Friend's Neglected Tank

[NonstickRon]

My friends have a 55 gal thas in bad shape. No algae, they have a pleco, flourescent tube light is on 24/7 (serves as a nightlight in their dining room) but seems somehow rather dim. Besides the pleco (about 5 inches long atm) the tank is inhabited by two wild caught killifish, 1 full grown emerald cory, and 1 full grown fancy goldfish.

I tested his water last time I was at their house, levels are as follows:
ph 8.4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate ? Somewhere between 60 and 180. That is kinda a big gap to guess at.
I'm not sure of the hardness but this being florida, assume pretty damn hard.

Filter hasn't been changed, or even rinsed in months, and that might be a good thing because the biowheel on the filter has long since stopped turning. I nudged it and a load of crap fell down into the tank. Substrate is gravel.

Now, I plan on doing small water changes whenever I go over there to try and help the fish out a little. Probably 2 - 10% water changes whenever I get to his house, one when I get there and hopefully one before I leave. I visit their house between 1 and 3 times a month. I havn't told them about this yet but I'm hoping they won't mind. The husband just lost his very well paying job and the wife hasn't had to work in a long time so they really couldn't care less about the tank right now I think, so I'm going to see what I can do.

Anyway, I was told in the noobling section of this forum that if it were heavily planted, that would really help out the nitrate levels. Which would be the most ideal plant to stick in this tank with the PH being so high and the light being less than ideal, and a big ol goldfish running around in there. Looking for something I can plop a few bunches of down in there and hope for the best.

 

[Ian H]

with a goldfish nothing really. In my mothers goldfish tank i gave her a couple of plants to try including java fern and java moss but the goldfish ate it all.

If they couldnt care less about the tank why dont you offer to re-home some of the fish or even the whole tank?

 

[NonstickRon]

If they couldnt care less about the tank why dont you offer to re-home some of the fish or even the whole tank?

Thats another story I'd rather not get in to again. lol

You can read up on the backstory here:
http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...by/254483/Wow-/

 

[aaronnorth]

plants will help with nitrate but they wont use half of that amount! vallis is a commonplant used with goldfish. More, bigger water changes is the best option. You can get nitrate filters but i dont know how they work, or the price. Vallis also liks hard water.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

plants will help with nitrate but they wont use half of that amount! vallis is a commonplant used with goldfish. More, bigger water changes is the best option. You can get nitrate filters but i dont know how they work, or the price. Vallis also liks hard water.

clearly water changes are the best nitrate reduction, but this tank is suffering from old tank syndrome, if he went in and did a series of 50% changes or something like that the whole tank would most likely crash and the fish would pop their clogs from the shock of it. needs to be tiny but regular water changes for the next few weeks/months to ease the tank back to where it should be. so we thought if he could stick a whole bunch of plants in there then they'd make a contribution towards soaking up the nitrate.

 

[aaronnorth]

ok MW, never heard of old tank syndrome before!

Limnophila sessiliflora (ambulia)
hygrophyllia polysperma
Ceratopteris thalictroides (water sprite)

They are all good at absorbing NO3.

Also try egeria/ elodea densa which is an easy plant to grow. All should grow fine.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Fairly sure there's a pin on it in the new to the hobby section

basically if a tank's neglected the fish acclimitise to poor conditions over time, any new inhabitants will die quickly but the old ones plod on. Generally the pH will crash in these situations and nitrate will be absolutely sky high. If you wade in and do a big water change the shock will be enough to kill off any old fish, they need to be gently acclimitised to better conditions, ideally you'd do 10% change daily for a few weeks, then 20% changes for a few weeks etc until it's back where it should be and in a normal pattern. As this tank isn't at home ron won't quite be able to do it by the book but will just have to muddle around something like that when he gets to go round there.

 

[aaronnorth]

i have heard of that, just never the name 'old tank syndome' given to it! I think i read it in PFK