Total Disaster

[george4]

just been away for week and half and stupidly left my 400 litre tank unattended. came home to the most horrendus stench and whole tank wiped out . lost a good few hundred £ so pretty gutted . . tank is out side waiting to be washed down. but basically i am wondering if it is safe to reuse gravel and filter media after i wash it. the cause of my tanks crash was due to fish death which rotted while i was away. any help / advice much appreciated

thank you

 

[minxfishy]

I would say yes, providing you thoroughly wash all the gravel and ornaments etc out. Give the filter a good clean in the some dechlorinated water, you might not be able to save a lot of the beneficial bacteria, but some may make it.

Really sorry to hear about your loss

 

[george4]

thank you for your advice , the only reason i was concerned was as i have 2 external filters and both appeared to have fish remains in , judging by the smell lol. i will give everything a good wash and am not overly concerned about keeping bacteria since will be restarting tank any way . thank you

thank you for your advice , the only reason i was concerned was as i have 2 external filters and both appeared to have fish remains in , judging by the smell lol. i will give everything a good wash and am not overly concerned about keeping bacteria since will be restarting tank any way . thank you

 

[blodhi74]

sorry to hear about your loss

 

[tangokitty]

Sorry about your loss, but what happened?? Where they large fish?

 

[Ace Of Spades]

just been away for week and half and stupidly left my 400 litre tank unattended. came home to the most horrendus stench and whole tank wiped out . lost a good few hundred £ so pretty gutted . . tank is out side waiting to be washed down. but basically i am wondering if it is safe to reuse gravel and filter media after i wash it. the cause of my tanks crash was due to fish death which rotted while i was away. any help / advice much appreciated

thank you

Yes it was your faught!

But all can be saved, Id just wash the filter media in some dechlorinated water and gravel wash also and ull be fine...

Good Luck

 

[rabbut]

There isn't much you can do about a tank crash if you are away, even if you get someone to check in, unless they are a fishkeeper, they won't see the warning signs With adiquate filteration on a 400ltr tank, a single dead body should not caurse a crash, unless it was a VERY large fish I think you need to look for more subtal caurses, such as disease or equipment failure.

Considering the circumstances, I'd replace the filter media, and bleach wash all equipment and accessories before starting again. Use plenty of bleach and run the equipment (exculding the filter media, as you will never get the bleach out of that) for about an hour to let it do it's thing. I'd then drain and re-fill the tank, adding a double or even tripple dose of dechlor, to ensure all the beach is gone. Then cycle/clone start the tank as normal. Using a chlorine based bleach is the safest way I have come across for sterilising a tank, as all toxins that is uses can be safely removed with dechlor Just make shure it is a chlorine based bleach that you use

HTH
Rabbut