how to clean a fish tank after the death of a new fish

Question
i have a small tank that holds about 3-4L  of water. It has been set up at about a month. In it I have a Betta. The tank  developed alot of algae so I bought a small plecostimus which cleamed the tank up quickly.I bought algae food to suppliment it but it won't eat and it made my tank smelly. I cleaned it up by rincing the tank out with tap water and aquarium salt.Since then the plecostimus got sick so I removed the Betta and the plecostimus has since died. I don't know why but I'm wondering how to clean up the tank so I can put the Betta back in it. Thank you       Anne

Answer
Hi Anne;

It wasn't a disease that killed him so you don't need to do anything special to get it ready for use again. That size tank is only large enough for one betta. Plecostomus get to be 12 inches long and are very messy fish so it just wasn't suited for it. Fish waste toxins built up and he just couldn't survive. Plecos also need good filtration and can't live in a tank without it. Bettas don't even need air bubbles because they gulp air from the top so they are very well suited to that type of environment.

Just rinse it out well and refill. Use a water conditioner too. Change all the water in it every week. You can wipe the inside with a paper towel if you need to remove algae. Keep it in a location away from windows and other strong light sources. Along with growing too much algae, the water can get too hot if sun hits it.


Below are some web pages about bettas you might want to see. You probably know most of the info anyway, but just in case it helps......

http://www.healthybetta.com/Care/page1-general.htm
http://groups.msn.com/TheBettaObsession/
http://www.bettatalk.com/
http://joshday.com/bettafaq.htm
http://www.siamsbestbettas.com/care.html
http://www.mushi.petfish.net/bettapage.html

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins