Tank rescue

Hi,

Ive been reading this forum for awhile now and had lots of advice thanks all, but today i bought a tank from a friend who didnt know anything about keeping fish, so i need a little help. He told me when he got the tank it had 35 fish in it now 3 weeks l8tr theres only 11 left, so i went to have a look. Looking at the tank i asked him how often he had been feeding them as i could see a thick layer of flake food across the top of the gravel - he had fed them a full tub in the space of 3 weeks and this was a big tub. after looking further i could see his filter was not doing anything, so i pulled it out to check it over and the medium was totaly blocked with slime, also the turbine was. So I told him i would do what i could to save the remainder fish and that he had probably poisened them with no filter working and over feeding. the tank was a mess and smelt like the sewage works and there was a very thick slime allover it.

Heres what i did : -

I setup a temporary aquarium in a bucket with an old filter and heater. cleaned the tank till it was sparkling and set it up to cycle with a filter i had luckily cycling in my matured tank which i had bought spare just incase. To the temperary bucket i added "Aqua safe" and "Nutrafin Cycle" in the right amounts and it says to add the "Nutrafin Cycle" daily. I want to know when you think it will be ok to put the fish back in there tank and will they survive there stay in the bucket?. The filter i have put in the clean tank has been in my matured tank now for 2 months and i rubbed the medium from my other filter on it before i put it in. So i transfered it into the freshly cleaned tank but this was very cold water as the heater is in the temperary bucket. Would the cold water effect the filter in anyway stopping it from cycling? as i can put a heater in when it has cycled and is safe for the fish.

Did i do the right thing?
Will they survive?
Got any Advice?

I dont have a water test kit sorry so i cant give you any info but ive had my matured tank 3 yrs and there having babies so i dont think theres a problem
with my water.

What you've done so far is ok but I'd immediately move the heater to the main tank and, as soon as the temp's within reason, put all the fish back in with your matured filter.

The nutrafin cycle stuff doesn't work IMO so I think you are better off leaving that and just putting in matured filter media (as much as possible) and the fish.

The filter you have taken from your tank and put in the clean tank will be lacking ammonia to feed the bacteria - they'll die. That's why you need to put the fish in again.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ive put them back in there tank now so the bacteria wont die, so iv just got to wait and see what happens but they seem to be happy. Thanks again

I think one of the zebra danios has dropsy, he has swelled up twice the size of the others and has the tell tale pine comb look. From reading other threads it seams that he will die, iv raised the temperature to 80 and iam already treating for fungal infection with protozin which iam on day three. I dont know what else to do any suggestion?s. He just stays in the same place looking very lathargic while the others are whizzing about like normal.

Well i chopped its head off today because it was just getting worse and he was suffering, so i put him out of his misery. R.I.P danio, sorry.

Good on you for that rescue, i guess he didn't know much about fishkeeping if the filter had stopped working and the whole tank covered in slime!!!!! Omg i'm shock that the remaining 11 fish have survived this far.

Good on ya tho!!!