Cloudy Water, Nitrites Off Chart

[tenohfive]

Cloudy water, fish gasping for air - one found dead so far. Ammonia 0, nitrites 5. About to do a big water change.

Rio 180 with 2 eheim pro externals and a fluval 4+ internal. Eheims making noises recently, maybe unrelated. Putting out a tiny amount of flow. New to externals, don't know if the issues with them or something else.

Suspect could be yeast based CO2 mix found way into tank as sounds similar to stories I've heard one here.

Thoughts anyone? Doing big water change now

 

[WILDER]

Yes a big water change and then keep doing water changes over the next few days.
You need to increase aeration also.

 

[tenohfive]

Done, moved the filter outlet so its spraying more.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P.
Just keep an eye on the fish.
Good Luck.

 

[tenohfive]

Only reason I found out this evening instead of the morning was because I feel like crap and wanted a bucket next to the bed.

Glad im sick now.

 

[WILDER]

Hope you feel better soon.
My cat just been sick aswell.

 

[tenohfive]

That time of year.

Just finished a 40% water change and adjusted the internal to get more surface agitation, will pop a bubbler in there as well for good measure.

Is it worth moving as many fish as I can catch and putting them in other tanks overnight until I do another 40% water change in the morning, or will the stress of the move (given they all moved in within the last couple of weeks) be detrimental? Trying to work out which is the lesser of the two evils.

 

[waterdrop]

Were you giving the externals a clean once a month? With two you could clean one at the middle of the month and the other at the end of the month. You want to clean the blue sponge and white pad by squeezing lightly in tank water that's in a bucket. Then you dunk each tray of biomedia that same bucket of tank water and swish it around some. Then you dump the contents of the filter box out, put the media back in and fill it right away with more fresh tank water. This is usually done in the middle of a water change / gravel clean of the tank. Each time you clean an external filter it is a good habit to vasaline the main o-ring between the filter box and the pump head and the o-rings that seal the input/output tubes to the pump head. That's so the silicone rubber seal won't dry out and crack over time. When you get the externals pumping again, you need to pick up the cannister body (gently, while its running) and tilt it (a little less than 45 degrees from upright) and give it gentle shakes as you do this and there will be air bubbles that will become dislodged from the media and have a chance to be pumped out by your tilting. After this the cannister filter should be totally silent.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tenohfive]

I've only had the externals two weeks - I rehomed the tank, fish, plants and gear so I've been letting things settle down.

I opened one of the filters up last night (before I posted on here) and the filter wool at the top wasn't gunked up - it was in pretty good condition, not clean but not bad. I didn't go below that level because I don't really know what I'm doing.

Going to stick a post in Tropical Discussion to try and work out why the externals are putting out such a low output when I get the chance - I'm in no rush though as the Fluval 4+ is enough to run the tank on its own. Want to sort the current problem first then worry about that later.

About to do my 3rd 40% water change in 24 hours, still got high nitrite readings.

Forgot to add, cheers for the tip on tilting it - I'll try that tomorrow.