My three year old son dumped an entire bottle of sunscreen in my 10 gallon tank. I only have one cichlid in there, got him out and put him in a bowl of tap water. What do I do to clean the tank, or do I just trash everything thats in it. Only have gravel and some limestone (I think) rocks.
What should I do?
- Thread starter glstine
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For better or worse here is what I did. Drained the tank completely. Left the substrate and rock in and placed in the tub. Ran hot water (as long as it would last anyways) into the tank with the substrate and rock for about an hour. Fortunately it is just a ten gallon tank. Put back and refilled. I haven't put the fish back in yet, going to wait a couple of hours.
Bearfan
Aquarium Advice Addict
Wow, that's bad. I have a feeling your tank is quite possibly in bad shape. Was the sunscreen oil or water based? If it was oil based, you'll probably need to start fresh, water based you might be able to clean it all out. I would reccomend starting with new gravel and such, but you could give the old stuff a try. I don't know that the cichlid has much a chance, but stranger things have happened.
something_fishy
Aquarium Advice Activist
ideas
If it was oil based, use a mild dish detergent with degreaser in it. That will totally get it out, be sure to vigourously wash the gravel, all is salvable if you wash and rinse thoroughly. I've seen worse dumped into tanks and this usually works. Back to basics generally speaking>>
If it was oil based, use a mild dish detergent with degreaser in it. That will totally get it out, be sure to vigourously wash the gravel, all is salvable if you wash and rinse thoroughly. I've seen worse dumped into tanks and this usually works. Back to basics generally speaking>>
zephyr
Aquarium Advice Freak
Wat type of cichlid is it? 
I have no idea what type he is. My wife picked him up over a year ago, he was originally blue and then he turned orange with faint black vertical stripes. I'll try and get a picture and maybe somebody can id him.
Somethingfishy
Aquarium Advice Freak
Is the whole body orange? Or just the belly?
Chrismac
Aquarium Advice Freak
sounds like a male Lombardoi they usually are Blueish at a younger age but then turn yellow, very aggresive aswell the females stay blue.
here is a pic of ours,
they grow quiet large 10 gallons may not be enough as they like to have lots of room to swim.
here is a pic of ours,
they grow quiet large 10 gallons may not be enough as they like to have lots of room to swim.
Chrismac
Aquarium Advice Freak
What I meant by size,,, I'm not harping at you please don't take me wrong, but they need lots of lenth generally 4 feet is usually a minimum for most African Cichlids. 10 gallons would stunt his growth or take forever to grow full size if he would live that long? I'm not saying go buy a 90 gallon or anything just the lenth is what you want to keep them happy. width and height are not the important thing. They also like good rocky hiding spaces. the pic above he loves to dig tunnels its cool watching him spit the rocks out of his mouth.
like I said he is aggressive and picks on everyone else but that when his space is invaded.
Good luck
Chris
How is he doing anyway?
like I said he is aggressive and picks on everyone else but that when his space is invaded.
Good luck
Chris
How is he doing anyway?
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