Cleaning an inherited tank, with occupants

[David Zopf]

To All,

I've inherited a 20 gallon unplanted FW tank, plus occupants, from a
friend. Unfortunately, I think he is leaving the hobby due to simple
over-feeding. The simple gravel bed for his tank is in very rough shape
with decaying food/organic matter.

My question is, can any of you recommend a good method for cleaning heavy
levels of decayed matter?

I'm thinking of moving the fish and 75% of the water into quarrantine
(buckets) by siphoning and netting the fish to relocate, so as to not
disturb the bed, and gravel vacuuming off almost all of the remaining water.
If I go this route, I will need to wash the gravel, but I don't want to
induce a cycle, since I don't have any other tank space for these occupants.
The tank looks to be at full occupancy (or more); 5 dwarf gourami, and 10
adult leopard danio, ~30 inches of fish, with good aeration. The danio
could probably stand a mini-cycle, but I'm worried about how the Gourami
will handle it.
Do you think keeping the gravel submersed, and topping off with 1 or 2
small volume (4-5 gallon) washes of dechlor treated and aged tap water will
preserve the beneficial bacteria? Got another method for getting all of
this decay out of the bed? Its seriously nasty...

Thanks for your opinions!

DaveZ
Atom Weaver

[Gill Passman]

David Zopf wrote:
> To All,
>
> I've inherited a 20 gallon unplanted FW tank, plus occupants, from a
> friend. Unfortunately, I think he is leaving the hobby due to simple
> over-feeding. The simple gravel bed for his tank is in very rough shape
> with decaying food/organic matter.
>
> My question is, can any of you recommend a good method for cleaning heavy
> levels of decayed matter?
>
> I'm thinking of moving the fish and 75% of the water into quarrantine
> (buckets) by siphoning and netting the fish to relocate, so as to not
> disturb the bed, and gravel vacuuming off almost all of the remaining water.
> If I go this route, I will need to wash the gravel, but I don't want to
> induce a cycle, since I don't have any other tank space for these occupants.
> The tank looks to be at full occupancy (or more); 5 dwarf gourami, and 10
> adult leopard danio, ~30 inches of fish, with good aeration. The danio
> could probably stand a mini-cycle, but I'm worried about how the Gourami
> will handle it.
> Do you think keeping the gravel submersed, and topping off with 1 or 2
> small volume (4-5 gallon) washes of dechlor treated and aged tap water will
> preserve the beneficial bacteria? Got another method for getting all of
> this decay out of the bed? Its seriously nasty...
>
> Thanks for your opinions!
>
> DaveZ
> Atom Weaver
>
>
Hi Dave,

If you don't clean the gravel the fish will die anyway. Once you start
cleaning the gravel the chances are, if it is as bad as you say, there
will be high levels of Hydrogen Sulphide and other toxins hiding in
there which will poison the fish as soon as you start stirring it.

I think your plan of moving the fish out while you do the cleaning is a
good one. Personally, although I've not had experience of this, I would
take out the fish and most of the water....put some in other buckets for
readding after the clean up. I would keep the filter running in one of
the buckets to preserve the bacteria. Also if there are any plants and
ornaments treat them in the same way ie. put them in with the fish to
preserve the bacteria. I would then wash the gravel and tank thoroughly
in treated water or in fact the residual tank water that you haven't put
into the buckets would be even better (same way as you would clean a
filter)....I think in this instance I would actually scoop the gravel
out of the tank into buckets to do this.

Once you are convinced all is clean and good I would add treated water
and the gravel back into the tank (or even new if you are not convinced
it is properly cleaned). Then add the additional tank water you saved
plus the fish, filter, ornaments etc. In reality you will have done
around a 30% water change without exposing the fish to the toxins in the
gravel.

JMo
Good Luck
Gill

[David Zopf]

"Gill Passman" > wrote in message
.. .
> Hi Dave,
>
> If you don't clean the gravel the fish will die anyway.

Agreed. Oh, I didn't mention, the tank hasn't been moved to my house yet.
I started to siphon from the lower portion of the tank in preparation for
the move, and disturbed the bed slightly. Yick. What I stirred up gave me
cause to pause, but that leaves me with two more days to plan out my battle
(I re-scheduled the tank move for Sunday 10/30). I want to accomplish this
cleaning during the move, so the fish don't have to stress out in a bucket
more than once (and I honestly don't think the tank is movable, without
disturbing that muck).

> Once you start cleaning the gravel the chances are, if it is as bad as you
> say, there will be high levels of Hydrogen Sulphide and other toxins
> hiding in there which will poison the fish as soon as you start stirring
> it.
>
Yeah, that was my concern, too. I didn't think I could address this with
just a series of frequent vacuums (aside from the problem of having to move
the tank itself), due to agitation it would provide to that toxic bed...

> I think your plan of moving the fish out while you do the cleaning is a
> good one. Personally, although I've not had experience of this, I would
> take out the fish and most of the water....put some in other buckets for
> readding after the clean up. I would keep the filter running in one of the
> buckets to preserve the bacteria.

