Bo.
Impatient as always
Before I start, my tank is fairly new (~ 2 months) and I planned to add additional fish in the next few weeks but I wanted a screen cover and to set up a quarantine tank first... things didn't quite happen that way.
A pair of clowns were brought to me in a 10g yesterday. The tank and fish were extremely neglected, detritus was over a half inch thick in places and the clowns are very skinny.
Sorry that's blurry, but I was trying to get started working since they had been without aeration for 30 minutes.
I stuck the rest of the rock back in (brought in a bucket), siphoned about a gallon and as much of the surface detritus without disturbing the sand bed. I started making some RODI and ran to petco for a cheap powerhead to get some flow going. Before doing anything drastic when I got back, I tested everything.
Ammonia and nitrite, pretty undetectable. Nitrate however, over 100 ppm within 5 to 10 seconds on my Salifert kit. Decided not to wait the full 3 minutes and start with the water change. Tested the salinity and it was sitting at 1.040 ;Facepalm.
As I was planning a large WC of about 75% I started getting concerned about doing to much too fast to these guys. I mixed the salt to 1.025 so the change wasn't too drastic and did some very light turkey basting, pulled the disgusting pad from the internal filter, rinsed it and stuck it back in. After the water change they are sitting about 1.030 salinity and nitrates still over 100 immediately.
I'm leaning toward giving them a few days at this salinity and then just moving them into my tank instead of worrying about getting the parameters in check. I was told they have been the only fish in this tank for 3 years, but I don't want to stick something in my display and come to regret it. It's either that, or put them in a bucket temporarily and rip the tank down to BB while saving one rock for the bacteria.
Which now that I've typed this all out seems like the best option for me. How would you proceed?
A pair of clowns were brought to me in a 10g yesterday. The tank and fish were extremely neglected, detritus was over a half inch thick in places and the clowns are very skinny.
Sorry that's blurry, but I was trying to get started working since they had been without aeration for 30 minutes.
I stuck the rest of the rock back in (brought in a bucket), siphoned about a gallon and as much of the surface detritus without disturbing the sand bed. I started making some RODI and ran to petco for a cheap powerhead to get some flow going. Before doing anything drastic when I got back, I tested everything.
Ammonia and nitrite, pretty undetectable. Nitrate however, over 100 ppm within 5 to 10 seconds on my Salifert kit. Decided not to wait the full 3 minutes and start with the water change. Tested the salinity and it was sitting at 1.040 ;Facepalm.
As I was planning a large WC of about 75% I started getting concerned about doing to much too fast to these guys. I mixed the salt to 1.025 so the change wasn't too drastic and did some very light turkey basting, pulled the disgusting pad from the internal filter, rinsed it and stuck it back in. After the water change they are sitting about 1.030 salinity and nitrates still over 100 immediately.
I'm leaning toward giving them a few days at this salinity and then just moving them into my tank instead of worrying about getting the parameters in check. I was told they have been the only fish in this tank for 3 years, but I don't want to stick something in my display and come to regret it. It's either that, or put them in a bucket temporarily and rip the tank down to BB while saving one rock for the bacteria.
Which now that I've typed this all out seems like the best option for me. How would you proceed?
