Need freshwater fish help--ASAP!!!!

[shelliebear]

I'm going to be blatantly honest here, and you can rag on me if you want, but that's not going to fix the problem. I'm aware of what I did wrong, and I don't need to be flamed, I need HELP to save my fish.
I have owned fish for 3 years now, in a 20 gallon tank. Some of the fish I put in on day one after cycling the tank are still alive today.
During the 3 years I kept them I did not do any water changes more than once per year.
Just recently I read you should do water changes for freshwater fish more often than that.
Now my problem is, when I do a water change, all it does is kick up more junk--so much junk that I am scared the fish cannot breathe. I can't even see them in the tank! It's foggy with junk.
I have nowhere to put them when I do the water change so I usually just take out half the water and fill it back up, using my suction thingy to get the stuff out of the bottom in the gravel.
What should I do? Should I just do a complete 100% water change, and see if I can borrow someone's tank or buy one for cheap to put the fish in while I do that?
It's awful. I feel stupid because I looked in my tank and thought, "It's clean!" I didn't know all the stuff was under the gravel hiding.
Please help me--I want my fish to live!

[dr del]

Hi,

It's been years since I kept fish so my advice may be well out of date.

I always did the water changes using nothing but the gravel cleaner and a bucket - just suck up all the crud from the gravel and move slowly so as not to kick up too much gunk into the water. Get used to stopping the water flow while you move the gravel cleaner from spot to spot to increase the amount of cleaning you do for the smallest amount of water changed.

I used to change about 20% of the water every week on average.

Once you have the right amount of water syphoned out slowly and carefully remove any decor etc you need to clean and then clean it in the bucket of water you are about to discard. This is also where you clean the filter sponges if you are using internal filters.

Then all I had to do was treat and temp match the water to top the tank back up and put it carefully back in so I didnt blast any left over gunk all over the place.

But somebody has to have come up with a better system by now.


dr del

[shelliebear]

See, I do that but when I suck up the ick at the bottom, there is so much that it gets swirled around every where.
Also when I put more clean water in, it too kicks stuff up.
I don't know what to do.

[fishmommy]

I would NOT do a 100% water change - that will shock your fish.
Just keep at it, the junk floating in the water shouldn't kill your fish or anything. Just be as careful as you can and change 30 - 50% of the water as often as you can (I'd do it every day until all the crud is gone)

[dragonboy4578]

I had the same problem with my fresh water tank a few years ago. I ended up doing around a 50% water change and replace the gravel on half of the tank. After about two week I did another 50% change and removed the other half of the gravel. I just couldn't get out all the debris otherwise. Good luck

[dr del]

Hi,

The only thing I can think of is you are stirring the gravel with the cleaner? Move very slowly when repositioning it and plunge it straight down into the gravel and withdraw it straight up and stop the water drain just after removing it.

The amount of ick will go down with each cleaning so it should become less and less of a risk.

Does your tank have support spars across the top anywhere?

I used to use a watering can amd slowly pour the replacement water across the spars to prevent it jetting down into the water if that helps.


dr del

[fishmommy]

another thing you can do is just get a measuring cup or bowl and scoop out some gravel and go wash it in the sink. Put it in a clean bucket. The next day scoop out some more and do the same. Eventually you'll have all the gravel clean and in a bucket and ready to go back in the tank. This might keep the floating crud to a minimum while you renovate the tank.

[steveboos]

Never completely clean out and disinfect the gravel as it holds a ton of good bacteria for the tank. As does the filter, so its best to change the filter a few days before a water change to retain as much good bacteria as possible.

I would just recommend doing water changes once a week taking about 2 gallons of water out from your ten gallon with your gravel vacuum. If you have a ton of gunk on the bottom, your obviously overfeeding your fish, so i would cut back on the feeding and start maintaining the tank more often. The biggest think with freshwater tanks is being consistent and cleaning the tank on a schedule so the oxygen gets refreshed and your fish don't suffocate.

[fishmommy]

what are you running for a biological filter?
It's true about the gravel holding beneficial bacteria, but I was assuming you had enough bio filtration running in addition to that.
If you don't explicitly have a biological filter then it's true you shouldn't remove or clean all the gravel at the same time.

[shelliebear]

I have a Whisper filter. My tank is a 20 gal.
The junk on the bottom I think is fish poop. :/ or snail poop. Because when I suck it up with the suction thing, it's stinky. :/ It's way down in the bottom though so it has settled.
Some snails hitched a ride on a plant I got when I first set up the tank, and now I have a hundred or so ramshorn shell snails in there. I don't know if they affect the ecosystem or not. Someone at a pet store said my fish might be eating the snails and it could help their health. :/
IDK.
Also, I feed my fish once a day. I don't know how I could be feeding too much. I have 2 orange tetras (HAD three, one died a month ago), 3 skirt fin tetras, one flying fox, one golden gourami. Used to have an albino cory catfish, another golden gourami, african dwarf frogs, a baby tetra of some kind, and I think a few other fish (all at different times, mind you, not all of those at once!).
I still fed them once a day. They act like piggies every time I feed them and even chase each other around to compete for food. :/
So, I know I shouldn't disinfect the gravel (I thought you weren't supposed to use any disinfectants or soap anyway), but can I just scoop some out and rinse it real good under cold water?
Shellie