i know all about the tank has to recycle again in everything but angelfish are very hardy and i am planning on buying one angelfish tomorrow but i have to clean the tank completely cuz it is a mess so i have about 10 hours before i get the fish so would the angelfish survive the recycled 100% water change? thanks for any help

Angels in my experience are the farthest thing from a hardy fish in the world. They are very delicate. I would not put one in a tank that has not been up for at least a month, let alone not even cycled! And one angel needs 30 gallons minimum.

Cycle the tank for 6 weeks, and get different fish. The 20 can hold a juv. angel. But you will need a 30 gallon soon.

pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

No fish should be put through the pain of cycling. The ammonia burns their gills and tortures them. Even the slightest bit of Ammonia will stress the fish out.

Again, I strongly suggest that you do NOT get an angel. It will just die on you. And if it was cycled, you would have to have a 30 gallon minimum on hand.

Owned 5 Angelfish

Theoretically it is possible, if you could avoid disturbing all the bacteria while doing the change, but nobody has ever physically accomplished that.

Angelfish are anything but hardy, doing a complete water change would be very stressful for them, and it would most likely kill the poor fish, Even if it survives the apocalypse, it would have to go through the size being too small for an angelfish. To clean up a filthy aquarium just do regular water changes, get a filter that is designed for around 30 gallon aquariums, and use a gravel siphon to keep the substrate clean, and last but not least, glass cleaner :) pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
You can get them magnetic where you just clip one side to the outside of the tank and the other on the inside and you just slowly glide it around the glass from the outside, its a simple procedure really, just time consuming.

A 20 gallon is too small for an angel in the first place.

The replacing of 100% of the water is not an issue as long as it is dechlorinated and of a temperature similar to what the tank is now, but rising the gravel and replacing the filter will kill a lot of the beneficial bacteria. In which case you are taking a fish that gets too big for that tank, putting it in a non-stable environment, making it suffer through high ammonia during the cycle, and will quickly kill the fish.

Basically none of what you have proposed is advisable.

If you believe they are that hardy go ahead. Do not rinse the gravel/ filter/plants.
If you are going to then just pay attention. Test your water often. once or twice a day to know when spikes are happening and do water changes so you're fish stay alive. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

Good luck :)

yup it can coz i have changed the whole water and still the fish survived.