Dead eel mucking up tank...I think

[Binge]

It is like one of those kid down a well situations now... were all invested and wanna know where that dang eel is.

 

[Zbosco13]

You're telling me. Did another water change, checked every ornament and went through the sand again, and he remains elusive. Water smells like dead fish within 24 hrs of water change tho

 

[TripleW]

He didn't get caught in the rim of the tank on the inside did he?

 

[Zbosco13]

Nah, it's flush to the glass. I've scoured everything, he's gotta be in the sand...somewhere

 

[Fishy-Botany]

Get a cat litter scooper from the store, that should help

 

[krichardson]

It looks like you are going to have to do a complete tear down in order to get rid of that odor. Place your fish and as much water as you can in another container and give the sand,filter and any large decorations a good cleaning.

 

[Zbosco13]

Well, I have been considering a switch to a lighter colored sand substrate anyways, maybe I'll kill two birds with one stone. Any tips on switching over sand? I've never tried it before, I'm thinking best way to do it without draining the whole tank would be to siphon into a bucket, let water overflow and sand settle in bucket, repeat until all sand is gone? Seems like it'll take forever for my 120 lbs of sand, but I can't think of a better way at the moment...

 

[pharmaecopia]

That's how I would go about changing the sand. Spread it out over a couple days at least. Give your filters time to adjust to not having the bb in the sand.

 

[jaws7777]

If your going to siphon it out i would uses a garden hose. You could aslo net it out.

Dont worry about the bb. Your filters hold most of it. No need to remove it over multiple days. Ive done it plenty of times

 

[krichardson]

If your going to siphon it out i would uses a garden hose. You could aslo net it out.

Dont worry about the bb. Your filters hold most of it. No need to remove it over multiple days. Ive done it plenty of times

Agreed,just syphon the sand out and into a large enough container.There should be enough bacteria on the inside glass surfaces of the tank to back up the cleaned out fikter for now.