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Is flavored water still a good solvent?

Fishless tank of water for months still good?

  • it's prolly been sitting for at least 6 months, but the filter was always left running...but during that time the water was never changed and there's a good amount of brown/red algae growth. If i give it a good scrub and do a 50-70% water change and then change filter cartridge..think it'd be good to go for new fish? It had been a previously established tank, but would all that algae or ammonia have killed the cycle?

  • Answer:

    It would be risky to be honest. Without regular feeding all the good cycled bacteria will have started to die off - they need regular feeding just like fish! There is likely to be a nitrate problem too, high nitrates can be as lethal to new fish as ammonia and nitrites! I would treat the tank as a seeded but uncycled tank. Get a liquid test kit, get a bottle of pure household ammonia, put in 5ppm (on the test kit) of ammonia and see how long it takes for your tank to take that down to near zero. A healthy established tank will be able to take that down to 0 ammonia and nitrites within 12 hours.

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If there has been no fish in there for 6 months, then you have to re-cycle it. There was no source of ammonia to sustain the beneficial bacteria from the previous cycle, so they are long gone. Actually all it takes is a week or two for most of the bacteria to die off if you do not provide a constant source of ammonia.

Fishless

Nitrates do not get processed further in freshwater aquariums so it can linger in the water long after your bio filtration has died out. 6 months with no ammonia? No the cycle has collapsed by now, there might be some spores surviving in the tank but nowhere enough to carry out a cycle. Clean the tank and start anew.

Nex

clean ur fish tank and recycle it and wait for a month before adding any new fish

Elegant

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