LauraFrog
Fish Gatherer
So this last week, I had some horrible who-knows-what go through my new guppy tank. I set it up using filter media, gravel and plants from a mature tank, a lot of water from a mature tank, and loads of eco-start. Then I cycled it with platy fry. (no ammonia, so couldn't go fishless. Would have preferred to.) So it wasn't a cycle problem. I put three guppies in there, and they all died of the same disease. They went lethargic and floppy, hid all the time, refused to eat, and eventually went into convulsions. The first female died almost without me realising it. I had to put the male down because I couldn't bear to see the way he was struggling to swim. The last female, who I thought was healthy, suddenly died this morning. She went down much faster than the others.
I pulled out the filter components to clean them. I put the tubing, pipes and box in bleach and the media in boiling water. I'll keep the media in case I need some in a hurry, but when I restart the tank I'll use media from the mature tank. I'm replacing the gravel - I had it filled with natural pale gravel but for displaying male guppies I wanted to switch to dark/black. I chose blue metal (being carefully cleaned) - nothing wrong with this?
The tank itself has been washed very thoroughly, just with water. The filter components spent an hour in bleach and are soaking now in clean water. Then I'm going to leave the whole setup dry for a few days. I'm worried about the pump - I rinsed it thoroughly. Will it be okay just dried out?
I have bleached tadpole/fish equipment before and I know how to bleach something and then get rid of the bleach so it's safe to use. Is there anything wrong with what I did?
I don't know when I'll get to restarting the tank. We're currently flooded in. It will be within a week or so because the LFS has some NICE guppies at the moment (Chilean reds and snakeskins, with manageable tails) and there's a place about an hour from me breeding German red metalheads, one of my favourite strains of all time. I'm going to get a mix and put males in one tank and females in the other so I'm not cramped by sex ratios.
I pulled out the filter components to clean them. I put the tubing, pipes and box in bleach and the media in boiling water. I'll keep the media in case I need some in a hurry, but when I restart the tank I'll use media from the mature tank. I'm replacing the gravel - I had it filled with natural pale gravel but for displaying male guppies I wanted to switch to dark/black. I chose blue metal (being carefully cleaned) - nothing wrong with this?
The tank itself has been washed very thoroughly, just with water. The filter components spent an hour in bleach and are soaking now in clean water. Then I'm going to leave the whole setup dry for a few days. I'm worried about the pump - I rinsed it thoroughly. Will it be okay just dried out?
I have bleached tadpole/fish equipment before and I know how to bleach something and then get rid of the bleach so it's safe to use. Is there anything wrong with what I did?
I don't know when I'll get to restarting the tank. We're currently flooded in. It will be within a week or so because the LFS has some NICE guppies at the moment (Chilean reds and snakeskins, with manageable tails) and there's a place about an hour from me breeding German red metalheads, one of my favourite strains of all time. I'm going to get a mix and put males in one tank and females in the other so I'm not cramped by sex ratios.
