Cleaning a Pacu tank.

[craig]

Liz, I started cleaning the Pacu Maui's tank. Her tank hasn't been cleaned in over a year. I changed out the nasty gravel,changed out the background. I also added 2 Filstar XP3's,New air pump, and 2 new heaters. Now her tank is starting to look decent. I didn't want to do too much of a water change because she is used to dirt and I didn't want to stress her out. Since she is located in a dialysis facility I have access to all the RO water I need.

 

[Mystix212]

What size tank is she in and what are her furture plans?

 

[craig]

The tank is 240 gallons. She is 7 years old. She is in the tank by herself. It's not my fish. If it was I would get a bigger tank. But I take care of her.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Wow the tank was not water changed for whole year? What are the most recent water quality test results for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph in the tank?
Cleaning tanks which have no be cleaned for a long time can be a risky buisness if not gone about very carefully, its better to clean them gradually with small water changes and substrate cleaning sessions over the following days and not one big clean out in one day, to help prevent causing any major changes in the stale water quality conditions that may stress the fish out.

 

[navygirl76]

She is a beautiful pacu--im glad you are helping her! like the above poster stated.. take it slow- change her water with small changes. i would get a test kit (i think you can buy them for like 30 bucks) and test her water and just see what the quality is..
im amazed she is alive..

 

[MCHRKiller]

She looks to be a wonderful fish How large is she? Its great that your working on getting her water conditions back in order.

 

[craig]

I have my own fish tank cleaning service. I have every test kit. The week before I changed 50 gallons of water. The ph is 6.8,the ammonia was.025,nitrites were a little high,and the nitrates were a little high. I will take pics of her tank when I finally finish getting the tank perfect.