Need help. Inherited a nightmare aquarium.

[Southern star]

I don't know much about keeping aquariums and recently inherited one. I'm renting a house and the previous renter just left his fish tank. The way I heard it was his old room mates who moved out 2 years ago and just left it. Then this guy just threw food in there and filled the water some. I guess for not being cared for in 2 years it could be worse.

I think it's a 55 gallon. I just moved in and the electric was off for at least 1-2 days. I had no idea it was even there. The fish did seen distressed. They weren't really moving. I'm guessing it was cold and low oxygen. But I haven't found any dead fish yet so that a plus.

The fish tank really stunk up the whole room so I decided to clean it best I could. The only experience I have is my friend had a 55 gallon tank when we were kids and I helped her several times cleaning it. To my surprise there was a lot of fish equipment left behind. I took some water and put but in a bucket and put the fish in it. I just researched it and found out the tank has brush algae. This stuff is everywhere on the right side of the tank. I'm guessing the left side has less because the light was not working on that side. The whole fish tank was hairy. I removed the hair covered plants and tried to scoop the top layer of gravel off the bottom. There was the thing you clean gravel with. Like a siphon with a tube. I went threw the gravel best I could and it was pure brown water. By the time
I was done about half the water was gone. I used the fish net and skimmed the algae clumps. The filter cartrages had 1/2 inch of sludge. It was barely running. It had 4 filters cartrages. They had charcoal in them and some kind of batting. There was extra charcoal and white batting stuff so I just threw out the old and filled the cartrages with new. One of the cartrages had white cylinder pieces in it and there was no more of those so I threw it out and just filled with charcoal. There was some liquid called prime which said it took chlorine out of water. So I used that and filled with tap water. There's some testing equipment but the paperwork was missing so I'm not sure how to use it.

I didn't put any of the plastic plants back in because they are embedded with algae. There didn't seem to be much of the regular green algae just the hairy kind. I put a few tunnels back to give the small fish a chance. Actually when I was all done there was a baby fish I didn't see beforehand. It was about the length of a pencil eracer. I guess they are healthy enough to breed. I'm not
Sure what kind of fish they are. They are Orange with black tails. The full grown ones look about 1 1/2 inches long.

Sorry to go on so long. I want to fix this fish tank. It's far from good. There's still clumps of algae everywhere. I probably got rid of 80-90%. It's just embedded in the gravel and hard to deal with. What is my best option on fixing this. Do I need to start over and throw the gravel out and clean everything? Or is there a way to get rid of it? I read on brush algae and it sounds like it can be challenging to get rid of. Especially that this whole tank is full of it. It even wrapped around the propeller in the filter and stopped it.

I don't have a lot of time over the next few weeks to really work on it again but I want to be prepared and fix it right when I get the chance. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Laura.

 

[Southern star]

I wanted to add a photo. The tank is clearing up and to my amazement don't look that bad considering the condition it was in before. Here is a picture of some of the algae left behind. I just want to make sure it's brush algae. Also a picture of the fish. They appear to be breeding like crazy. I spotted more baby fish and a lot of the fish are small. Is there anyway to slow the breeding down. I have a feeling if they keep the up there will too many for the tank. It looks like there's at least 20-30 fish already.

 

[nirbhao]

WOW.

Can you post any pictures of... any of this?

Prime is good. So... Yea?

Keep some of that media or gravel because it will have nitrifying bacteria that turn the fish waste products less toxic.

Do you want to maintain this tank or just get it from being terrible and gross?

 

[Southern star]

I would like to maintain the fish tank. I don't want the fish to be suffering from bad water. I was able to test ph and it was good. There's some other random test stuff but no instructions. The fish seem better now. They are swimming around and don't appear to be stressed. I was able to clean a plant from the left side of the tank where the algae wasn't as bad and I cleaned a few things and put them back. The other plants are impossible to clean. Not sure if there's a trick to getting that algae off? What is some of the first steps I would take to get this tank back to normal. It looks decent right now but I know the algae will just come back eventually.

What the most important things I need to do for the fish and keeping it clean?

 

[nirbhao]

There is *so* much to know.

@AutumnSky, I'm on my phone, but you have all the good links on cycling and getting started.

If the plants are silk or plastic, you can rinse them in bleach. If they are alive, they might also do fine with bleach but figure out what they are first.

I would say the most important thing is regular water changes.


Edit: I missed the first picture. They look like either guppies or platties. They are still alive because generations have fallen and risen again.

 

[Southern star]

Also. How about the filter cartridges? You can take them apart and put whatever you want in there. There was some white cylinders mixed with charcoal. I just threw them out because all of it was so sludgy. . So I need more of these white things. Or is just the charcoal and white batting enough. There's enough charcoal and batting to last for years. Should I change the stuff in these filters often? Also about the fish breeding. Is there anything to stop or slow that down. I would like to eventually get some other types of fish when I know the tank is normal. Any suggestions on some fish types. Also how much should I feed them. I've always heard less is better when feeding fish?

 

[nirbhao]

Those white cylinders were actually the most important thing, so definitely get more. It's best to just rinse those things in old tank water. Only change the batting if it's super gross. Change the charcoal every few weeks.

The problem with live bearers is that they do.not.stop breeding.

It is 100% okay to get different fish, although it would be good to get the tank cycled first. You can take them to any fish store and maybe get credit. Petco has a very strong anti release policy and will take any fish, but they don't give credit.

Less food is better, it's true. Their stomachs are about the size of their eyeballs, so they don't need a lot.

There are so many types of fish! Think about what you would like your tank to look like. Check out galleries on this site for some suggestions. There's also this site-
https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/

 

[Southern star]

Thanks for the help. What are the white things by the way? Everything in the filter cartridges was super gross. I'm guessing two years of sludge. It would almost make me gag just to smell it.

I'm going to read up on taking care of an aquarium. I know I have a lot to learn. Whats the best way to handle the algae in the tank. I was reading that removing everything is bad because the tank needs to build up certain things to battle ammonia. Should I wait to add anything back like plants until I have that under control. I wish I had took a picture beforehand. It was like a solid mass of hair everywhere. I'm sure it takes awhile to get that way though. So maybe it won't be too bad.

Also what's a good light schedule. The guy before me said he just left the right light on all the time. I don't want to cut back too much on the light but hoping it will help slow the algae.

 

[54seaweed]

when I did freshwater plastic plants got nasty I'd soak them in a 50% mix of bleach and water for a day or so than rinse really well , usually got off all those nasty s .

here's a one of those links nirbhao mentioned

Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

welcome to the forum if you bring this down to the freshwater section you'll probably get a lot more answers and help