Disaster Would Strike...

[Flute]

Just had a phone call from my parents telling me that my filter has packed up D: I've lost roughly 6 fish in one day, if not more D: I'm in uni, but manage to make it back home at weekends to do water changes, apart from this one weekend. My parents keep an eye on my tanks for me during the week, and feed everyone. Not the best set up unfortunatly, but I'll have the tanks with me full time next year so I'll be able to prevent this happening again hopefully.

Dad has managed to fix the filter and do a water change for me, and is going to do another tomorrow, but I'm not very hopeful. So far lost- 3/5 black widow tetra, 2/2 female guppies, 1(possibly 2)/3 loaches, and god knows what else. Dad says he's going to have to wait for the water to clear to see if any others have died.

Also...some how I have guppie fry in there The females haven't been in contact with males since they were largish fry, and I thought that they were too young to breed, but this was months ago. But yup, they're there, apparently happily swimming around

I hope it was ok to post this, as I'm not specifically asking for advice, but rather just needed to vent. I'm quite upset and very frustrated as I can't sort the tank out when it needs it the most >.< It's been a bit of a disaster for a while now really, as it's unfortunatly become an emergancy holding tank for a number of fish before we get my dad's 42 US gallon tank up and going.

Decided that I have too much in there, specifically 3 large pieces of drift wood and too many plants, so a major over hall is going to be in order when I get home next weekend. Gonna chuck out the drift wood, and get some root like wood from the aquatics down the road to take back with me. D: Apparently it looks like it was plant matter that had blocked the filter.

It's one of these annoying tanks that has the filter attached to the inside, so I can't even replace the thing. I've been wanting to upgrade for ages now, but don't have the money or space and I'm pretty sure my mam wouldn't appreciate it.

I really hope the rest survive, especially my female betta and my corrys.
Again, sorry for the vent, I just felt like I needed to tell someone who knew what it's like, you know? No one has to reply, just needed to get it out there.
Thanks.

 

[Gilli]

Im gutted for you - sods law isnt it - it has to happen when you are not around. I know how you feel , my mature external filter died on me and I had to rush out and buy a new one. Im still waiting for it to be fully seeded despite transferring the media over and am doing daily 25 - 30% water changes and have been for 5 weeks now. Not any easy task on a 250L tank!

Hope the rest of your fish are ok.

 

[Flute]

Oh man, that's horrible. 5 weeks and it's still not taken off properly? I really hope you get it sorted soon. Are externals usually un-reliable?

It's just so frustrating really, mainly because I know my dad will do his best to save the tank, but probably wont realise how big a water change that is desperatly needed. The filter has been acting up for weeks now, and I just knew that something was going to go wrong this week whilst I was away D:

I'll be phoning home again tomorrow to see if any other of my fish didn't make it through Not hopeful for the embers or neons to survive though, which is sad because they are so close to going to a nice new and much bigger home in my dads tank D: The embers especially seem very delicate. Very shocked that so many of my black widows died really- they seemed so hardy- I've not had any problems or lost any at all over the past year until now, where as I've lost quite a few of the embers and neons

Really not looking forward to going home and seeing what kind of state it is in I'm going to be in a bit of a panic mode to get the tank sorted as quickly as possible for what ever is left *fingers crossed that the rest survive*.

First time this happened to me, and I can definetly say that I have learnt from it. I just hope that it doesn't happen on this scale again.

 

[Gilli]

Externals are supposed to the the Rolls Royce of filters, I think it was just my eternal filterthat was dodgy- it was 2 years old and an Interpet one - the fact that they have stopped making them now probably says it all. I bought a Fluval this time which are supposed to be good so fingers crossed. Lost one of my Panda corys today and im gutted as ive had the 3 of them for 2 years

It sounds like your dad knows what he is doing if he keeps fish himself, I would do a 50% water change and test every day.If you are going to get rid of plants i'd leave it until your water quality is stable again as they will use up the nitrates produced from left-over food and fish excrement.

Buy a new filter as soon as you can to get it seeded cos if the old one konks out again you might be left up the creek without a paddle like I was!