Been At This For A Year Now.

[AlphaFish1000]

So I decided I wanted some fish, and than decided that this would be a budget fish thing. I have a five gallon tank, with a Whisper 10 filter using cartriges. I decided to start out with platys after letting my tank run for a few weeks. I bought 3 from petland, (one male, two female, as I was suggested to do.) Within a few months one female died from starvation because the other two fish were pigs. In June (I bought the tank in January) the remaining female gave birth, right after the male fish died, (one fish left now.) The female fish had a whole lot of little ones, but most of them died because I didn't realize the female fish was pregnant, and I did a water change. Soon all the "premature" little ones died. Somehow... the female fish became pregnant, or gave birth to the remaining fry and they two survived. The female fish than died more or less in October, when I moved houses, with the two remaining fry survining. One of the fry died on the 24th of December and the other one has survived.

Now the one left surviving is seeming pretty sick. Swimming a top of tank at wierd angles and sittiing against the glass. I figured it was dead and tryed to extract it out of the tank but it swimmed, slowly, away. I really don't want to take a living fish out of the tank, yet is looks so terrible just to see this young, normally active fish just sitting there, not asking for food or anything.

I do water changes every 2 weeks. Filter every few months (I regularly check it, after the recommended 3-4 weeks its still perfect). There is some algae build up on the glass and a good amount of "sludge" or bacteria on the biological part of the filter. I don't know what my ph or any of those levels are...any help here would be greatly appreciated. BTW, the last remaining female fish I think died of old age. Also, when the fish started to die from unknown causes after october I had added two sea shells, (well cleaned) to the tank, would this cause problems?

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there Alpha and welcome to TFF!

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It may be that you've been losing too much of your biological filter if you've been periodically changing out cartridges in your filter.

How do you feel about your knowledge of the "Nitrogen Cycle?" This might be a great time to review/learn this basic information if you've not encountered it before. Look in our pinned articles at the top of the "New to the Hobby" forum here and look for Beginner's Resource Center and then look for articles by Miss Wiggle and AlienAnna. If I'm remembering right, there is discussion there about the nitrogen cycle.

I think there's a very good chance you've just missed a bunch of really helpful things in the hobby that beginners need. This forum is great at directing you to this learning and at answering your questions as you go along learning it. Once you understand the basics of the nitrogen cycle it will help you see why a test kit is important and once you have that tool you can begin to practice a number of skills that it helps with.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum AlphaFish. Your sea shell will tend to raise the pH of your water and increase the water's hardness. There is no saying what has happened to your fish because we really have no information to judge it. Today, on the other hand, you could give us the chemistry readings on your tank. What are your test results for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH? This may give us a clue about what has been happening to your platies and why they are not thriving. I have platies that are well over a year old and show no signs of any slowing or old age. I doubt that your fish have died of age but may have been damaged by your original method of getting your tank ready for fish. If you just added fish after a few weeks of circulating water, the fish were probably exposed to high ammonia levels which can cause them trouble later in life. Please get back to us with water parameters and we will help where we can.

 

[AlphaFish1000]

well, maybe I should go buy a test kit first, a fairly important item now. The best I can say now is that the water in the tank is really clear of floating particles, the filter is moving a lot of water around (the fake plants are swaying in the areas of current.) If my fish is still alive tomorrow I will buy a test kit, if it isn't Ill buy one on sale....

 

[waterdrop]

well, maybe I should go buy a test kit first, a fairly important item now. The best I can say now is that the water in the tank is really clear of floating particles, the filter is moving a lot of water around (the fake plants are swaying in the areas of current.) If my fish is still alive tomorrow I will buy a test kit, if it isn't Ill buy one on sale....

Hi Alpha!

Having particle-free clear water and good visible flow shows you that the mechanicle filtration function of your filter is working. That's good, its one of the three functions of a filter. The second function, chemical filtration, is optional: carbon is the most common media of this type and like other chemical media, you don't need it on a regular basis. Its better to just put it in when its function is needed. The third function of a filter is "biological" and its this one that you need the test kit for. You can't tell much about how this function is working with the naked eye, you need to measure the chemicals and water parameters involved in the process.

The most important thing about your test kit choice is that it be liquid-based and not paper test strips. The test strips are just not good enough for the function. Many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. This kit has the essential tests we need: ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3). Figuring out the pH is divided between two test bottles, one if the pH turns out to be lower, the other one if its a higher pH. Another test kit that people report working well is the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit.

Regardless of which kit, it is important for the beginner to record frequent results in their aquarium logbook, so they can look back and find a trend in the numbers. This is more important than an invidual set of readings. In fact, being able to look back and find the dates/times of any significant thing that happens or is observed by you in your aquarium is invaluable.

Its handy to get a couple of small syringes that have measurement numbers on them to go along with your test kit. They make it easier and faster to fill the test tubes with the right amount of water or put the right amount of ammonia in the aquarium if you are fishless cycling.

Another thing to do for your "reset" with the hobby is for you to review what types of media (the sponges, ceramics, cartridges, carbon, floss... whatever) that are in your filter and work on that with the members to see if its ideal for your situation or whether you want to think about changes. If the last fish doesn't make it and you decide to fishless cycle, this can be a particularly good time to make these adjustments. Fishkeepers often customize the media in their filters rather than use what the manufacturers give them.

