Some Advice?

[LKravitzDO]

Some help please! I have a 10 gal. tank w/ a penguin mini (biowheel) This tank used to house 2 fancy goldfish ( yes 2, thanks PETSMART!), this was obviously a bad setup, It was so hard to keep clean, and the water always stank! So i brought my 2 goldfish to my LFS, who took the happy guys in. I now have been running this tank non stop for the past week (only things in it- some plastic plants, a live plant, and gravel) all which was there for ~ 2 months. Problem is the water still stinks! I don't want to clean the whole thing out becouse i don't want to lose all the good bacteria, I did an approx. 50% water change when we removed the goldfish and vaccuumed the gravel.... ANY HELP FOR SMELLY Water?? Thanks!

 

[charmd2]

Well you've already lost all the good bacteria. Without an ammonia source the nitrifying bacteria will die in 4 to 6 hours depending on which source you are checking.

I recommend entire clean out, and borrowing gravel from a friend or filter media from someone/lfs and starting over.

 

[canarsie11]

I agree start from scratch, that bacteria is long gone buddy

 

[LKravitzDO]

I would have tended to agree with you, but I tested the water yesterday, 8.0 ppm of ammonia, i cant believe the goldfish even survived in it. And you reccomend adding gravel from an established tank, but wasn't that tank theoretically already established? Would some cycle help? Thanks!

 

[Fish Buddy]

Is there any carbon in your filter right now? That media does wonders for smell and clarity of the water.

 

[LKravitzDO]

yeah, Just changed the filter

 

[canarsie11]

If tank was established there would be no ammonia in there buddy

 

[fufanu360]

ok you just dont get it canarsie11 he is trying to say that the goldfish left so much amonia behind that there is still 8ppm....however with this amount, i would start over anyway..

is it even possible for amonnia to stay that long

 

[canarsie11]

Oh that is my bad....

However, I say restart the tank, no need to try to get rid of smell if nothing inside tank. Start from scratch.

 

[fufanu360]

everyone takes the smell of their tank so seriously my freind even left the hood off his tank when he wasnt around so it wouldnt smell

 

[charmd2]

Theoretically, yes, the tank was established, OR no it wasn't if you still have ammonia readings at 8.0 after a two week empty tank, either you have a LOT of decomposing material, which imo needs cleaned immediatley before you start out with new fish, OR you have a faulty test. I really do recommend cleaning it completely and starting over.

What you could do, once again, theoretically, is use some declorinated tap water, Rinse off all your gravel, clean the tank completely, put the now rinsed off gravel back in, add some ammonia, (check the fishless cycling link in beginners) and see how long it takes to convert to Nitrites, then Nitrates, IF it is doing it relatively quickly, water change to remove nitrates and add a small amount of fish.

However, I'm betting you would still be better off borrowing established gravel and not guaranteeing yours is still ready to go.

hth