Help-question on full tank clean

[melcrawshaw]

Hi,

firstly let me aplologise if this question has been asked before but I have to slip this email in before the boss sees so unable to trawl through the boards!!

I have just become the owner of a 10 gallon tank (UK) that has 8 neon tetras, 1 black tetra and 1 2" common pleco, I got it all from a neighbour who was just about to move overseas.

My problem is that I notice that the gravel is absolutely filthy, full of fecal matter and that the water is smelly. Since getting them a few days ago we have done a couple of 50% water changes. I really believe that the best thing is to get clean gravel down and give the tank a thorough clean but I am worried about doing this, I don't want to stress the fish out or do any unintentional harm by completely changing the water.

Please advise me, I am keen to give the fish a good living environment.
Thanks
p.s I haven't been able to test the water yet, but have kits waiting to be delivered.
p.p.s I am aware about the size that the pleco can grow to, we will be accomodating him accordingly as he grows.

 

[BIGMAC]

Hiya,do you have a gravel cleaning syphon?if not i would get one that could be used to dig down into the gravel to remove all that fish poop at the same time it will syphon out the water helping with those water changes,i would imagin by doing this you will eventually have a much cleaner tank.I personally would be very cautious about completley emptying the whole tank to clean it out but if you do make sure you dont use chemicals and also i would make sure i put back about 50% of the original tank water and make sure you add a dechlorinater to the new tap water you add and try get it to a similar temperature as the tank water.
Other people may have a different oppinion ,but i hope this helps a little.
Good luck.
Sue

 

[barbiya]

I concur with BIGMAC (Sue). I wouldn't recommend cleaning the whole thing out, but instead would try the siphon. If you could clean a portion of the gravel with the siphon out each day, you won't risk killing off all the good bacteria, as you could if you attempt to really clean the whole thing.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck, and congrats on the "new" tank!

 

[Nina7777]

Hey there,
What i would do, is buy 2 "fish" only buckets, put the fish and half the tank water into one bucket, and the rest of the water into another one. Then remove your old gravel. Get some knee high panty hose, and cut then in half. Put a handful of gravel in the toe part and tie. I would make four of these. Then put in your new gravel, Half new water, Half old from the bucket with just water, treat the new water with dechlorinator. Then put the four stockings in different parts of the tank. and once the temperature is where you want, put the fish back in.

Then don't clean your filter for a couple weeks and leave the stockings in for about 4 weeks.

The stockings will enable the good bacteria from you old gravel to transfer to the new gravel.

Also get a siphon it will help tremendously with water changes and cleaning the gravel. Also if you do decide to go with this method only siphon the noticeable stuff on top of the gravel.

This is what i had to do with my 30 gallon, because the gravel was DISGUSTING and i couldn't take it anymore!

GOOD LUCk and keep us posted!

 

[thecichlidaddict]

If you feel the aquarium is in poor condition then by all means I say clean it up.

Just syphon the water from the tank into another container. You can get a 10 gallon plastic container from a hardware store for just a few bucks. Syphon half the water into this container, fill the rest up with fresh water that is the same temperature and then transfer both the fish and the filter over to this container.

Because you have transfered the filter over as well, the bacterial colony in the filter will still be intact. You can now do whatever you wish to the tank. It would also give you a chance to change the substrate to something else, if you wished. So, clean/replace the substrate, scrub the glass, do whatever needs doing. Re-fill the tank, heat it up to the same temperature as the water in the container, and transfer the fish and filter back over. Simple and effective.

The tank will still be cycled, the fish will be in a fresh, clean environment, and you know they will be starting off well. Now all of the bacteria keeping your tank cycled is in the filter, so don't clean out the filter for a few weeks untill the tank has a chance to mature again.