OK, good luck!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[AlphaFish1000]

Well, unfortunate my last fish has died, I was able to keep a tank alive for a good year, but that isn't a great thing to be proud of. I just have to find the body of the last fish, (they are hard to find) and put the fake plants back in their places in the tank and maybe rearrange a few things for a different look. I am currently using a three step filter cartridge, with carbon, mechanical floss and a sponge for bacteria to grow on (which is full of stuff, I don't know if its bacteria.) Ill post a pic of my tank tomorrow, and buy a one the two recommended test kits when they are on sale. Im sticking to this hobby, I like fish and they are amusing to watch, when they are alive...

 

[OldMan47]

AlphaFish, leave the body in the tank until you can get the test kit. It will decompose and produce ammonia that will keep any bacteria in your filter alive.

 

[AlphaFish1000]

Thanks for the tip, I would have taken it out if I hadn't known that.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi AlphaFish,

With the loss of your last fish it sounds like you now have the opportunity to try putting into practice some of the new things to be learned here on the beginners section. OM47 has got you started keeping the ammonia coming to hopefully help with any fishless cycling that your tank/filter still needs.

In my opinion a "reset" like this is a good time to examine and possibly optimize your filter media. While carbon will serve as an anchor for bacteria, just like sponge, and thus serve partly a biological function, it is really meant as a chemical media and is good at removing medications, tannins and things. My personal opinion is that because it slowly crumbles and breaks down, its better not to use it as a biological media.

So I'm suggesting at this point you replace that carbon cartridge with something else. Now whether that should be another sponge or some ceramics or what.. would be something we might best decide by finding another member familiar with your particular filter possibly. I mean you could just get a second sponge exactly like the one you have and double that good biological media, but I'm suggesting there might be a sponge of a different pore size or some other further "tweaking" that might be better still. Let the members know the exact filter model and let's see if we get any suggestions...

(Or maybe they'll just think I'm being too picky, lol... if so just let us know, members!)

Anyway, we also need for you to find the right type of pure household ammonia if you haven't already got that and of course the test kit and then we can begin to figure out what stage your (hopefully improved) filter is at as far as growing the right two types of bacteria and being correctly cycled.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[AlphaFish1000]

`

 

[AlphaFish1000]

Ok first thing, exact details on the filter,

1.) Model : Whisper Power Filter 10
2.) Filled : With a cartidge know as a Imagine Bio 3 (I do have some experience without catridges, I just like the experience of the catridge refill, but if it would be better for the tank, Ill switch to custom"
3.) Sponges : Filter came with a sponge, has about 1mm by 1mm pores, about a cm. thick this sponge is black
Sponge included with the cartidge is extremely fine, too small to measure. this sponge is blue and is about a 0.5 cm thick

I notice there is quite a bit of white material (I think its calcium?) around the edges of the filter and sponges.

Here's a pic or four

Image 4
Image 3
Image 2
Image One

 

[OldMan47]

I have been looking at your pictures. The white stuff is probably a calcium buildup. It isn't hurting anything but is not very pretty. I would remove it by using a scrubber until the deposit was fairly thin and then use some vinegar to eat away at the last of it. Getting it off your sponge would be more of a challenge because you don't want to lose your bacterial colony by letting the sponge dry out or soaking it in vinegar.
If the back cartridge can be replaced by a holder of some sort that you fill yourself, you could use some ceramic noodles in that area to improve the biological filtration. Another option would be to custom cut a sponge filter to fit that area but I don't know what you could do to hold it right where you would want it. You will want to leave some space behind whatever material you put in there.
As WD said, a small supply of pure ammonia and a test kit are probably the next priority so that you can get the dead fish out of the tank and find out where your cycle is. The test kit will be especially important if you start replacing filter media.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm confused. What is actually in the "Imagine Bio 3" cartridge? I can see from the pictures that there is the edge of a sponge but then I can't tell whether there are 2 slide-in cartridges behind that or just one.

It makes sense that the sponge edge closest to the tank is the coarse black one, which would mean it handles mechanical filtration on larger particles and is a good biological surface. Is/are the cartridge(s) just the blue sponge or is it blue sponge that holds carbon or zeolite or something?

Also I'm confused about the flow direction of the filter. In what sequence does water pass through the media we're seeing?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

A typical cheap HOB filter flows from back to front. The water path is in through the tube on the right, through the impeller, left to the back of the left chamber and forward to eventually overflow out the flat area on the left side. My guess was that the cartridge you are talking about was the one typically filled with small quantities of carbon. That is the pattern of most whisper and similar cheap filters.

 

[waterdrop]

OK, that sounds plausible (my HOBs from years past were usually ACs, so the flow went up through the media bottom to top and then flowed over, so didn't want to assume too much about Whisper.) Interesting then that the coarse sponge is at the front, where it would be the last thing the water flows through. That would not seem to make best use of the larger pore size to catch larger particles first as in most designs.

Anyway, I have a question OM47: I've always wondered whether there would be enough active biomedia left if an owner really did pull the middle cartridge on a filter like this the way the manufacturers recommend and replace it with a new one. It seems like such a large total percentage of the media in there. What do you think? Do you suppose the amount of bacteria on just that coarse sponge that is left in would be enough continuity?

~~waterdrop~~