Please help, fish lives are at stake, some died already.?

Question

Ok we have a 55 gallon fish tank at my work with some beautiful fish in it. I feed them daily and another person comes in to clean it monthly, however that person has no come in for the past couple of months and our tank looks horrible. Please help thanks!!!

Its a fresh water tank.

Answer 1

You need to use a gravel siphon and new bucket to remove about 25% of the water from the tank while cleaning the gravel. The siphon is available from any pet store of department store that sells fish or supplies for under $10 or so. I use a regular mop bucket when I need one, just grab a new one so nothing is in it from previous cleanings. While at the store get a bottle of dechlorinator.

Before you start, unplug the filter and heater. Once you siphon out the dirty water, rinse of the little cartridge from the filter in the dirty water and replace it in the filter. Then use the tank thermometer to be sure your freshwater is very close in temperature to the tank (within 5 degrees). Add the dechlorinator drops as directed on the bottle and add the freshwater to the tank. That will hold them until the regular guy comes again. I would suggest this once a week until he comes again though.

MM

Answer 2

If you have gone a couple months, you need to clean it NOW. I'd do a 20% water change, about 10 gallons, with a bucket that NEVER has seen soap. The fresh water being put in needs to be dechlorinated. http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/productCategory.asp?categoryname=WaterConditioners
You need to clean it with a gravel vac. http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441780039&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030123&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1178580912725&itemNo=4&In=Fish&N=2030123&Ne=2
Work on just one half. Then wait 48 hours and repeat for the other side.
You also need to probably replace the filter cartridge. Wait a few days or do this first and wait a few days.
Don't do everything at once or you will only be inviting lots of trouble.
Once a month cleaning is not frequent enough. It should be every other week.