dirty tank

Question
my 3yr old son got ahold of the fish food and dumped half the container in the tank. there is a large amount of it collected on the bottom and water is really murky. is it ok to leave it or should i change the water? if i should change it how much at one time.

Answer
Hi Dustin
Well, at least it was fish food.  I've heard stories of kids dumping in cans of pop/soda because they "thought the fish was thirsty" lol.  

Yes, definitely remove it immediately.  It'll cause the ammonia to rise, pretty bad.  Use your siphon/gravel vac and vacuum up as much as you can.  If you can't get it all in one shot, which I'm sure you won't, you can safely change out 50% of the water, again trying to get as much food as you can.  Let it settle, then tomorrow do some more-even if you need to do another 50%.  Hopefully that should be enough.  Also scrub out your filter pads in a bucket of the used tank water.  Be sure to monitor your ammonia levels too for awhile.

Good luck!!

Christy

PS Forgot to add, probably be safe not to feed them for a few days as well :)