine or chloramine in the water supply. They are different and whilst most water conditioners will treat both, they normally use a higher dose rate for chloramine. So find out if you have chlorine or chloramine before you do a water change.

If you can get a couple of clean buckets and use a permanent marker to write "FISH ONLY" on the buckets, then keep those buckets specifically for the fish. Don't let anyone use the fish buckets for anything except the fish tank.

When you do a water change, you can scoop or drain water out of the tank into the fish buckets. The dirty water can be poured on the lawn or garden. Then rinse the bucket/s out with tap water. Add the required amount of Fluval water conditioner to treat the bucket. The bottle of water conditioner should have direction on it saying 5ml per 20 litres, or something like that. When you have put the water conditioner in the bucket, then fill the bucket with tap water. Put the bucket somewhere out of the water and stir it up with your hand for a couple of minutes to mix the dechlorinator with the tap water. Then scoop or slowly pour that new water into the aquarium.

--------------------
To remove water and clean the gravel at the same time, get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. It will allow you to clean the gunk out of the gravel without removing the gravel from the aquarium. You can buy gravel cleaners from any pet shop and ask the shop assistant to demonstrate its use. You can also look on YouTube and search for how to use a gravel cleaner.

When you get a gravel cleaner, don't buy a fancy super duper you bute one with bells and whistles, they are completely unnecessary. Just get a basic model like the one in the link. If you can't find one, let me know and I can tell you how to make one from a plastic drink bottle and garden hose.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

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I'm not sure how full the tank is, but it doesn't look full. Before you do a water change, you can slowly fill the tank up so it's a couple of inches below the top. Make up some dechlorinated water and slowly add it to the tank. Don't add too much each day. Try to add about 10% of the tank volume each day until it is full. Then start doing the daily 10% water changes.

The fish remain in the aquarium when you do water changes. Just leave them be and scoop or syphon some water out.

Click to expand...

Did you see I was a good boy and said to use conditioner

Not very active on here but have attempted to sort this tank out since last post.

So from reading replies from you guys I realised the tank was only half way full.

I cleaned up the glass all around using a soap free sponge etc and tried to get as much of the black gunk out with the net here.

As someone suggested I then topped off the tank and used some fluval conditioner (bought a new bottle). Not sure how this will go as I have never looked after fish before but anything has to be better than how the tank was heading.

The water already looks much cleaner. The only issue is a lot of the black gunk has settled on the gravel on the bottom. I'm 100% sure this needs to be sorted out too but not sure how to get that out and off the stones (I believe it's called substrate). From what I understand the fish need to come out to facilitate this.

One thing that's really confusing me is how do I use he conditioner when doing 10-15% water changes? Confused how many mls to use with such small a water change?

Thanks very much for all your tips they have been a great help. I have attached pics of the fish left there use to me A LOT more. Can anyone name them? I know there's a bottom feeder hiding in there also but he's afraid of his own shadow and never comes out. Used to be two angels also but they died. The orange one has grown a lump on the side of his head In the last couple of weeks not sure what thats about have either.

The bottom feeder looks something like this

1 - wow those are some hardy fish

2 - good on you for wanting to take such good care of them

3 - with regards to getting the gunk off the substrate, you can use a gravel vac. This is a video showing a gravel vac and how to use it to clean your substrate.

Nubium said:

One thing that's really confusing me is how do I use he conditioner when doing 10-15% water changes? Confused how many mls to use with such small a water change?

Click to expand...

When I do a water change I add the water conditioner to each bucket of new water at the dose for the volume of the bucket.

What is the dose given of the bottle of water conditioner? If it's only a small amount, you can use a pipette/syringe to measure small amounts.

Nubium said:

The only issue is a lot of the black gunk has settled on the gravel on the bottom. I'm 100% sure this needs to be sorted out too but not sure how to get that out and off the stones (I believe it's called substrate). From what I understand the fish need to come out to facilitate this.

Click to expand...

The fish stay in the tank when you do a water change and gravel clean the substrate.

You use a gravel cleaner as described below.

Colin_T said:

GRAVEL CLEANER
To remove water and clean the gravel at the same time, get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. It will allow you to clean the gunk out of the gravel without removing the gravel from the aquarium. You can buy gravel cleaners from any pet shop and ask the shop assistant to demonstrate its use. You can also look on YouTube and search for how to use a gravel cleaner.

When you get a gravel cleaner, don't buy a fancy super duper you bute one with bells and whistles, they are completely unnecessary. Just get a basic model like the one in the link. If you can't find one, let me know and I can tell you how to make one from a plastic drink bottle and garden hose.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

--------------------

Click to expand...

Essjay said:

When I do a water change I add the water conditioner to each bucket of new water at the dose for the volume of the bucket.

What is the dose given of the bottle of water conditioner? If it's only a small amount, you can use a pipette/syringe to measure small amounts.

Click to expand...

Medicinal syringes work great when dosing conditioner, you can be precise with the recommended dosing amounts.
The general rule I follow is, when using buckets for WC's, treat with enough conditioner for the bucket(s) amount; when doing a WC with a siphon or hose, treat with enough conditioner for the whole tank volume.