How To Add Fish Back In Tank

[kreativ]

Hey guys,

Im kinda have a planted tank but didnt have substrate, i added substrate but i removed my fishes and put em into a 10 gallon tank with areation. My tank got really cloudy due to the substrate, I left it there for about 2 days, so it will clear up. How can i add my fishies back in the tank? There right now in the 10 gallon tank with the old water that they were in the big tank. Help please, i recenlty got ick, and i dont want to go through it again.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Did you wash the substrate at all before putting it in the tank? For now just do some water changes to remove the cloudyness, is the 10gal tank the fish are currently in filtered at all (did it have any fish in it beforehand too)?

 

[kreativ]

yes i did wash the substrate, and no the 10 gall was empty, it only has areation though with the fish.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

yes i did wash the substrate, and no the 10 gall was empty, it only has areation though with the fish.

You should do a 50% water change with dechlorinator then right now in the 10gal, as ammonia will have built up from the fish being in there with no proper filtration over the last couple of days.


The main tank with the new substrate in it, how many gallons is that/what is its measurements and how long has it been running for with fish? What types of fish did you have in it and how many?

 

[kreativ]

its a 29 gallons, running for about 5 months or so, and i had 1 gourami, 3 small mollies and 1 double swordtail.

 

[kreativ]

Help anyone?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Unfortunately now you have removed all of the fish from the main tank, its unlikely you will have any of the beneficial bacteria left alive that keeps toxins like ammonia and nitrites in check.

You need to read up more on how the water quality in your tank works, as this will help save a lot of fish lives, the article in the link below is good;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

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[kreativ]

your right, but i never removed all of my water, i did made a mistake though and rinse my old filter cartridge with water just to clean it a bit .. Do you think that bacteria could still be there if i did not removed all of my old water, what i did removed was my old gravel, rinsed the old filter media like i said and some rocks that i had, then added my flourite substrate, it looks like i did not wash it deeply, thats why i had that cloudiness. Ive been doing like a 50% water change for the past 2 days. Think any bacteria left in the tank?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

your right, but i never removed all of my water, i did made a mistake though and rinse my old filter cartridge with water just to clean it a bit .. Do you think that bacteria could still be there if i did not removed all of my old water, what i did removed was my old gravel, rinsed the old filter media like i said and some rocks that i had, then added my flourite substrate, it looks like i did not wash it deeply, thats why i had that cloudiness. Ive been doing like a 50% water change for the past 2 days. Think any bacteria left in the tank?

The beneficial bacteria needs a constant source of ammonia (i.e. fish poop/pee) to stay alive, when you removed the fish there was not anything in the tank to produce ammonia to keep the beneficial bacteria alive, it would have certainly have died of now the fish haven't been in the tank for days.
Because there isn't any beneficial bacteria alive in the tank, you might as well do a 100% water change and take the substrate out and re-clean it .

It is fine to clean the filter catridges in water as long as you clean in water that has been removed from the tank in a bucket, and do not wash the filter sponges under plain tap water (the chlorine in the tap water kills off the beneficial bacteria), and do not over-clean the filter sponges (i.e. not sparkling clean, just clean enough gunk off the sponges so the filter runs smoothly for a while- if you over-clean the filter sponge you may remove too much of the gunk in the sponge which produces ammonia as it decomposes which the beneficial bacteria lives off) .

 

[kreativ]

wow thanks for your help, so what do you recommend? do another water change and add the fishes back in? Oh i also planted my plants.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

wow thanks for your help, so what do you recommend? do another water change and add the fishes back in? Oh i also planted my plants.

Best thing to do is do a 100% water change, re-clean the substrate, and then re-cycle the tank (do you have or know anyone who has any tanks which are established and have been running with fish in them for many months?) .

 

[kreativ]

nope, but by not having the fish in for like 2 days, and removing like 90% of the water dont i like cycle it or do i have to remove 100% of the water in order for it to recycle? oh and do i need to change the filter media?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

nope, but by not having the fish in for like 2 days, and removing like 90% of the water dont i like cycle it or do i have to remove 100% of the water in order for it to recycle? oh and do i need to change the filter media?

You don't need to remove all the water, but since the substrate caused so much cloudyness in the tank you might as well. You never need to change the filter sponges unless they are completely knackered out, up until that point though just clean them out roughly once every 1-3weeks (or whenever the filters become full of muck and the flow coming out of the filter is affected and weakened) in old water from water changes.

The best way to cycle the tank would be to do a fishless cycle as this would be the quickest way to do it, you can find more about fishless cycling in this link i gave you earlier;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099


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[kreativ]

awsome thank you for your great and quick replies.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

awsome thank you for your great and quick replies.

No problem, i'm glad to help .