swampy

Hello to all. Let me give some back ground : Tank is old (55 gal ) ... cleaned this pass weekend ; rinsed, and more ... ; Old gravel , rinsed and rinsed it ... a lot of trash ( small sized) ; New filters .... ammonia test : I really do not know ... it is not a green that shows on the bottle scale; but I have concluded that I would err on reading it high that the tank is under "stress" ; Now how do I get water out of this tank ? What is the more efficient and less mess way of going about this? ; Tank is almost full and two (2) algae eaters are in there ... ; I had added the stress meds ( a liquid) ; I do not have any other testing supplies as of yet .... Want to dump 25 gal and add temp water back into tank.

Before I do this...: should I sample the tap water and see what this "test strip" shows for clear water?

Thanks in advance
swampy

COBettaCouple

You'll want a test kit like: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113074. You're probably at the beginning of your nitrogen cycle given the ammonia being high. Some BioSpira or ZymBac-FW by Kordon would be good to speed the cycle up.

What did you condition your tap water with? Prime would be a good product for you to use with a 55g tank.

swampy

Well I dumped about 25% of the tank and added warm water back ... took an ammonia test ( Jungle's ) and found water to at .5 :
well better safe than sorry ... Wife sez that the algae eaters don't move about ... so I guess they are OK ... will check tonight again .... also note to self to pick up a syphon system later ....
swampy
PS Betta , will check out that lit also

genie

For a tank as big as yours, I would try the Python system. It works with your tap to syphon and refill your tank. No buckets, no mess.