Never Cleaned Tank. Should I Bother?

[adpgt]

I have 10 fish in my 55 gallon freshwater tank. All of them have been in there for at least 6 months up to 1.5 years. I have never used a gravel vacuum. I looked at the tank today and saw a fish that was litterly bent in half resting at the bottom of the tank, dead. So, should I clean the gravel now? I got my water tested yesterday and the guy told me that my nitrate or nitrite levels were very high. I forgot whether it was nitrate or nitrite but the ammonia was fine. Also, I never do water changes. Whenever the water evaporates is the only time I add water.

What should I do at this point?

I have a aquaclear filter with a big sponge and two bags of some sort in it. All three of those are about 2 years old but I washed all of them twice I believe in my bathtub. The filter is very big. Probably a little bit longer then a foot.

Tank consists of 1 pleco, 2 bala sharks, 2 glofish, and the other 5 I am not sure.

Thanks!

 

[Electric Warrior]

 

[ScholasticSpastic]

Reading this makes me shudder. Are you trolling?

What I should have said is:

Do some water changes to bring down your nitrates. 25% per day every day until nitrates are below 20ppm. Doing a large enough water change to get you there in one go will kill your fish. Leaving them in their current state will dramatically shorten their lives and is, I believe, cruel behavior.

Buy a test kit. Use it. Hold up your end as a pet owner.

 

[adpgt]

I'm not troling by any means. I have sort of ignored the condition of the tank as it hasn't caused any problems till now. But should I use a gravel vacuum now? I am afraid that all the stuff in my gravel will float in the water and that will kill my fish.

 

[ScholasticSpastic]

Water changes are imperative. You can worry about the mulm (stuff in your gravel) when you've gotten your nitrates down to a reasonable level. At that point, if you're using your gravel vac right and your filter is up to snuff, it really shouldn't kick up a lot of detritus and what it does kick up should be taken care of by your filter in under an hour.

 

[Livewire]

Normally, you should have done up to a minimum of 25% of your tank in Water changes by the end of a month.

 

[Man of fish]

This is just sad, and also made me shudder. I suggest 30-40% daily water changes for at least a week, buy a test kit and once nitrates are back down under 20 or so You can do about 40% weekly water changes. Yes get a gravel vacuum.

 

[adpgt]

Ok. When I do the water changes, do I need to add something to clean the water when adding new water in?

 

[mark4785]

You need to do frequent water changes to replace minerals like magnesium, bicarbonates and, in particular, calcium. The lack of calcium in your water may explain why you have a bent fish corpse sat on your gravel.

You can only really get away with avoiding water changes in huge bodies of water (i.e. a pond) where it is impractical to do water changes and as such you top up your water using calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate deposits as I primarily do with my pond. You can never do this with a fish tank though as you'd risk burning the fishes skin if they were to come into contact with the deposit.

Doing regular water changes is also essential for removing nitrate. If this parameter goes above 50 ppm you will be putting the health of your fish at serious risk. A lot of people will recommend keeping nitrate levels below 10 ppm but this is not imperative.

My advice to you is to do a multitude of 10% W/C's every 4-5 hours. If you do a massive W/C at once, the new dechlorinated tap water you are introducing will cause osmotic shock to the fish due to the disparity between it's and your tanks mineral content.

Ok. When I do the water changes, do I need to add something to clean the water when adding new water in?

You need to do add a de-chlorinator solution such as Aqua Safe by Tetra. You add 5ml of it per 10 litres of water.

Word of warning: Aqua safe contains small concentrations of salt so stick to the above dosage because the toxicity of nitrate in salt water gets significantly amplified!

 

[SombreroBanana]

Ok. When I do the water changes, do I need to add something to clean the water when adding new water in?

Buy water conditioner. When you do the water change, add it according to instructions to the new water before you dump it in the tank. And when you rinse your bags of filter media, always wash them in old tank water, never tap water. It kills the beneficial bacteria on them.

 

[Man of fish]

I would suggest prime, because it's an ammonia binding dechlorinator. Also your stocking, IMO, is very gruesome. Bala sharks need large groups and tanks of AT LEAST 6x2x2 but 9x3x3 is often needed. Your pleco is most likely a common and needs 100 gallon, your glofish are zebra danios that need groups of 6+ and post pictures of your "other 5" so we can Id them. That could be very important.

 

[erk628]

Read the links in my sig below, you have a lot to learn.

 

[Sherry1966]

You have a pleco in your tank. So do I. They are poop machines.
I gravel vacuum once a week, taking out 25% at a time. Yes I lose a couple of inches of water a week (evaporation) in my 55g tank. It takes me 20 minutes to gravel vac 3 tanks, and replace the water. It is very easy to keep your tank in prestine show quality this way. it's easy, you can do it.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

No water changes for possibly 18 months? A Pleco in the tank? Doesn't know the difference betweet NitrAtes and NitrItes? Never used a gravel vacuum? Let's be serious here, people...

Terry.

 

[Gilli]

I also think this is a wind up - with this kind of lack of knowledge and care he would have been losing fish left right and centre!