OT: Help! Disaster in my 75g brackish tank!!!

[farasfarm]

Help!

My three year old son decided to help big brother feed the blackfin sharks in his 75 gallon brackish tank. My husband and I did a huge water change last night. We siphoned out over half of the water and cleaned all the ornaments and plastic plants. I also cleaned the biowheel skimmer and put in new filters and amocarb. I got up this morning and checked on it. The whole basement reeks of rotton fish food and the tank water is still cloudy. Gross!!! We can even smell it upstairs in the rooms closest to the staircase. This is a nightmare...My entire family is driving in tomorrow afternoon for our annual camp out!!! I can't believe this. Does anyone have any advise on what course of action to take next? Do I need to just pull the fish out and empty the tank...rinse the gravel and start over? Would this be too hard on the fish? (There are only 3 black fin sharks in the 75 gallon tank.) They seem to be pretty hardy fish...but I had fully cycled the tank before adding them in. Ackk! I have less than 24 hours to get rid of that horrendous smell.
Help!

Fara

[sasquatch]

Im confused, the water change did this or did sonny do something, you can change out 100% of the water if you match ph and temp, dont forget dechlorinator and get the fans running. Steve

[reefman420]

this also happend to me in my 30 gallon fo tank...i did a 50 percent water change andcleand the substrate.rinse filters and keep a good eye on it

[farasfarm]

Duh...so sorry guys. My 3 year old son dumped the whole can of sinking fish food pellets into the tank! It was like a brown snow drift all over every surface in the tank and when I started trying to syphon it off it just seemed to multiply and become a huge cloud. It did not smell last night. But today it reeks.

I guess I'll go for the 100% water change. Thanks.

Fara

[kinghokus420]

my 3 yr old did the same thing with flake in my 72 cichlid tank. the only way i cleared it up was a 100% w/c and alot of gravel vacuuming.

[sasquatch]

OK Fara but you should expect a big algae bloom like a white fog in the tank be sure to have extra aeration or your fish will smother, it should clear in 3 to 5 days.

[Cougra]

I would also recommend that you add some chemical filtration such as a Poly Filter or carbon and phosphate removers as well. That large amount of food in the tank will definately introduce a lot of other polutants to the tank. Even if you do a very large wter change there will still be some water you can't remove such asthe stuff inthe substrate that could cause longer term problems. After doing the large water change, I would keep doing a few medium size daily changes for a little while as well.

As mentioned, make sure that there is a lot of oxygen in the water by pointing some of the power heads to get a good ripple along the surface of the tank and increasing circulation overall if possible.

[farasfarm]

Hey Guys. Well we survived the disaster. I had wanted to change to a different color of gravel in that tank anyway so I moved the sharks to a bucket with a bubbler and drained the tank. I then removed all the old gravel and cleaned it outside in a kiddie swimming pool What a chore though. I acclimated the fish back into the tank slowly by adding water from the fish tank into their bucket like they tell you to do at the store when you purchase fish.

Thank you for your concern, sympathy, and good suggestions.

I am usually working on a meager budget so I have a makeshift stand for my tank. I purchased the tank 7 years ago at a reduced price from the LFS. I then stacked concrete blocks, put a 3/4" sheet of plywood on them and put the tank on them. I am rather handy with a sewing machine so I sewed a curtain to cover the blocks and voila--we have a rather nice display. I am planning to set my reef tank up in the same manner...I will post pics when my dreams become reality! Anyway, we raised the tank up another level by adding another layer of blocks...we also trimmed the plywood down so there is less than a one inch lip around the tank...my son will store his food up in the top of his closet from now on.

Thanks again,

Fara