Disaster aquarium cleanup plan.

[MagickFish]

I have taken over a 13 gallon tank, it is in terrible condition, it have 4 little fish in it that must have iron health to have survived in that wather, 2 platy and 2 skirt tetras. Here is my plan for fixing the tank, I have already given it a new pump, here is the rest of the plan, is that ok.

*Cycle the wather a few liters every 3 days unthil the wather is all clear and heatly.
*Buy new plants, there is hardly any.
*Clean up the bottom.
*When the tank is clean get rid of the snails and buy one or two alge eaters and some new finned frinds for the 4 survivors.

[cocoa_pleco]

Platys are good fish for taking bad conditions, but the 2 skirts must be made of steel.

13 gallon? thats a odd number.

[Lady Hobbs]

I would clean up the bottom with a vaccum and do a 50 percent water change and that should take care of your tank in about half an hour.

[Chrona]

I have taken over a 13 gallon tank, it is in terrible condition, it have 4 little fish in it that must have iron health to have survived in that wather, 2 platy and 2 skirt tetras. Here is my plan for fixing the tank, I have already given it a new pump, here is the rest of the plan, is that ok.

*Cycle the wather a few liters every 3 days unthil the wather is all clear and heatly.
*Buy new plants, there is hardly any.
*Clean up the bottom.
*When the tank is clean get rid of the snails and buy one or two alge eaters and some new finned frinds for the 4 survivors.

Do you have the old water? Don't toss it all out, instead do 40-50% water changes every other day for a week or so, after vacuuming the gravel (don't stir up too much stuff) Get a test kit to check for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. I would hold off on the plants (unless you mean fake plants) until the tank all cleaned. And 1 Siamese Algae Eater will do fine for your tank. Make sure it's a true siamese algae eater(Aka siamese flying fox) though. It should have a black stripe going all the way to the end of the tail, with no white stripe above it. The black stripe should have a zig-zagged edge. Other algae eaters that look similar (Plain flying fox, chinese algae eater) don't eat algae as well and are more aggressive.

Oh and what kind of pump? Does the tank have a filter?

[MagickFish]

Let us say, when I got the aquarium indoors, I got a major eye infection, a bump actualy grew out of my eye, and I had to go to the doctor, becouse I reacted to the near posionos wather in that tank. The wather is like mud.

Thank you for all your help. A vacum, is that the funny little machine I did see at a tera min instruction video for my tiny aquarium? How mutch will such a instrument cost?

I have a thing desinged for a very smal aquarium, it suck in air and blow out bubbels, not perfect I know, but the near dead fish did get some life back int hem when it was added. The filter, well the filter I think I should send to the military it might be radioactive ;) I ahve never in my life seen anything so dirthy, I dont know if it can be fixsed.

The aquarium is 50 liters, acording to goodle that is 13 and somthing gallons.

[cocoa_pleco]

a vacuum is simple, and about 10 bucks.
Its just a long plastic tube with a rubber hose comin out.
You stick in the fat plastiv end to the gravel, and then suck the end of the rubber hose until water comes half way. Immediately point the rubber end down and let the water flow in a bucket. When the water is flowing, use the plastic end and swish up the gravel and collect all the poo and food. When the water is about 30% gone, pull out the fat end and use the old water in the bucket as plant fertilizer, or you can toilet it or lawn it.
Then, using a clean bucket thats NEVER had soap or detergent, put in tapwater the same temp as your tank water, out in the dechlorinator, and dump in the new water

[MagickFish]

How do I avoid vacuming up the little fish?

[cocoa_pleco]

the suction is weak, no fish will get sucked up. You also will be sucking up stuff from the bottom, so youll be fine

[Chrona]

And the end of the vacuum is actually in the gravel, so the lighter pieces of waste and whatnot will get sucked up, but not the heavier gravel. This depends on what size gravel you have though, so you may need to hold onto the outlet end of the vacuum to let the gravel settle down every once in a while.

And I would get a filter asap. That is one of the most crucial things to better water quality. The air pump by itself doesn't really do much.

[MagickFish]

Ok thenak you all for the advice. I will see if I can not get the little fish a cleaner enviroment to live in.

[cocoa_pleco]

you should vacuum once a week ideally

[Sasquatch]

Pretty much everything said so far is good advice.

The thing that blows bubbles is probably a corner filter. Put some filter media in it (filter floss, like pillow stuffing, but for aquariums) and that should clean up the water. If it's really dirty, change the floss.

If you can get a small filter that hangs on the back of the aquarium that has an electric motor. They're much better than the air pump ones. Same thing, put foam or filter floss for filtration.

As for future fish, an algae eater is always a good idea. I'd add a few more tetras, since they like to be in schools. After that, maybe a couple more platies, they tough and fun to watch.

Good luck.

[Drumachine09]

Rescueing tanks is a good idea.

[kimmers318]

I have taken over a 13 gallon tank, it is in terrible condition, it have 4 little fish in it that must have iron health to have survived in that wather, 2 platy and 2 skirt tetras. Here is my plan for fixing the tank, I have already given it a new pump, here is the rest of the plan, is that ok.

*Cycle the wather a few liters every 3 days unthil the wather is all clear and heatly.
*Buy new plants, there is hardly any.
*Clean up the bottom.
*When the tank is clean get rid of the snails and buy one or two alge eaters and some new finned frinds for the 4 survivors.

What exactly do you mean by cycle that water a few liters every 3 days.....????


Start out by doing water changes twice weekly, and don't make them too large because although the tank looks horrible, there is still beneficial bacteria in there and you don't want to upset the balance too much too soon.
Get rid of the snails now by baiting them with lettuce, zucchini or cucumber....add a piece weighted down to the bottom of the tank and pull it out whenever you have snails on it and manually remove the snails. This is a sure fire way to pull out massive amounts of snails over just a few days time. If you know any puffer owners, send the snails to them!

Do not add any finned friends to this tank until you have seen it stable for at least 2 weeks. If the existing fish have lived this long, they will be able to go longer with out any new friends

[cocoa_pleco]

i think kimmers basically said everything- great job

[kimmers318]

Thanks for the back up cocoa!

[MagickFish]

I just wanted to keep the snails in there unthil the tank was good enough to add a algae eater becouse they clean up a bit, is this a wrong ida, can they hurt the fish?

Vacume once a week, got it, I have not alot of experience whit aquariums realy, i was planning on having a tiny tank whit a few platys in it, not a large cornor aquarium, but I ended up whit it anyway, and poor little fish are swimming in filth. So I should start to sycle wather at once, can that harm the fish?

[cocoa_pleco]

Snails arent a bother at all. They clean well, though most people hate them for looks, but i love them