I am tank sitting a 10 gallon with 5 Tiger Barbs. This tank is awful......green water, dirty gravel....can hardly see the fish!! I am going to clean it this evening! Should I just bust it down, clean it real good & start over? Can I use some of my goldfish water plus fresh water to restart? I haven't had tropicals in many, many years!

I'd ask first, but small frequent water changes would be best to get it under control. The green water is probably what is keeping them alive since the algae sucks up ammonia directly...that probably means the bio-cycle in the filter is very weak now so you need to be careful and moniter the tank. How long are you fish sitting? Just use a regular gravel vacuum and only suck out water and debris. Try adding some bio-media from your tank after the water clears to help the cycle along, but no need to add your own fish water. If they are on a heater, be sure to unplug it for 5-10 minutes before starting and match temperatures.

I cleaned it over a few days....a little at a time. Now the tank is perfect & pretty. Little spastic Tiger Barbs shooting around. I am keeping it "FOR AWHILE"........no idea how long that might be. They are VERY different than goldies!! My goldies are graceful, smooth swimmers that can be very relaxing to watch!! My husband oftens refers to the Tiger Barbs as "fish on crack"!!

After I got the tank all nice & clean he said, "Hey look..there's FISH in there!"