Plastic Pieces In Tank- Help!

[xJennaNiccolex]

My algae brush completely exploded and came apart in my tank today, there are little plastic shards/pieces from it EVERYWHERE. We lost power recently so I had all my fish in the small tank for a short amount of time to keep them cool while temperatures rose in the rest of the house, but was planning to move them back today, when this happened!
What do I do, if there's stuff floating around in the tank it would be too dangerous to put the fish back right?
But, if I take the water out and completely replace/clean everything in the tank, I'll have to re-cycle it and wait a few weeks before putting the fish back, when my fish are currently WAY over crowded in the small tank.

Any advice??

Thanks!!!

 

[alistairw]

Hi

From what I understand, technically it is the filter that is cycled so as long as you don't change the filter media while cleaning the water, you should be OK. Perhaps strain some of the water into a bucket and put the filter in there while you are cleaning, so that the media doesn't dry out as I think this will probably kill all your good bacteria. Give everything a good clean and put fresh dechlorinated water back in and bring up to temp. You will probably have to aclimatise your fish to the water again though.

I am by no means an expert as fairly new to fish keeping too and I am sure I will be pulled up on some comments above (happy with that!!) as I am still learning too!

Good luck!

Al

 

[colleen0309]

Hi

From what I understand, technically it is the filter that is cycled so as long as you don't change the filter media while cleaning the water, you should be OK. Perhaps strain some of the water into a bucket and put the filter in there while you are cleaning, so that the media doesn't dry out as I think this will probably kill all your good bacteria. Give everything a good clean and put fresh dechlorinated water back in and bring up to temp. You will probably have to aclimatise your fish to the water again though.

I am by no means an expert as fairly new to fish keeping too and I am sure I will be pulled up on some comments above (happy with that!!) as I am still learning too!

Good luck!

Al

You are leaning well, Grasshopper! The bacteria are in the filter, not the water. This is one of the things the lfs seem to get wrong.

 

[phoenixgsd]

You are leaning well, Grasshopper! The bacteria are in the filter, not the water. This is one of the things the lfs seem to get wrong.

LOL, i agree, i have done a 100% water change before, (when i changed substrate) cleaned ornaments ect as long as the filter isnt in contact with tap water or dries out you should be ok, take a bit of tank water in a bucket/tub, seive what bits you can out and put the filter fish ect in there out the way whilst you clean the tank, make sure you acclimatise the fish slowly when returning them, try to get the temp as close as you can

 

[alistairw]

You are leaning well, Grasshopper! The bacteria are in the filter, not the water. This is one of the things the lfs seem to get wrong.

Thankyou!!

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