Broken Filter! Help!

[lym]

My filter has just broken, I don't have a spare so the earliest I can buy one is tomorrow morning. Will my tank be ok for about 16 hours?? And is there anything I should do?

 

[Scrappaman]

It's quite possible that it's fish specific (Can anyone else help with that?) but when we had an earthquake here and the power was knocked out I just maintained the water movement on the surface to allow aeration, just manually moving the water surface every 30 odd minutes I would imagine will be fine, but as I say some fish may have specific needs so do what I've said until you get more info.

Good luck.

 

[lym]

I can't exactly stay up all night to keep moving the water though can I? And if I can't get a filter tomorrow, it might even be a few days until I can.

 

[Scrappaman]

No I agree that would be a little difficult, however it may have to do as a temporary fix. Hopefully someone else will shed some light on it?

 

[WILDER]

Do you have an airstone.
If not small water changes every few hours.

 

[for_my_fish]

wothout knowing what fish you have or what size tank. All I can suggest is to not feed the fish till you get the new filter.

Also I'd expect some kind of amonia spike etc when you add the new filter (even if you transfer the media) as theres been no water flowing through the meda for almost a day. If you haven't already, then make sure you have a test kit for amonia, nitrite and (less importantly) nitrate. Feed your fish sparingly and keep an eye on the test results.

 

[Tolak]

Take a cheap plastic cup, and punch some holes in the bottom. Clip or clamp this to the rim of the tank inside so it is in the water. Put your filter media in it, and every hour or so pour some water through it. The cup is your filter, you are the pump.

 

[lym]

Right I now have a new filter, I've put a bit of the old media inside the new one. How long should I leave this inside? Is there anything else I should do? Also if I start to see Ammonia and Nitrites do I just do daily water changes until they go down?

 

[vinylman]

Put as much of the old filter material in the new one as you can - it'll still be more effective than brand new filter material. Swap it for the new filter material very gradually over the coming weeks.

 

[lym]

Put as much of the old filter material in the new one as you can - it'll still be more effective than brand new filter material. Swap it for the new filter material very gradually over the coming weeks.

Yes I already did that yesterday

Tested the water today...

0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
10 Nitrate


So I'm guessing the switch to the new filter went ok?

 

[vinylman]

Looks like it, but keep an eye on the water stats for the next week or so, just in case.