How To Fix Smelly Fish Tank- Should I Wait?

I have had a ten gallon fish tank for about a year. Originally I had 5 zebra variety glofish in it but three have died over the year leaving 2 for about the last three months. ( I know there should be more glofish together but I have been wanting to put a betta in my tank instead and do not want to restock). I recently went on a month and a half long vacation and my friend took my tank to her house. There she had her six year old feed the fish and although I showed her to not put much I am sure she overfed them. When I went to pick up the tank they only had about half of the water left in it and the water did not look clean. I tried to save a small bit of water to carry the filter in and put the fish in a small plastic tank to transport them but this only amounts to a couple of inches of water in the tank. I noticed right away that even with hardly any water the tank has an awful smell to it. I decided I needed to get some of the old food out so I washed out the gravel somewhat with clean water and then filled the tank up with new water + the couple of inches of old water. The tank was still filthy as clouds of food came up and it still smells awfully fishy which it did not before when I had it. I was wondering if there is any way I might be able to get rid of this smell from the tank or if I should wait until the fish have gone through the cycle again as it might kill any bacteria that might still be alive ( I have the month old filter in now which I carried in a bit of water). As the fish have just undergone a 90% water change is there any recommendation of what I should try or a period that I should wait to try and clean the water and get rid of the fishy smell?

 

Just make sure you have gotten all of the uneaten food and feces out of the gravel, clean the filter and put a new cartridge in it and keep up with your water changes. The smell should go away over time.

 

Activated charcoal is your best friend when it comes to smells.... Seachem purigen is great also....

 

Make sure you don't throw away your old filter media when you clean the filter because that's where most of your good bacteria is and you could lose you cycle

 

Honestly, I would dump the substrate and replace it because it is going to take a lot of cleaning to clear it up and it is just easier to replace. God knows how much bacteria the bad stuff is growing rampant in those conditions. If not remove it all a thoroughly clean it in boiling water. Clean your filter media and put it in front flowise or new media.

 

I agree with SarcasmIncluded...but if you have already set your tank back up, I say this:

Do you have a Gravel Vac/syphon? That will let you get out the nasty stuff in the gravel, when you do your water changes. Take the gravel vac, and push it down into the gravel, then lift it up to let the gravel fall out before it gets sucked into the tube.. When you do your water changes, swish your filter around in the water that you removed, then replace it into the unit. And yes, carbon is your friend. You can buy it in big containers, and then buy little cloth bags to put it into, and add into your filter...that's how I'm doing it, and it really helps