I just did a complete empty/re-fill and need help

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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


GeneDennis
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:44 pm

I just did a complete empty/re-fill and need help

by GeneDennis

I have a 30 Gallon Tank with African Cichlids (5 of them) and wanted to change from gravel to sand. so i emtied the tank, leaving the fish in bowls from the kitchen (with the old tank water). After emptying the old water, adding the sand, positioning my tank ornaments, and re-adding new water (conditioned) the water was very milky. so i began to syphon it out to almost empty again and repeated the process of re-adding new water. the Ph was right (8.2) so i re-added the fish (which was about 1 1/2 hours after i began) I woke up the next morning and the water looked better but one of my fish, the albino cichlid, was dead. the fish are now not eating and i am concerned i may have stressed them so much by being in the bowls that they will all die. Is there anything that i can do to kind of help the situation with the fish??


jdak702
 
Posts: 382
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:26 am

by jdak702

Did you rinse the sand? Probably should have kept some of the old tank water.


GeneDennis
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:44 pm

by GeneDennis

I did not rinse the sand initially but once i filled the tank with the sand in it i emptied it out with a syphon and the re-filled which took the milky away. it was still a little cloudy but i could see through it. my concern is that 1 fish already died and i am concerned that the rest will follow suit and wanted to know if there was any additive that i could add that would aid them in living through the change?


jdak702
 
Posts: 382
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:26 am

by jdak702

As for additives, i dunno. I wouldn't add anything. Any more changes could just make it worse. Just keep up with daily water changes. Where is this sand from. A LFS or a hardware store?


GeneDennis
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:44 pm

by GeneDennis

LFS. it is Caribsea sand. white sand from the ocean and specifically for cichlids.


dream2reef
 
Posts: 521
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:19 am

by dream2reef

They make a marine stresscoat for that. I'm not much into adding chemicals to my water but I've had AMAZING results with it not sure if its the stresscoat or not but Iknow that my fish never stress much to spike ammonia (not sure if that occurs in saltwater) I currently have a poor fancy tailed goldfish with a bad case of finrot due to over stress from a dumb mistake I made, I feel awful but he's really healing fast. Not sure if that will help you or not. I use as directed when adding any fish or water or if I see any damage or crazy acting fish. It seeeeeeems to work but I don't know w/o it. Most ppl add nothing just change water and pray? Hope this helps or someone corrects me as well idk? Hope the best for your fish I hate losing even one 2 dollar fish!


stingraysrule
 
Posts: 271
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:37 pm

by stingraysrule

Isn't that tank a bit small for the African Cichilids? They breed like crazy. Especially the convicts.
The next time you do something like change your gravel, leave the water in your tank, along with the fish
and just take your gravel out of the tank. It can be done with a spaghetti strainer. Once you take out all the gravel, make sure you rinse the sand off really well, and then add it to the tank with the water and the fish.
THEN do a 50% water change...do not clean out the filter media at this time.  
Let the tank settle for a few days, let the filter media put back some of the good bacteria, and then next water change clean the filter media.
Really, what you have now is 5 fish in an uncycled 30G.
Do daily water changes, DO NOT clean out the filter media, unless you did already, feed MINIMUM..... don't put too much food in there, eaten or not........as it will spike up the ammonia, and hope for the best.


GeneDennis
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:44 pm

by GeneDennis

Well they all made it through the night, and the water looks a lot better. i will definetly not completely empty next time when changing the base of the tank. also i did use that stress coat and it seemed to help. a few hours after i added to tank the fish began to eat which they were not doing prior. not sure if it was coincidence, but maybe it did help.


GeneDennis
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:44 pm

by GeneDennis

Thank You Heidi!!


stingraysrule
 
Posts: 271
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:37 pm

by stingraysrule

Keep up your water changes and you should be aok.
Glad to hear your fish are doing well.

I just did a complete empty/re-fill and need help

11 posts • Page 1 of 2

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