Hello Julie here,
I find myself with time at home to start my favorite hobby again but don't know how to start, hence, my reason for joining. As background, I have been an amateur hobbyist for close to 20 years.
We started with a 40 gallon hex fresh water tank then 2 years later transitioned into a saltwater tank. In that tank we had about 5-8 small tropical fish. We had most of them for a very long time and eventually moved up to a 75 gallon tank so we could get more fish. We have always had fish only tanks.
Well several years ago we left for vacation to OBX and due to the fact that all my extended family was going with us, I spent weeks preparing and testing an auto feeder to feed fish while we were gone. Well for some reason the feeder opening slid further open while we were gone. When we returned all the fish were dead and there was a small mountain of fish food on the floor of the tank showing me what happened. I was so disgusted I cleaned the tank thoroughly but did not put any new fish in it for 2 years. In mean time the tank was moved to a different location. We set it up again and started from scratch with a new filtration system a Fluval G6 canister. We put in stacked non-live rock and other tank decorations on crushed shell base. Next we slowly incorporated fish for the next year only adding a fish or pair every few months. Our last addition was a trigger fish. After the fish was added to the tank, I noticed the first few days our tank cleaners shells were turned upside down and all fish were staying far away from our new addition. Within a few days the chemicals in the tank were going crazy (stressed)and fish were showing up dead daily. We had a clown fish that managed to get out of the back edge of the tank guessing trying to escape the predator. I knew the new fish had stressed and killed my whole collection. I tried removing him from the tank but could not catch him. Long story short it took me several days to catch him and the rest of my tank was dead. I became so disgusted again, so I have never added fish back to my tank.
It has now been 1 1/2 or more years and I want to start again. I never shut down my tank but did a strong cleaning after the loss of all the fish. I regularly add water and have added salt few times. I have cleaned the inside glass only a few times but it stays clean a long time with no fish. My reason for joining this forum is to get opinions on whether I can just test my water and be ready for my first fish as soon as it is good, do I need to recycle my tank, or strip it down and start over? Has anyone else started adding fish to a tank that has been actively running with no fish for this long. My canister filtration has little build up but i don't want to strip that out and start fresh if I do not need to. Is this still good bacteria?
Thank you,
Julie
I find myself with time at home to start my favorite hobby again but don't know how to start, hence, my reason for joining. As background, I have been an amateur hobbyist for close to 20 years.
We started with a 40 gallon hex fresh water tank then 2 years later transitioned into a saltwater tank. In that tank we had about 5-8 small tropical fish. We had most of them for a very long time and eventually moved up to a 75 gallon tank so we could get more fish. We have always had fish only tanks.
Well several years ago we left for vacation to OBX and due to the fact that all my extended family was going with us, I spent weeks preparing and testing an auto feeder to feed fish while we were gone. Well for some reason the feeder opening slid further open while we were gone. When we returned all the fish were dead and there was a small mountain of fish food on the floor of the tank showing me what happened. I was so disgusted I cleaned the tank thoroughly but did not put any new fish in it for 2 years. In mean time the tank was moved to a different location. We set it up again and started from scratch with a new filtration system a Fluval G6 canister. We put in stacked non-live rock and other tank decorations on crushed shell base. Next we slowly incorporated fish for the next year only adding a fish or pair every few months. Our last addition was a trigger fish. After the fish was added to the tank, I noticed the first few days our tank cleaners shells were turned upside down and all fish were staying far away from our new addition. Within a few days the chemicals in the tank were going crazy (stressed)and fish were showing up dead daily. We had a clown fish that managed to get out of the back edge of the tank guessing trying to escape the predator. I knew the new fish had stressed and killed my whole collection. I tried removing him from the tank but could not catch him. Long story short it took me several days to catch him and the rest of my tank was dead. I became so disgusted again, so I have never added fish back to my tank.
It has now been 1 1/2 or more years and I want to start again. I never shut down my tank but did a strong cleaning after the loss of all the fish. I regularly add water and have added salt few times. I have cleaned the inside glass only a few times but it stays clean a long time with no fish. My reason for joining this forum is to get opinions on whether I can just test my water and be ready for my first fish as soon as it is good, do I need to recycle my tank, or strip it down and start over? Has anyone else started adding fish to a tank that has been actively running with no fish for this long. My canister filtration has little build up but i don't want to strip that out and start fresh if I do not need to. Is this still good bacteria?
Thank you,
Julie
I've lost all my articles but have a ballpark figure of 6 months that I've found ok. The bacteria do apparently go dormant. I would think it's worth a try.
