Need advice on getting my tanks back in good shape

[KittenFishMom]

After months of neglect due to my Moth's failing health, my tanks are in sorry shape.  I now have time and I am trying to get them back in better shape. 

My guppy population exploded when I added lots of plants to deal with being away so much. I feed lightly for a while, but the fish were not doing well, so I started doing some "feast and famine" style feeding, which got the snail populations to explode. 

I am trying to do deep cleanings in only parts of each tanks at a time, so I don't lose my nitrogen cycle.  The water coming out of the substrate stinks, so I am trying not to get too much of that water mucking up the tank water.

One problem is I moved fish around to try to balance the Bio load. I now have guppies in all my tanks (4 roughly 10 gallon tanks).  Is there any good way of separating the guppies from the corys, bettas, and neon tetras with out traumatizing all the fish? Is it possible to get all the guppies completely out of a tank, or are they like the duckweed in my tanks? Once they enter, they never all leave. 

I have rehomed the gold fish with a bunch of guppies.  A friend is coming this weekend to help me try to sort the guppies. If I could move the guppies into 3 of my tanks, or maybe even 2 before we start sorting, then I could put the corys and the neon tetras in my forth tank, and not bother them while sorting. I have 2 bettas, so one could go in with the corys and neon tetras and the other will have to be in a guppy tank, or maybe a fish bowl while we are sorting. 

When we are done sorting, my friend will take some culls to a friend of hers with a big tank with only bottom feeders.  I want to keep some of the prettiest guppies in one 10 gallon tank and then work at rehoming the rest. These are tough guppies, they have been through some rough times and don't ever flinch when the cats jump on the tank lids. I might try to find out how to give them away through the forums fish swap topic that seems to be new.  I know nothing about shipping fish. with this hot weather it would be better to have them picked up or have us deliver them not too far from Central New York.

I also want to set up to 2 15 gallon tanks where I have a 10 gallon tank, but I have to figure out how to move the active 10 gallon tank.

I do not plan to run my 120 gallon tank this summer, and will probably wait until the weather cools off in the fall to start a build on my 55 gallon tank. Mostly, I am just working towards trying to get my tanks back into better shape right now, and rehome as many guppies and snails as I can.  A bunch of snails are going to the friend with the gold fish. The gold fish loved them. These are bladder snails and brown rams horn snails. All the fancy snails did not make it.

 

 

 

[Brandon p]

Best advise would but to go slow and don’t make huge swings at changes. Are the bigger tanks up and running or sitting empty?  I had a heart attack in March and am still getting caught up. I worried more about keeping filters clean first. I couldn’t lift more than 5 #. I don’t do a lot of water chase to start with I base them of water test and experience. If you normally do lots of water changes and haven’t for awhile start with smaller changes and work back to your routine. It sounds like you are pretty much do this anyway. I would get buckets and net what you can. And separating then as you go into the buckets.  I don’t like to chase one fish around having the rest running into bumping into things. I’m not sure if you want the snails or not. But once you have them they are hard to get rid. They are pretty harm less but some like them and some don’t. I think you have a plan

 

 

[KittenFishMom]

The big tanks are empty and dirty. They had native fish in them and need to be completely cleaned and washed with peroxide. Same with the filters. I am not up to that yet.

I was thinking about cleaning the 15 gallon tanks and trying to get a cycle going, but I don't have a place to put them until I can move the 10 gallon tank.

The 55 tank is full of half water bottles with little plant samples I saved when I put all the plants I ordered for the 55 build in the 10 gallon tanks. (I had planned starting the build in March. Then Mom's dr called and said she could not be alone again. She is no longer with us, and we are just starting to pick up the pieces of our life we drop in February.)

I do like snails, but there are now so many, when I feed the fish, the snails quickly crowd over the feed that gets to the bottom and the corys can not get at the food. They cover the pellets before they soften. The fancy guppy food falls between the crowded snails, and the guppies can't get at that food.  This all results in more snails and over feeding to try to get some food into the fish. (very small amounts of food often during the day)

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/19/2022 at 4:57 PM, KittenFishMom said:

My guppy population exploded when I added lots of plants to deal with being away so much. I feed lightly for a while, but the fish were not doing well, so I started doing some "feast and famine" style feeding, which got the snail populations to explode. 

I am trying to do deep cleanings in only parts of each tanks at a time, so I don't lose my nitrogen cycle.  The water coming out of the substrate stinks, so I am trying not to get too much of that water mucking up the tank water.

