Urgent Advice Please !

[MadMan-JaMeS]

I've had my tank running since the 2nd of march and have 3 Swordtails 5 Zebra Danios and 5 Black mollies and when i was doing my normal water change today i decided to re-scape my tank and upon moving all my plants i found i had some fry inside the tank and they were being eaten !

so i got all the big fish out into a bucket with the filter media and the fry are in a jug !

because i want some cories in my tank i have removed the small patches of gravel i had and this has stirred the sand up and now my tank is half full with water that is very murky !

i wondered can i empty all the water and add new stuff then put the filter back in and the fish ?

and that won't effect my fish will it ? i don't have another tank i can put the fish into either ?

please answer me quick

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

So basically your tank is very cloudy from the substrate change and you want to do a 100% change?

Keep the filter running in the bucket which the fish are in at the least. I wouldn't advise doing a 100% water change though as it could cause the tank to mini-cycle, i would advise trying to save as much of the old water as posible. Did the fish look troubled at all by the cloudyness in the tank?

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

So basically your tank is very cloudy from the substrate change and you want to do a 100% change?

Keep the filter running in the bucket which the fish are in at the least. I wouldn't advise doing a 100% water change though as it could cause the tank to mini-cycle, i would advise trying to save as much of the old water as posible. Did the fish look troubled at all by the cloudyness in the tank?

i havn't put them back in the tank yet cos it is so cloudy !
will it damage them do u think ?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

So basically your tank is very cloudy from the substrate change and you want to do a 100% change?

Keep the filter running in the bucket which the fish are in at the least. I wouldn't advise doing a 100% water change though as it could cause the tank to mini-cycle, i would advise trying to save as much of the old water as posible. Did the fish look troubled at all by the cloudyness in the tank?

i havn't put them back in the tank yet cos it is so cloudy !
will it damage them do u think ?

I would get a very fine fish net and see if you can net up as much of the waste in the tank as you can, followed by a water change lowering the water level in the tank to only 30% full, and then slowly acclimatise the fish back into the tank over a 30min period of time or more . I would use a tiny bit more dechlorinator/water condition than usual and avoid cleaning the filter for the time being.
With the fry, they should be fine being kept in a net suspended over the tank in the water for the time being, just make sure you acclimatise them much more slowly and gently to the tank than the other fish as fry are more sensitive to these things than adult fish .
When you've filled the tank up, i would also test the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates if you have the test kits for such things as well.

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

So basically your tank is very cloudy from the substrate change and you want to do a 100% change?

Keep the filter running in the bucket which the fish are in at the least. I wouldn't advise doing a 100% water change though as it could cause the tank to mini-cycle, i would advise trying to save as much of the old water as posible. Did the fish look troubled at all by the cloudyness in the tank?

i havn't put them back in the tank yet cos it is so cloudy !
will it damage them do u think ?

I would get a very fine fish net and see if you can net up as much of the waste in the tank as you can, followed by a water change lowering the water level in the tank to only 30% full, and then slowly acclimatise the fish back into the tank over a 30min period of time or more . I would use a tiny bit more dechlorinator/water condition than usual and avoid cleaning the filter for the time being.
With the fry, they should be fine being kept in a net suspended over the tank in the water for the time being, just make sure you acclimatise them much more slowly and gently to the tank than the other fish as fry are more sensitive to these things than adult fish .
When you've filled the tank up, i would also test the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates if you have the test kits for such things as well.

i tested the water before i changed it and it read.....


Ammonia 0.6
Nitrite 0.3
Nitrate 20+
P.H 7.5

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

i tested the water before i changed it and it read.....


Ammonia 0.6
Nitrite 0.3
Nitrate 20+
P.H 7.5

The ammonia and nitrites indicate that it was probably mostly just old waste like fish poop that was stirred up from the bottom of the tank, see what the water tests for after you've done the water change and filled up the tank again.
Cleaning the substrate more regularly or thoroughly in the future should help prevent this from happening again- if you are planning on having corys in the near future, its very important to make sure the substrate in the tank is very clean as they are prone to getting bacterial infections in their barbels/whiskers from feeding off dirty substrate (gravel is really bad for trapping waste in it) .

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

okay so now my stats are


Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
P.H 7.5

my fish are back in the tank swimming around fine water is a bit murky bit should clear up hopefully

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Glad to hear everything went smoothly, how are they doing now ?

 

[MadMan-JaMeS]

Glad to hear everything went smoothly, how are they doing now ?

they was doing fine when i left them this morning seemed to be swimming round happily

 

[Yazan]

I've had this cloudynes from my gravel but it did not effect my fish.