"Just a small handful". . . . Overfed tank

ScoobyJ · Jul 28, 2020

Hi all,

Soooooo I went away 2 weekends ago and had a family member feed my tank. As you can tell by the title. It didn't go well. They overfed my tank pellets they said a small hand full, showing about a quarter size in their palm for 2 days. Mind you I only have 5 fish in a 40gal tank. I typically feed a few (literally 3) pellets every other day and a pinch of flakes every day. (frozen once a week).

I'm now dealing with high nutrients, Everything is creeping up. And algae of all kinds are coming to the party.

I'm doing 10% water changes (5gal) every other day. (I'm only able to do a 5gal bucket at a time), I've added some phosgaurd and changed my chemipure blue pouches (it was time to change them).

Does anyone have any other suggestions? (Other than not having my family feed my tank again...)

I don't mind doing the water changes until things stabilize. I'm testing every day. The algae is still growing so I'm manually pulling and scrapping when I change the water.

My corals are doing medium, the zoas/palys/cloves are closed/partially closed up, the other corals are not showing any signs of decay. My fish seem ok for now as well.

I think the water changes are helping from getting out of control and in time things should settle . . .right? thoughts?

Thanks!

Arlen nemeth · Jul 28, 2020

ScoobyJ said:
Hi all,

Soooooo I went away 2 weekends ago and had a family member feed my tank. As you can tell by the title. It didn't go well. They overfed my tank pellets they said a small hand full, showing about a quarter size in their palm for 2 days. Mind you I only have 5 fish in a 40gal tank. I typically feed a few (literally 3) pellets every other day and a pinch of flakes every day. (frozen once a week).

I'm now dealing with high nutrients, Everything is creeping up. And algae of all kinds are coming to the party.

I'm doing 10% water changes (5gal) every other day. (I'm only able to do a 5gal bucket at a time), I've added some phosgaurd and changed my chemipure blue pouches (it was time to change them).

Does anyone have any other suggestions? (Other than not having my family feed my tank again...)

I don't mind doing the water changes until things stabilize. I'm testing every day. The algae is still growing so I'm manually pulling and scrapping when I change the water.

My corals are doing medium, the zoas/palys/cloves are closed/partially closed up, the other corals are not showing any signs of decay. My fish seem ok for now as well.

I think the water changes are helping from getting out of control and in time things should settle . . .right? thoughts?

Thanks!

Yea i would be doing way more water changes if i where u i would done a 35 gal change instantly, it can really destroy and aqauriam

ScoobyJ · Jul 29, 2020

Thanks, Yea, I'm only able to do small water changes, I don't have the equipment to facilitate large changes. I'll continue to do the water changes maybe I'll double up.

Thanks again!

Arlen nemeth · Jul 29, 2020

ScoobyJ said:
Thanks, Yea, I'm only able to do small water changes, I don't have the equipment to facilitate large changes. I'll continue to do the water changes maybe I'll double up.
Thanks again!

Yea me niether i have a super high maintenance tank do everything by hand . Fill those buckets up and take them outside to the drain. Not easy work

92Miata · Jul 29, 2020

Just keep doing what you're doing. (And skim wet if your not already)

You're past the point where the tank would have crashed if it was way too much. Huge water changes are more risk than help at this point.

sixline · Jul 29, 2020

If you can't produce enough RODI water to do a larger % change, maybe you can temporarily reduce full system volume right before doing the next water change. In other words, remove 7 gallons and replace with 5 gallons, for example.

I often have people feed my tank when I'm gone. I always explain to them not too feed too much in advance. Of course, people have good hearts and like the little fishies so they want to give them an extra treat. I've tried to explain with varying success rates that the added extra food with end up as pollution whether or not it goes through the fish. And that this will end up harming the fish.

Maybe next time, only leave out the amount of food you want fed over the entire duration of your trip.

Sorry this happened to you. Best of luck.

csb123 · Jul 29, 2020

Consider vacuuming your sand bed.

ScoobyJ · Jul 30, 2020

Thank you everyone! Yes, I think I got lucky, all the numbers are stabilizing, not going up, but it is still higher than normal. I'm just going to continue the 10% changes for a few more days.

I'll work on the sand bed next.

Cheers all!

90G Mark · Jul 30, 2020

iI had the same thing happen to me a few years back. i was away and person tending to feeding kid dumped a whole can of food into tank. got back a few days later and was told what happen. perimeters where climbing algea taking over glass. so i did a major water change right away, vacummed sand. but i left the algae on glass. i was always told that in a bad situation clear algae last. so left it letting the algae feed on the nitrates and phosphates. during this i was doing a 20 percent WC every other day. also started running carbon it may be needed. did my best not to remove to much good bacteria, cleaned media one piece daily, making sure not to clean it all at the same time.. after 10 days i was back to normal.. scraped algae off glass. need to point out i have a scrapper attached to my sand syphoner, so when i scrape algae it is sucked out the tank.