Question..Need Help ASAP!!

jonny steele

Ok, had to move my 55g to my new apt today. Went to drain the water and move the sand, turns out it was black on the botton and smelt like sewage, so i had to get rid of the sand. Got new sand (black diamond) sand blasting sand. I cleaned it well, cleaned out the nasty tank, moved it to my new place, had the fish in a 5g bucket and with air. Got the tank all setup now, new sand water.... ammonia was .50, added some detox along with tap water cond, stress coat and zyme. Have 2 power HOB filters running (penguin 350) and (Top Fin 60) both with brand new filters. Been running for about 2hrs now, how much longer should i wait until i add the fish back??? How long can they live in the5g bucket?

La Reina

How many fish? What kind?

Also, why did you put new filter media in your filters? You'll have to completely cycle your tank again.

jonny steele

The person who was taking care of my tank wanst. When i pulled the filtets out, they were covered in green slime, bad!!! Plus all the carbon had been depleted.

Fish:

1 sucker
3 small cory
1 blood parrot
2 small chiclids
1 large shrimp
1 fiddler crab

kitten_penang

bummer they aren't gonna last a few days in there.

jeaninel

Do you still have the original biowheels on the Penguin 350?

jonny steele

Yes, and its running.

Inga

Can you go buy some live plants to put in your tank? Do you have a Petsmart by you? The plants will do almost an instant cycle if you plant enough of them in the tank. Then you can add your fish back in right away. You will still need to keep an eye on the water parameters though. You also might need some root tabs for the plants, depending on the kind you get. Anyway, that is what I would recommend.

Byron

Any or all of these will help:

- live plants
- as much filter media from the former tank, unwashed, as possible including the filter housing itself if unwashed.
- any decor unwashed but still wet from the former tank
- biological supplement like Tetra SafeStart or Seachem's Stability
- use Prime water conditioner if you have it or can get it, it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite
- in absence of Prime a water conditioner that detoxifies ammonia (as well as chlorine, chloramine of course)

- monitor ammonia and nitrite, if they rise above .25 do a 50% water change.

kitten_penang

zeolites and carbon will help too

jonny steele

I do have live plants, about 7 of them.

im using api stress coat and zyme, also a water conditioner and ammonia detox.