JohnS
Aquarium Advice Regular
Last Sunday (the day after Christmas), we were attempting to feed our fish when my wife accidentally spilled about 1/2 of a jar of pellet food into the tank. She panicked and called me over. When I got there, I saw that the bottom of the tank was a solid layer of pellets.
Fortunately, we always keep 20 gallons of water heated and circulating in a spare tank. We began siphoning the pellets out immediately. When we were down 20 gals we were forced to stop. That night we set up another 20 gallons in the spare tank.
The next day we ran to the lfs and got 40gals from them also. We siphoned out the remaining piles that we could see and filled the tank again.
Yesterday we started seeing the mother of all ammonia spikes (ammonia at 1.0 and nitrites at 0.2). In response, we have beefed up our water storage for change overs. We now have two 35 gallon garbage cans with heaters and power heads going along with the 20 gallon tank. Today we did about a 40 gallon water change.
Our plan for tomorrow is to check again and see if the numbers are dropping. If not, we plan to buy another two 35 gallon cans. We'll siphon from the display tank into the two new cans and move our lr into them. We'll also siphon an additional 20 gallons. That will pull about 90 gallons from the tank. We'll then add the 90 gallons that I have heating and mixing right now. We'll rinse the lr in the old water to remove any debris and then return it to the tank.
Does this sound like a viable plan? Or is it feasible to just ride this out and let a nature bio load build to remove it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Fortunately, we always keep 20 gallons of water heated and circulating in a spare tank. We began siphoning the pellets out immediately. When we were down 20 gals we were forced to stop. That night we set up another 20 gallons in the spare tank.
The next day we ran to the lfs and got 40gals from them also. We siphoned out the remaining piles that we could see and filled the tank again.
Yesterday we started seeing the mother of all ammonia spikes (ammonia at 1.0 and nitrites at 0.2). In response, we have beefed up our water storage for change overs. We now have two 35 gallon garbage cans with heaters and power heads going along with the 20 gallon tank. Today we did about a 40 gallon water change.
Our plan for tomorrow is to check again and see if the numbers are dropping. If not, we plan to buy another two 35 gallon cans. We'll siphon from the display tank into the two new cans and move our lr into them. We'll also siphon an additional 20 gallons. That will pull about 90 gallons from the tank. We'll then add the 90 gallons that I have heating and mixing right now. We'll rinse the lr in the old water to remove any debris and then return it to the tank.
Does this sound like a viable plan? Or is it feasible to just ride this out and let a nature bio load build to remove it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.