Aquarium crisis

[afurlow96]

My 10gallon aquarium was up and running great for about a month and then i went on vacation. I asked my family to throw in 6-7 pellets a day, and don't worry if they miss a day as its harder to starve than over feed.
I guess they didn't really hear me because i was gone for around 10 days and came back to a pond.
The water is murkier than it had ever been, ammonia has hit higher levels than i've seen at around 2.0ppm, there were piles of rotting food in the gravel, and my cory cats are usually the most lively, now they hardly move.. so little that i could touch them before they swam.
The tank is in worse shape than i've ever thought it could be in and i immediately did a 50% water change and vacuum of the gravel when i got back but there is still a bunch more junk in there.

My thought is the only hope is 50% water changes and vacuuming every day until it clears up.. That, or, start from scratch. I was contemplating putting the fish in a holding tank and just completely emptying my tank and refilling it. 100% water change in other words.

 

[afurlow96]

any advice would be appreciated, woke up to a dead cory today :c

 

[Brookster123]

Ouch.. no you'll be fine with the gravel vacs and 50%. In the future, what I do anyways, if I'm going away for more than 5 days I'll pre-package the food on foil and hide the rest.. people love to overfeed fish and have no idea that they are potentially killing them in doing so..fish can usually do 5-7 days without food anyways.. how many fish in the tank?

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[afurlow96]

Ouch.. no you'll be fine with the gravel vacs and 50%. In the future, what I do anyways, if I'm going away for more than 5 days I'll pre-package the food on foil and hide the rest.. people love to overfeed fish and have no idea that they are potentially killing them in doing so..fish can usually do 5-7 days without food anyways.. how many fish in the tank?

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5 Black Skirt Tetra and, sadly, now only 2 Juli Corys

 

[Brookster123]

You're on the border with that many fish in a small tank.. just keep up on the weekly wc and vacs.. if I'm not mistaking.. you're probably already eying a larger tank

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[afurlow96]

You're on the border with that many fish in a small tank.. just keep up on the weekly wc and vacs.. if I'm not mistaking.. you're probably already eying a larger tank

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you're right.. on pretty much everything you said
I did a 50% water change and vac two days in a row and the water is much more clear and the gravel does not have much more debris than normal.

when do you think i should stop this hardcore tank save and go back to normal weekly pwc?

 

[Brookster123]

Where you're at currently? I'd say a 40% wc every 6 days, I'm glad you got it straightened out!

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