Quarantine tank

[Wolv18]

Hey I have a quarantine tank that's been set up for a a little over a month. I set it up for a couple of wrasses at petco, but before I could pick them up petco killed them. So I left it set up in hopes to get some other wrasse but I haven't found any I like at the stores.

So the tank was running for about 2 to 3 weeks empty until I got tired of wasting electricity and unplugged everything in the tank. My question is how long does it take for water to go stagnant and how can I tell if it is stagnant.

[scooter31707]

IMO, you should use frest saltwater and clean everything out and maybe start over. Clean your filter out with the old water, maybe there is still some bacteria left.

[Spar]

if you never added any organics (food, fish, snails, macro algae, seeded bacteria, etc, etc) then it should be just fine. however, if any of that was added, then the water is highly likely bad already. bacteria starts to die off in just 4 hours, and significantly dies off in 24 hours.

how large of a tank are you dealing with? I agree with scooter that it is a much safer solution to just wipe it down and start over.

does the water look clear?

[Wolv18]

Yeah the water looks fine doesn't smell or anything. The only thing that I added was a filter sponge I had in my display the tanks sump Also it's a 20 gallon tall.

[Spar]

Yeah the water looks fine doesn't smell or anything. The only thing that I added was a filter sponge I had in my display the tanks sump Also it's a 20 gallon tall.

even the small amount of waste/organics from the filter sponge could have spoiled the water enough to impact the fish. now, had you continued to turn the water (pumps, etc), it would still be fine (salinity and other parameters permitting).

it is only 20g's, so at least you aren't out much salt mix... heck, i do 5g daily water changes + what I use for my TTM procedures...