Hehehe! You can buy weekend or weekly feeder blocks for $3, you don't need
your mother in law to feed the fish, I wouldn't trust any of them any way.
10 gallon tank? Small! I would just dump out all the water and start with
new, takes 10 minutes.
Don't change the gravel or the filter. Bacteria is in there.

Julius


"beth" wrote in message
om...
I had to go on a business trip last week and my mother in law stayed
with my son (6). He has a 10 gallon tank with 3 rosy reds. I told
her to feed them a small pinch of goldfish food daily. When I
returned yesterday, the water was cloudy and my fish were huddled in a
corner. One was swimming cock-eyed. There was a boatload of food on
the bottom of the tank and 1/4 of a container of food missing. I was
LIVID. I immediately asked DH to help me with an emergency water
change/vaccuuming of the gravel. I had to change about 50% of the
water to remove all the loose food. After adding fresh, treated
water, the nitrite level was still through the roof (5 ppm). This was
a well established tank with no other issues. I then changed about
20% more water, and the nitrite level dropped slightly. Then, I let
it sit overnight and did another 20% change this AM. The fish were
looking a bit better, so I was happy. Nitrites were still high, so I
added Amquel + (just a teaspoon). That really knocked down the
nitrites and the fish improved greatly.

Anything else I should be doing? Besides shooting my mother in law?

TIA!

Beth