One problem is I moved fish around to try to balance the Bio load. I now have guppies in all my tanks (4 roughly 10 gallon tanks).  Is there any good way of separating the guppies from the corys, bettas, and neon tetras with out traumatizing all the fish? Is it possible to get all the guppies completely out of a tank, or are they like the duckweed in my tanks? Once they enter, they never all leave. 

My condolences, I'm very sorry about your loss.

This is how I would handle it, depending what you have available, even unscented trashbags might be a way to handle it.

1.  Take a tub and remove all of the rocks and wood into that container. If you have wood with plants or rock with plants, those go with the rest of your plants.
2.  Take a tub / bucket and put in ALL of your plants with an airstone.  Make sure all of the plants are wet and submerged.
3.  Take another container and then place all the fish in that container with an airstone.  Make sure you have a dark towel or a lid on the container and set it away from noise or traffic so the fish can relax for a few hours.  Any of your filter media, sponge, ceramics, would go into this bucket.
4.  Take your hand and heavily disturb ALL of the substrate as much as you can to get as much junk into the water column.
5.  Drain the tank as much as you can with a siphon.  Gravel vac, but the main thing is to get the majority of that mucky water out. 
6.  Fill the tank and repeat this process.  If it's just as bad as the last time you might need to do so again.
7.  Gravel vac the substrate and try to make sure you don't have issues with anaerobic pockets or mulm/waste in the substrate.  The water you siphon out should be "clean" and you should be able to see that you're not removing waste.
8.  Add your hardscape back, replant. Fill the tank, dose it with your dechlorinator and test parameters.  Verify at this point that water is safe for fish.
9.  Add the fish back and keep monitoring the water parameters for minimum, 1 week.

 I've literally used the python and hosed out a tank when need be.  It's a great way to handle something like this.
 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[lefty o]

i would take it in small steps. the up and running tanks, a partial water change and light gravel vac first time. next cleaning go after it a little more.2 or 3 cleanings and they will be back where they should be.

[KittenFishMom]

@lefty o and @nabokovfan87 and @Brandon p Given that I still don't trust the well completely, I am still using bottled spring water in my tanks. We are calling folks to fix the heat pump and the roof and the well and the dock. It all takes time, Plus I was power of attorney, so there are all the legal things to deal with. We will get the well fixed, but in the mean time using less bottled water to fix up the tanks is better.  I have a lot of tall square clear gallon bottles. I think some 3 year old would love building a wall with them and bursting through it.  Too bad our son is 29 years old. I would rather see the bottles reused before they get recycled, but they will probably all get recycled before I figure out a great use for them.

Thank you for your help and support. Trying to figure out how to begin is often the hardest part at times like these. I would love to add new fish to cheer me up, but I know I need to get the tanks back in working order before I make the problem more complicated. I have been daydreaming about setting up a mini-pond for the guppies, but I would have so many more to rehome in the fall. I found a clear pop up pond online, that looks like it would be great fun, but I am going to try to wait until next summer.

Do frogs eat guppies? Do racoons? I bet the water snakes would find them in short order. They like to sun themselves in the garden.

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:56 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Given that I still don't trust the well completely, I am still using bottled spring water in my tanks.

Do you have any idea what the parameters are for the well water? 

 

On 7/19/2022 at 8:56 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I would rather see the bottles reused before they get recycled, but they will probably all get recycled before I figure out a great use for them.

Some stores sell the 5G water bottles, you can just refill those manually with the machine.  That's probably the easiest way to do it.  The water is typically RODI in some capacity as well.

 

On 7/19/2022 at 8:56 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Thank you for your help and support. Trying to figure out how to begin is often the hardest part at times like these. I would love to add new fish to cheer me up, but I know I need to get the tanks back in working order before I make the problem more complicated. I have been daydreaming about setting up a mini-pond for the guppies, but I would have so many more to rehome in the fall. I found a clear pop up pond online, that looks like it would be great fun, but I am going to try to wait until next summer.

Do frogs eat guppies? Do racoons? I bet the water snakes would find them in short order. They like to sun themselves in the garden.

I would think they all do or could if they were hungry enough.  You can always setup an indoor pond?

I apologize that it's been so difficult for you.  Take a breath and try to just do one thing a day or every few days.  Take it slow and slowly you'll get there.  One step at a time is how I try to focus on things when life gets a bit too tough.  Stay strong, focus on the positive as best you can.