# Starting over



## DannyG (Mar 8, 2011)

Recently my parents decided to start working with Tropical fish in a 20g aquarium. They bought a used tank off of craigslist, and all the usual things; gravel, decoration, filter, heater, etc. 

However, my father used soap to clean the tank, after I advised him not to. Sadly they didn't listen, and a batch of starter fish they purchased were dead before morning.

So I'm asking, what would be the process of getting the fish tank back to safe for fish status?

Thanks in advance.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Drain and remove everything. Rinse, rinse, and rinse again. No kind of soap. You could take some water conditioner and rub it on the walls of the tank and rinse it. Gravel needs to rinsed pretty good too.

Your could empty the water out, take it outside, put a hose in it and turn it on med strength, let it overflow for 20-30 min and probably would do.

Sorry for your troubles.


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## DannyG (Mar 8, 2011)

Is there a said amount of time I should keep it cycling before I go ahead and put the fish in? A week? Two Weeks?

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not going to let them put fish in the tank unless I'm absolutely sure the stuff is fine. It's just sad that I wasn't there when they went ahead and put fish in anyways.

There's 1 fish left out of the whole stock, I'd like to get it back to good health, if possible. I'm not sure if it's safe to put it in my own fish tank, would that damage my tank as well?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I have read a week in some places, but have never waited beyond my tank settling on the temp needed. In most cases 2-4hrs. Most people will recommend 2-3 days I think.


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## DannyG (Mar 8, 2011)

One of the fish from the tank is still alive, and is in a separate container of fresh water. Is there anything I can do to help it back to health?


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

To help the fish that is still alive: stress coat and maybe melafix - the soap probably stripped a lot of the fish's natural slime coat and stress coat can probably help until it comes back. Melafix to help ward off any infections that might crop up from the compromised protective slime coat. It isn't as if this fish was exposed to an illness or disease, so it wouldn't necessarily spread anything bad to your fish that way, but it is weak and so if there was anything that could be "caught" it would "catch" it. ? I could think of advice either way, put it in your tank or put it in the newly cleaned, newly rinsed, newly up and running parental tank as the only fishy resident for the next month while the cycle is happening. One fish during the cycle is not too much, especially if you're keeping tabs with water tests and doing partial water changes as needed.


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## verdifer (Sep 8, 2010)

Just take the tank out to the back garden and give it a good rinse with the hose and you should be fine.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I wash every tank and decor in dish soap....The way to get rid of the residue,is cold water,believe it or not.My water conditioner is jungle start right,with allantoin.It helps soothe the slime coat.Ive been using it for years and never had an issue.Anyway,the best way to help the survivor,is to make sure its in good stable water,and add someting to soothe it.I use the start right.You can use some aquarium salt,but dissolve it first,otherwise it will irritate the skin.My philosophy is to not treat a fish for illness unless they show signs of it.Like I wouldnt take cough syrup to make sure i didnt cough.


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