Re-doing a 30 gal. with live fish in it. Questions !!!

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Z

Zoominiroc

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
12
Location
New Jersey
Hi all. Newbie here. I have a 30 gallon freshwater tank that I'm trying to clean up and get straight. I have one fish in there that I don't know what it is. (A friend gave me all her fish when she moved.) The tank has a lot of algae and I'm trying to clean it up. I scooped out most of the stones and removed all the ornaments. The water got real cloudy so I put in a fresh packet. It got dirty fast so I rinsed it out. This seemed to work well. I cleaned the big rocks and all the gravel I removed in the sink. Sprayed it all with bleach. Is that not good ? I went into this with the best intentions but I think I'm over in over my head. The tank was the girl's thing (she's gone) and I want to save it. Help me out here please. -Mike
 
You are going to end up cycling the tank again if youre cleaning all the decor and filters out. Beneficial bacteria are present on the decor, substrate, and filters, and chlorine will kill those. Rinsing them in tap water is the worst thing you can do.
 
If everything is covered in bleach, rinse, rinse, rinnnnnssseee. And don't do this again. Make sure you have a water dechlorinator for removing chlorine and such before adding water to your fish. Dont ever remove all of the filter contents at once to clean, just one piece at a time. Preserving the beneficial nutrients in the aquarium is what you need for a healthy tank! Good that your on here getting info. Good luck!!!
 
Yeah with algae, you should probably use a toothbrush and clean off the decor in a container of tank water.
Scrape the sides as best you can, and siphon out whats floating, and Swish your filter media around in the bucket of tank water.
Then do a black out.
If you completely switched out the filter media, you will probably end up going through the cycle again. Watch those water parameters!
Hopefully there will still be a fair amount of bacteria left free floating in the water after it was all stirred up and will settle into your filter again.
Good luck with your endeavor!

Oh about the bleached decor. Set up a container w/ triple dechlor in it, and let the decor soak in it; After you have rinsed it as well as you can.
 
WOW !!! Thanks for the fast response ! Let me clarify a few things:

I didn't put bleach in the tank. I cleaned the stuff I took out of the tank with bleach and water. I rinsed it very well. In fact I soaked everything in the sink several times and then spead it out to dry. Should I still get a dechlorinator ? Were do I find that ?

The tank is still up and running. While I have been using the algea brush I've only been doing one panel at a time (there's six sides) I have been rinsing the filter pack after each time. I wait for the murkyness to dissapear then rinse and reinstall. I left the foam cartridge that sits beyond the filter pack in place as not to totally disrupt biolgic filtration. I've gotten the front 3 sides clean and I removed 75% of the gravel so I could clean down below the gravel line (really heavy there) Should I stop now and let it go ? I could add some algae eaters, problem solved?
 
What you need to do is cure the source of the algae... if you keep rinsing everything in tap water, you will eventually kill off your entire bacteria colony and have to cycle the tank, if you havent already. The two most common factors in algae problems are too much light and too much food. I feed every other day and have my lights on for about an hour or so a day. Id suggest doing a 3-4 day blackout with a 50% pwc before and after... jmo tho
 
I would not recommend purchasing algae eaters, personally. Some make more waste than clean up, and some get way too huge for normal tanks.

The de-chlorinator, they mentioned, needs to be used every-time you take tap water, and put it in your tank. It gets some of the bad stuff that's harmful to fishes and breaks it down. I would look for a place near you (a local fish store, or a big box store like Petco/Petsmart). I use Seachem Prime (for about $7.50), but that doesn't mean that's what you have to use.

As for cleaning the filter, I'd recommend dipping a small bucket's worth of water out of the tank, then take your filter and clean it out in that water (for now). If you run the filter through tap water, the (good) bacteria may die. Also, don't let your filter be dry for too long the (good) bacteria may die. We like the good bacteria because it eats the ammonia from your fish's waste and makes it less toxic. At some point you can replace the cartridge, but for now, you want as many good bacteria in there as possible.
 
Any chance you could snap of a picture of it?
Looks like your getting there!
 
Thats a nice looking tank! And you are definately getting there, maybe purchase different texture glass scrubbers, I've had luck on the tougher spots with that. The outside muggyness probably has alot to do with your vision problem too, make sure to spray windex ONTO a paper towel and give the outside a nice shine! Keep it up and make sure to buy a master test kit!
 
I Find Wood shrimps to be very effective and somewhat interesting to watch and do their thing... Hardy as well. Just my 2 Cents
 
Hi again !

Thanks for the advice so far. Here's where I'm at. Ive been scrubbing down the inside of the tank, one panel at a time. Letting it filter out and rinsing the filter. I keep the sponge in place when I do this. The little fish doesn't seem to mind. (anybody tell me what he is?) I cleaned the outside of the tank. WOW !!! What a differnce. Probably hadn't been done in years. The girl was a lousy housekeeper. Yes, I have well water. I rinsed the stone and stuff from the tank. I'll rinse it again before I put it back since I cleaned it with a bleach/water solution. That should be good no ?


I'm thinking that I'll leave what gravel is left in the bottom of the tank there and just vacumn it real good before I put the rest of the cleaned gravel back. Good or no ?

Algae eaters aren't good ? Just keep cleaning right ?

Plants, I was gonna buy some of the new silk jobs they sell on ebay. The tank is 18" across but 24" deep. I need some tall ones ! Live plants have never done well for me in the past. I have a flouresent bulb built into the lid.


Whats' a wood shrimp ? Sounds interesting. I was gonna go to Wal-mart and get some feeder fish, maybe some mollies and a couple of Tigerbarbs. Something cheap. I have a high end petstore near me but every fish the girl ever brought home from there died. Soon ! They have a free replacement policy and we got tired of driving over there ! They tested my water lots of times and I added softener and PH balance but it never seemed to help. Any thoughts ???
 
Whenever you clean something with bleach water (9 parts water to one part bleach), then as you know rinse, rinse, rinse. Then let it soak in some water with dechlor (Prime) overnight if you can. Then let it air dry.

And as has been said, when cleaning stuff in your tank, don't use tap water, chlorine in it will kill the bacteria. Do a partial water change, saving the water in a bucket and just swish your filter media in it. Filter media doesn't really need to be changed until it is almost falling apart or too dirty to get clean in the tank water. Same with the filter itself. It shouldn't need to be cleaned too often (I defer to the experts here as to how often) but when it does, again just clean it in the tank water in a bucket. Easier to preserve your bacteria this way.

Also, with EVERY partial water change, make sure you add dechlor (Prime or something like it) to the water you are putting in your tank.
 
Ah...the infamous well water! I wish I still had well water. Better for fish and certainly less expensive!

But you would still need to use Prime after using bleach though, wouldn't you? To remove the chlorine from the bleach?
 
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