karin
Fish Herder
Some of you saw my last post, sudden cloudy water on a mature tank, nitrite spike, fish gasping.
End of the story is that my Eheim 2215 crashed in terms of output and I think it took most of my biofilter off-line. I have an HOB on the tank too but I guess it could not support the tank by itself and while the ammonia stayed at 0 my nitrites went as high as 2-5ppm. Took me 24 hours to get the Eheim working again. I lost all the amano shrimp to the nitrite spike but all the fish and the snails made it. I hope that they have not sustained permanent damage.
Lesson's learned:
When shrimp start acting weird, coming out during the day time or going to the top of the tank, take note, water test and examine your filters. Water changes of course.
Have spare filter housing that matches the size of your filters. I had an extra aquaclear 20 and grabbed filter media from the eheim but something bigger would have helped. Thank god that I really didn't lose the biofilter in the Eheim, ammonia and nitrite back to normal.
I'm beginning to wonder if having the eheim under the tank in the cabinet risks filter failure. I'm beginning to think that it compromises the pump action?
Never ever be without a python. 4-5 80% water changes in 24 hours.... the python is life saving.
I still have not solved the Ph drop (From a steady 8 to 7.4) and the bacterial slime is all over the tank. Yuck. More water changes to help disperse that.
Learn from my mistakes.
End of the story is that my Eheim 2215 crashed in terms of output and I think it took most of my biofilter off-line. I have an HOB on the tank too but I guess it could not support the tank by itself and while the ammonia stayed at 0 my nitrites went as high as 2-5ppm. Took me 24 hours to get the Eheim working again. I lost all the amano shrimp to the nitrite spike but all the fish and the snails made it. I hope that they have not sustained permanent damage.
Lesson's learned:
When shrimp start acting weird, coming out during the day time or going to the top of the tank, take note, water test and examine your filters. Water changes of course.
Have spare filter housing that matches the size of your filters. I had an extra aquaclear 20 and grabbed filter media from the eheim but something bigger would have helped. Thank god that I really didn't lose the biofilter in the Eheim, ammonia and nitrite back to normal.
I'm beginning to wonder if having the eheim under the tank in the cabinet risks filter failure. I'm beginning to think that it compromises the pump action?
Never ever be without a python. 4-5 80% water changes in 24 hours.... the python is life saving.
I still have not solved the Ph drop (From a steady 8 to 7.4) and the bacterial slime is all over the tank. Yuck. More water changes to help disperse that.
Learn from my mistakes.
