Hello, our family recently inherited a house. Inside said house is this fish tank. It’s huge and I have absolutely no knowledge on taking care of an aquarium. My kids are in love with it so we want to keep it but it desperately needs cleaned. I attempted to gravel vacuum and scrub the decorations the other day but it was a completely lost cause. I think I may have to completely redo the tank. I eventually want to put live plants in it but need to do some research. Should I move the fish in here to a smaller tank and then just completely start this one over? Is there a way to get all the algae and stuff off these decorations? I don’t mind things not being perfectly aesthetically pleasing but this is literally the centerpiece of the house so I’d like it to look somewhat nice. Does anyone have recommendations for resources to learn about how to properly care and clean tanks? I’m so out of my depth of knowledge and it’s to the point where every time I look at this tank my eye starts twitching.
Posted by MichaylaJullaine
1 Comment
Hey, there’s some good news and bad news 🙂
Let’s start with the bad news, cleaning the aquarium won’t be very good for it. All of the items in the aquarium are covered in bacteria that is a fundamental part of the nitrogen cycle. So cleaning needs to be slow. All that blackness will be mulm, mulm is *like* aquarium soil, and while unsightly is amazing at keeping things stable.
Good news, looks like your fish are goldfish, and because of that. I think you can fully empty the tank, and put them back in with treated water and they’ll be fine.
Bad news, your gold fish will probably eat whatever plants you put in. Good news, buying plants to watch your goldfish eat them is not that fun.
What kind of filtration is in use?
Get some Seachems prime, or any water dechlorinator to treat replacement water. Honestly, this is a great tank to get back into the hobby with.