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Caius asked in PetsFish · 8 years ago

I just finished cleaning my tank, and I have a question?

Before I cleaned my tank 2 of my fish died, so since my tank was down at least 6 inches I wanted to get a new fish. My brother says that we need to wait to see if we cleaned the tank correctly. How long would it be for us to know if we cleaned it correctly?

Update:

I know that, just answer the question. How long will take before I could add new fish from the store? I already did everything else.

2 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    Your tank should be cycled before you get any fish. Never completly empty your tank of water. That hurts your fish and hurts your cycle. It could take a month for your tank to fully cycle. To see it's progress, buy some ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test strips. You should see a spike in ammonia, then a spike of nitrite a week or so later, and then finally, both spikes should fall to zero and you should get a reading of nitrate.

    If you don't have a sorce of food for your bacteria, your tank won't cycle. If there are fish in your tank all you have to do is weekly 25% water changes. If there are not fish in your tank, put some fish food in a sock, tie it shut, and put it in the tank. That way you don't end up with a mess. Before you get any fish, do a 50% water change.

    You want to quarantine new fish in a separate tank for several weeks so you can make sure they are healthy. Otherwise all of your fish could get sick and die.

    Do some research on cycling if you don't know what it is.

    Do some research on quarantining if you don't know what it is or how to do it.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Well first of all you should clean it twice a month, and NEVER use soap and NEVER forget to use drops to take out the clorene.

    Source(s): I have fish
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