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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 6, 2018 13:50:22 GMT -5
We don't return until Monday, January 8 and I can't get into the school even if I wanted to. I will make sure I keep a couple of volunteers in at lunch to do a big water change and rinse the filter in a buck of the water. Yikes, I'm kind of nervous. Hope it'll be okay.
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 6, 2018 16:49:12 GMT -5
We don't return until Monday, January 8 and I can't get into the school even if I wanted to. I will make sure I keep a couple of volunteers in at lunch to do a big water change and rinse the filter in a buck of the water. Yikes, I'm kind of nervous. Hope it'll be okay. Sorry I didn't realize that you had the first week of January off . I'm sure the fish will be fine . Let me know how everything is and we can go from there . By big water change what do you mean ?
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 6, 2018 19:17:50 GMT -5
I just mean to not let the kids slack off until one half the tank is emptied out and then refill with fresh water.
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 6, 2018 20:39:21 GMT -5
I just mean to not let the kids slack off until one half the tank is emptied out and then refill with fresh water. A couple of 25% water changes over a couple of days might be better than one 50% water change . Don't want to shock the fish after the schools down time . Either way let us know how there doing .
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 6, 2018 20:56:29 GMT -5
Okay, we'll do it that way.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 8, 2018 19:23:59 GMT -5
So.....there was one dead fish stuck up against the filter intake tube and another dead one just floating around. Some kids were horrified, others were sympathetic, others seemed to not really care. Did a water change today. Scrubbed the glass. Changed the water filter pad. Then just as we got everything almost set up, a student came and chucked a bunch of food into the tank. Way too much! Ugh!!!! So, we emptied out a bunch of water AGAIN and replaced it. There's still lots of food settling to the bottom of the tank. I kind of feel like we need some sort of bottom feeder as that is one thing we've always had, except for this year, and the tank seems to be getting dirtier faster this year. What do you think?
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 9, 2018 6:18:01 GMT -5
Wow , that’s unfortunate that a bunch of food was dumped into the tank . I would try to siphon out any food that still sits on the bottom of the tank . I can bring you some Cory catfish and other bottom feeders but I would like to get the tanks water back up to par first . Let us know what the tank looks like today and how the fish are doing and we will go from there . Should be able to get this straighten out and some new fish in there shortly .
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 10, 2018 19:03:39 GMT -5
The tank looks way better except for the bottom which has some green algae and food bulid-up along it. But the water the fish are swimming in looks way better and the fish are swimming about more happily than when we first found them on Monday. Should we do another water change on Friday?
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 11, 2018 11:29:43 GMT -5
Glad the tank is looking better . I would definitely do another water change on Friday , try to siphon off as much of the debris on the bottom of the tank as possible . I can bring some Cory catfish next week if all goes well .
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 11, 2018 21:27:18 GMT -5
Today I bought a gravel vacuum. We'll watch some youtube videos on how to use it, just to be on the safe side. Then will try it out and do a water change tomorrow.
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Post by phish on Jan 11, 2018 22:58:54 GMT -5
Today I bought a gravel vacuum. We'll watch some youtube videos on how to use it, just to be on the safe side. Then will try it out and do a water change tomorrow. If the gravel vacuum didn't come with one, I suggest a siphon starter bulb. Makes it a little easier to get it going without having to stick your hands into the tank to fill the tube up with water.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 12, 2018 19:16:29 GMT -5
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 12, 2018 19:30:07 GMT -5
Tank looks great . It's good to see the student taking care of their tank . You can expect some new fish ( cory catfish and the like ) next week .
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 12, 2018 21:00:57 GMT -5
That's great. The kids sure could use some good news about the tank after all of this. Should I have your empty containers waiting at the office for you?
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 12, 2018 21:28:12 GMT -5
PS. I've linked this forum to the students' Edsby page which we use as our internal email system and so some of them are coming over here to follow along as we post stuff. So if anyone wants to "talk" directly to them, you can do so because some of them will be here reading these comments.
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