Cleaned Fluval 403

[ChrisChrisChris]

Hi,

Just cleaned my fluval 403 which hasn't been cleaned for YEARS. It was covered in black dirty slime everywhere, absolutely filthy which i rubbed off all the plastic container stacks using fish tank water which i had just siphoned from my tank whilst cleaning some junk out of the tank.

I took apart all the containers, cleaned the gunk off then took out the sponges and rinsed the black gunk off all of those so the sponges went from black to a more spongey(but still dark/dirty) colour.

I also rinsed the black gunk from the biomax (which hula hoops).

I then noticed the bottom compartment contained charcol powder (which was put in years ago in bags, but they seem to have decentegrated into nothing so charcol was loose everywhere). I threw this all away and put my filter back together whilst ensuring the motor was also cleaned (removed plastic cover, cleaned in, placed it back).

My fluval now works 3-4x faster and the water is pouring out at a very high rate.

I'm just worried about the bacteria, would of 'held on tight' during the clean or have i lost it?
Also how will i know if i have or not?

My tank is around 140litres (4ft long), i have 2 guppys and 1 ill plec so not much of a 'biological load' on it.

Thank you.

 

[Curiosity101]

Bacteria should be fine. That sounds like my regular BI-monthly filter cleaning tbh. I've had no issues and my stocking is much heavier than yours.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Ah good to hear!
As i'm clearing out my gravel (and siphoning all the settled gunk) it's resulting in large water changes(50-70%!), is this ok providing i dechlorinate the water?

I assume fresh new water isn't a problem to the fish and since its dechlorinated its ok? Or will it be low in ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and hinder bacterial growth?

i suppose my question is "Are huge water changes often a bad thing for fish/bacteria/the tank as a whole".

Not sure what to do if so as the tank is filthy and siphoning the gunk away means losing 'old' tank water?
Should i let the bucket of siphoned water sit/let the gunk settle then pour it back in???
Thanks.

 

[Curiosity101]

Has the tank still got all of the gravel in it that was in the pics?

If so you really only want about a 3rd of the gravel that is currently in there. My suggestion would be to remove around 2/3rd of the gravel (along with probably quite alot of gunk)
And do frequent (2-3days) 20% changes.

Large regular water changes are not advised as technically it can cause shock to the fishes systems with fluctuating pH and poss temp changes.

You shouldn't need to be doing huge water changes really...the tank was old an neglected. But in theory should be fully cycled, just might've been a bit high in nitrates.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

I've taken 90% of the gravel out of the tank as i want to seperate the smaller "natural" smaller gravel, from the horrid multicoloured white/orange/green larger gravels (hopefully using a collinder - But i shall see).

I was planning to remove the last 10% of the gravel (and the old unused underwater filter tray) now then leave the gunk to settle and siphon it off.

Then either add some new water, or leave it at the low(40-50%) level and treat the fish for finrot using less medication than i would require (Interpret number 8 finrot and fungus) now there is no charcol in the filter (just sponge and biomax).

Does this sound wise?

 

[Curiosity101]

Considering the stocking I'd keep it at 60% (just cause plecs are ridiculously messy fish)

But other than that that it sound like a perfect plan.

Have you actually had the plec diagnosed? I wouldn't go putting any medication in without a diagnosis.

PM 'Wilder' and tell her all the plecs symptoms. Hopefully she wont mind, and she's AMAZING when it comes to diagnosing fish problems and giving advice on how best to treat them.

 

[mattlee]

Hi,

Just cleaned my fluval 403 which hasn't been cleaned for YEARS. It was covered in black dirty slime everywhere, absolutely filthy which i rubbed off all the plastic container stacks using fish tank water which i had just siphoned from my tank whilst cleaning some junk out of the tank.

I took apart all the containers, cleaned the gunk off then took out the sponges and rinsed the black gunk off all of those so the sponges went from black to a more spongey(but still dark/dirty) colour.

I also rinsed the black gunk from the biomax (which hula hoops).

I then noticed the bottom compartment contained charcol powder (which was put in years ago in bags, but they seem to have decentegrated into nothing so charcol was loose everywhere). I threw this all away and put my filter back together whilst ensuring the motor was also cleaned (removed plastic cover, cleaned in, placed it back).

My fluval now works 3-4x faster and the water is pouring out at a very high rate.

I'm just worried about the bacteria, would of 'held on tight' during the clean or have i lost it?
Also how will i know if i have or not?

My tank is around 140litres (4ft long), i have 2 guppys and 1 ill plec so not much of a 'biological load' on it.

Thank you.

did you rinse the filter foams and canister trays in tap or tank water? as the tap water still contains chlorine that wont do the bacteria much good..... agree with curiosity 101 with advice from wilder she helped me no ends with a problem i recently had, she seems very patient......

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

I used fish tank water in the bucket to clean it all, although the water had sat for a while so may have cooled down a little.

Well the fins are "eaten away" and the plec has this white slimey covering, not as fluffy as cotton wool more like gunky white stuff which ive read can be a secondary disease after fin rot.

Pics of plec, not great ones...
http/img54.imageshack.us/img54/5648/plecill2.jpg
http/img383.imageshack.us/img383/9191/illplec.jpg