About 10 minutes ago I changed 30% of my 28l (7gallons) tank.
I forgot to treat the water (I'm soo annoyed with myself - never done this before in nearly a year of fish keeping :( ).
I just treated it, but will the fish be okay? Will the chlorine and chloramines have been in there long enough to kill a lot of bacteria? I do, as it happens, have some bogwood I just removed which will still have healthy bacteria on - should I reintroduce that?
Help!
2007-12-13 07:17:00 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Should mention I have neon tetras, cory catfish and a ghost shrimp.
2007-12-13 07:22:02 · update #1
If you are concerned about bacteria loss reduce the feeding schedule and volume for a few days,also perhaps a slight and gradual temperature increase. Increased aeration might also help.
Believe it or not,this is the way some people do every water change. Personally I wouldn't do it,I think it's just too chancy, but lots of people do this kind of water change regularly. Your fish should be OK,and the bacteria will certainly recover. You may want to check the Ammonia levels in a week or so.
Adding the bog-wood back into the tank probably wouldn't hurt.
2007-12-13 08:32:37 · answer #1 · answered by PeeTee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 - Yes you need a gravel vac, just a cheap plastic one with 4 or 5ft of plastic hose on it will work fine. 2 - Start the vac syphoning water out of tank into your bucket and poke around in the gravel with the vacum end to suck up the crud. Keep draining water untill you are 1/4 of the way down the tank. If your filter needs rinsing out, do that in the old tank water you just removed. Top the tank up again with fresh treated tap water at about the same temperature. 3 - yes, use a water conditioner unless you are SURE your tap water contains no chlorine residue. There is no magic to water conditioner, it contains a chemical called sodium thiosulphate, which reacts with any chlorine in the water and creates harmless salt (sodium chloride). At the concentrations we are talking about, all the chemicals except chlorine are harmless to fish. Unless your tap water is really toxic it will be fine once the chlorine is removed. 4 - when you do water changes you just put a bit more water in than you removed to make up for the evaporation. Ian I dont use any conditioning salt anyway - you have FRESHwater fish ;-)
2016-04-09 01:08:31 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You most likely killed a lot of your bacteria, but not enough to make your tank go through the whole cycle again. As for your fish they will be fine. It was only a 30% water change and that means 70% of the water was still treated. So you have to figure that your water you added was practically nuetralized. Everything will be just fine.
2007-12-13 07:28:25 · answer #3 · answered by ntyce 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You did the right thing by treating it right away. A lot of the chlorine evaporates immediately as you fill up your bucket. The rest will be filtered out by you activated carbon. Some of your bacteria may have been killed but will quickly regenerate to its full capacity in a few days. Your fish will be just fine.
2007-12-13 08:38:57 · answer #4 · answered by Marine 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you treated it right after they should be okay. When you don't treat the water the chlorine actually burns their gills and will eventually kill them, it is not an instant thing. As long as you realized it pretty fast they should be fine. You could put the bogwood back in if everything is calmed down now, but you probably won't need to.
2007-12-13 07:29:18 · answer #5 · answered by Spring love 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They'll be fine. You caught your mistake within a reasonable amount of time, and the bacteria will regenerate to full strength in a couple of days. I wouldn't worry.
2007-12-14 10:26:09 · answer #6 · answered by Hawkster 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't worry about it at all, to be honest. You treated it after the fact, and within a good amount of time. No worries!
2007-12-13 18:47:11 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dont worry about it, i never treat ANY of my tanks with chlorine removers and hardly ever get dead fish
I only change about 20% of the water of each tank at a time though and rarely do it more than once a month unless i have any problems. I have been successfully keeping and breeding fish for ages. I have my water tested every 2 weeks and never have problems with ammonia, nitrite or nitrate and my ph is always fine
Give me thumbs down for saying this if you want but this is personal experience.
2007-12-13 07:56:29 · answer #8 · answered by Cambridge Aquatics 4 · 1⤊ 5⤋
They're probably be fine. I wouldn't worry.
2007-12-13 07:20:45 · answer #9 · answered by kittenslayer 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