Good point.

> Also if there are any plants and ornaments treat them in the same way ie.
> put them in with the fish to preserve the bacteria. I would then wash the
> gravel and tank thoroughly in treated water or in fact the residual tank
> water that you haven't put into the buckets would be even better (same way
> as you would clean a filter)....I think in this instance I would actually
> scoop the gravel out of the tank into buckets to do this.
>
I like that idea... It'll give me a chance to check out the floor of the
aquarium, and give that some attention, too.

> Once you are convinced all is clean and good I would add treated water and
> the gravel back into the tank (or even new if you are not convinced it is
> properly cleaned).

Really? I was somewhat convinced that the gravel's surface area held the
majority of the bacteria which contribute to a healthy nitrogen cycle (maybe
that's less true, given the toxic state its currently in). Do you think I
can get away with removing some (or all) of that gravel, and not end up
cycling the tank? Or, are you saying that you think its less risky to
chance the mini-cycle, than it would be to put back 'dangerous' gravel?

> Then add the additional tank water you saved plus the fish, filter,
> ornaments etc. In reality you will have done around a 30% water change
> without exposing the fish to the toxins in the gravel.
>
> JMo
> Good Luck
> Gill

Thanks for the confirmation and extra advice, Gill!

DaveZ
Atom Weaver

[Steve]

David Zopf wrote:
> To All,
>
> I've inherited a 20 gallon unplanted FW tank, plus occupants, from a
> friend. Unfortunately, I think he is leaving the hobby due to simple
> over-feeding. The simple gravel bed for his tank is in very rough shape
> with decaying food/organic matter.
>
> My question is, can any of you recommend a good method for cleaning heavy
> levels of decayed matter?
>
> I'm thinking of moving the fish and 75% of the water into quarrantine
> (buckets) by siphoning and netting the fish to relocate, so as to not
> disturb the bed, and gravel vacuuming off almost all of the remaining water.
> If I go this route, I will need to wash the gravel, but I don't want to
> induce a cycle, since I don't have any other tank space for these occupants.
> The tank looks to be at full occupancy (or more); 5 dwarf gourami, and 10
> adult leopard danio, ~30 inches of fish, with good aeration. The danio
> could probably stand a mini-cycle, but I'm worried about how the Gourami
> will handle it.
> Do you think keeping the gravel submersed, and topping off with 1 or 2
> small volume (4-5 gallon) washes of dechlor treated and aged tap water will
> preserve the beneficial bacteria? Got another method for getting all of
> this decay out of the bed? Its seriously nasty...
>
> Thanks for your opinions!
>
> DaveZ
> Atom Weaver
>
>

I'd clean the aquarium as follows, assuming you have a good, operating
filter. Not an undergravel filter, for which the helpful bacteria are in
the gravel :) .

I'd get a couple of 2-5 gallon pails that have never been used for
detergent. New ones are good. For aquarium purposes I use those big
white storage pails that are used to pack garden fertilizer, etc (these
used ones I soak for months outside before use). I also use RubberMaid
storage bins to handle fish and plants during major cleanups, and I use
picnic coolers. Coolers are good for a move, to maintain a stable
temperature.

Unplug the heater, filter, etc. A big "gravel cleaner" syphon for about
$10 will be useful for syphoning, although you won't be "gravel
syphoning" as such.

Syphon out some water into a bucket or RubberMaid bin and net the fish
into it. If you had them, you'd add some plants to the bucket to keep
the fish peaceful. Place the bucket on a mat for warmth and cover it
with a lid (keeps the cat out and prevents jumping).

Into another bucket, add more aquarium water and your ornaments,
driftwood, remaining plants - and possibly your filter media. You'll
need to place your filter media in an aquarium water container, or
perhaps keep it damp with a bit of aquarium water in a sealed plastic
bag. It must remain damp so that the helpful filter bacteria will survive.

Now syphon out the remaining water and discard it. Scoop up the gravel
into a couple of buckets and take it outside. Rinse it with tapwater a
little bit at a time to get all the grunge. I guess using dechlorinated
water would make sense, but I just use a garden hose.

Wipe/ syphon out any remaining grunge from the aquarium. Add your
gravel, dechlorinated water, plants, decorations, start the filter. Use
your old filter media and do not clean the filter too much.

Now I lower the water level in the fish bucket, and add water from the
aquarium in 50:50 proportion. Then I leave the fish for 10 minutes to
acclimatize to the new water. Temperature of all water should be similar!

Finally, I net or dump the fish into the aquarium, and raise the
aquarium water level to the top.

Because you're moving the aquarium anyway, you could do the move while
the gravel is out. Just don't let the process drag on too long, a couple
of hours at most for 20 gal. My 90 gallon aquarium takes about 4 hours
when I do this - only at major substrate changes or house-moving!

Please take my suggestions for what they're worth. I expect that you'll
enjoy the aquarium and the fish very much!

Steve