I have to tear down my ten gallon tropical fish tank and restart it?
by Aquaboy on Friday, April 30th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I am concerned about my fish cause I don’t have any other place to keep them so that the tank can sit for the 24 hour period. I am putting them in a clean bucket while I clean and move the tank. Will it hurt them to put them into the tank in just a few hours if the temp is right?
Other articles you might like;
- Is These Pellets Healthy + More Qs-?
- Would This Hurt The Guppy Fry?
- 90g Reef Aquarium Setup Day 5
- Ideas On Fish For Freshwater Community Aquarium?
- Work Experience Melbourne 2011?
If the temp is right and the chemicals all read good, then it’s fine. Also, the bucket should be fine to keep them in as well.
No, it won’t hurt the fish. As long as the bucket is clean & no bleach was used at any time in it. Bleach kills fish & if it’s a plastic bucket it’s liable to “hold” whatever was used in it prior. Do you have a large cooking pot or roaster pan of good size that maybe you could use instead? As long as the fish have room to swim around I don’t forsee anything happening to them. You can put them back in the tank, IF the ph is right & make sure the temp. is the same as it was before. If you have good filtration there is no reason why they can’t be put back in the tank. Just make sure all your water readings are the same as the water you took out. Beware of chemicals in the water if you’re using city water as apposed to well water.
If you have to move it, don’t clean it. You will lose any beneficial bacteria that break down waste. If you use water treated with conditioners like Stress Coat you will be able to return the fish as soon as the temperature stabilizes. Can you keep the bucket warm? Use tank water. Put the tank water back in.
A good way to kill fish is rapid temperature changes of less than 5°.
Do not put your fish in any type metal pot or container!! Try and use at least have of your old water when you set the tank back up and do it as quickly as possible for temperature reasons. Also try and get the new water as close as possible temperature wise and make sure you add your water treatment to the new water to help remove anything that could harm the fish.
you’re not replacing all of the water are you? this was something i did with goldfish and worked fine, but with tropical fish, you need to change a maximum of only 27% of the water each time you clean the tank, and its best to siphon the water out through the gravel to remove debrey. i was given this explaination in a pet store and didnt understand until they demonstrated, so that could be an idea. dont take that fish out of the tank, i havent for three years and they are breeding well. as said they need the benefical bacteria. hope this helps.