Vegas heat boiled my fish; how do I sanitize the tank?

[manoosie]

We have left the house before and turned the air off with no problem. However, this time around we didnt expect it too hit 119 when we were gone. Sadly, the fish were long gone, and the water was full of miscellaneous fish parts. I immediately took out the fish and drained all the water several times. I have a test kit. How do I know when its ok to put fish back into the tank? Specifically, what should I be looking out for in my tests? Thanks, its off to aquabid to fetch me some more fish...

 

[Sadielynn]

Honestly I would just start over , and recycle your tank you can keep your sand and LR but sounds like you basically crashed ,from over heating , it happens keep your head up .You dont say what size tank you have , corals ect ...
SO with that I would say drain it all out and cycle it like you did when it was new run testing of ammonia , nitrIte , nitrAte , you are going to go through a cycle . Just run it like you were starting over .
Ammonia will rise and fall you want this at 0
NitrIte will rise and fall you want this at 0
NitrAte will rise do a water change after your other perameters are at 0 you want to maintain this lower than 20 .
Keep your head up it happens we have all been there at some point where it just happens and you sit there and say HUH .

 

[melosu58]

I agree that you`ll need to cycle the tank again

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15

Basically start over again.

 

[Hara]

I will go out on a limb and disagree with my esteemed colleagues

I dont think you need to recycle the tank. I would do a 100% water change though. Biological filtration can stand some pretty extreme conditions that the fish and other life can not.

 

[Sadielynn]

I will go out on a limb and disagree with my esteemed colleagues

I dont think you need to recycle the tank. I would do a 100% water change though. Biological filtration can stand some pretty extreme conditions that the fish and other life can not.

Ok I understand what you are saying but a 100% h20 change will still need to cycle , you have removed the water but there will be some form of die off and ammonia build and fall . Unless you do 2 50/50 changes in a week or so but I still feel that there will be some sort of cycle , that is gonna happen. It really is no diffrent than emptying a tank and filling it with 100% new salt water .But even so with it being "boiled" there will be die off creating a cycle

 

[Hara]

The biological filtration will take care of the ammonia issue, if there even is any. I really dont think there will be after a water change.

 

[manoosie]

Well I bought some goldfish last night and tested the water this morning. Good news: I dont think I will have to cycle again. I got 0 nitrite and 0 ammonia, and about 10 for nitrate. Its a 55g tank and I threw 8 medium size gold fish in there. Is that not enough fish to increase the nitrate, or should I just not worry about it and order my fish?
If I need more ammonia, I have a bottle of Janitorial strength ammonia from ace. Will that do that job, and how much do I add (I cannot remember). Thanks.

 

[Hara]

erm....maybe I am missing something here...why would you buy goldfish for a saltwater tank?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hmm, looking at your post history, I'm going to venture a guess that you posted this in the wrong forum.

I'm going to move this to the Freshwater/Brackish - General Discussion Forum.

About the fish, rethink the addition of 8 goldfish in a 55 gallon. Fine for now, but they will grow and grow...and grow.

I agree with Hara, I don't think you'll cycle either, but just to be safe I'd be prepared to do some water change if ammonia spikes at all.

And just to be safe, maybe you can try running a fan across the top of your tank so it blows on the water. Excellent way to keep tank temps from rising too much. With goldfish, you are still going to need COOL water, so if your tank temp starts to get high at all, add some extra aeration to your tank or drop the water level to create more surface agitiation. Hotter water holds less O2, and goldfish are accustomed usually to lower temps and thus higher O2.

HTH

 

[7Enigma]

I see I'm late to the party but there is no way you will have a cycle. I'd be willing to bet your tank temp was under 100F, and the fish probably died from ammonia poisoning more then the temp (1 or 2 dead fish at those temps will quickly become extremely toxic). All you did was create a huge amount of ammonia which your bacteria will love. Not only that, but the temp (if under 100F which I find extremely hard to imagine it wasn't), is actually beneficial to the metabolism (and thus #'s) of bacteria.

You probably have many more bacteria in your tank right now then you need. A huge PWC as you did is all that was needed to drop the ammonia level to a couple ppm, and in a couple hours the bacteria would have converted it all to nitrAte.

I'd just make sure you don't have any fish parts still left in the substrate/decorations/filter. You don't want that to rot in the tank, but the residual ammonia won't be a problem.

 

[manoosie]

I did post in the wrong forum, sorry. I keep cichlids. It looks like I wont need to cycle, and I thought about the filter and cleaned that out at the same time as the water. I think I am pretty safe, I just need to figure out which fish to get.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Just don't waste too much time with a low bioload. The bacteria will begin to decrease if there's not enough of an ammonia source to keep the bioload to the stocking levels you had before. Then you will be forced to slowly stock up again. Sounds like your biofilter is still up to speed, which is a good thing....