I was visiting my parents this weekend and I took a look at my mom's fish tank. Its a 20g hex tank. It was a birthday gift for her back when I was in high school. She's really pretty good about following my instructions on adding fish and feeding them and because of that she has always had a decent survival rate for her fish (she loves her fish but does basically view the tank as decoration)
One thing I could never get her or my dad to do was do a PWC or use a python/gravel vac. As a result, they have a very deep tank that gets topped off with fresh water continually. Besides having a tank that's ripe for old tank syndrome (I'm scared to see her water parameters...they must not be too out of whack because new introductions don't die)
When I was at home this weekend though, I took a look and I saw there was gunk in the gravel. I'm guessing anaerobic bacteria colonies. There were large pockets of bubbles forming in there too. Honestly I don't think it would take much for one of those pockets to suddenly errupt from the gravel. A vacuum bumping the stand could trigger it I'd bet.
I know if I tell my mom about the danger the tank is in, she would take me seriously and do something about it. But I'm concerned that doing a water change now would likely cause an ammonia spike. And I don't know how to safely remove those bubbles from the tank because just using a python now would do nothing except release all of that gas into the water. I don't know what the bubbles are but given the age of the tank I have to guess its toxic.
What's the safest way to do this? Removing the fish temporarily and doing a full water change seems like the only way to remove the gas but the shock of all that clean water would probably kill the fish anyway. It seems like a catch-22 at this point.
One thing I could never get her or my dad to do was do a PWC or use a python/gravel vac. As a result, they have a very deep tank that gets topped off with fresh water continually. Besides having a tank that's ripe for old tank syndrome (I'm scared to see her water parameters...they must not be too out of whack because new introductions don't die)
When I was at home this weekend though, I took a look and I saw there was gunk in the gravel. I'm guessing anaerobic bacteria colonies. There were large pockets of bubbles forming in there too. Honestly I don't think it would take much for one of those pockets to suddenly errupt from the gravel. A vacuum bumping the stand could trigger it I'd bet.
I know if I tell my mom about the danger the tank is in, she would take me seriously and do something about it. But I'm concerned that doing a water change now would likely cause an ammonia spike. And I don't know how to safely remove those bubbles from the tank because just using a python now would do nothing except release all of that gas into the water. I don't know what the bubbles are but given the age of the tank I have to guess its toxic.
What's the safest way to do this? Removing the fish temporarily and doing a full water change seems like the only way to remove the gas but the shock of all that clean water would probably kill the fish anyway. It seems like a catch-22 at this point.