Help! Cant Stabilize My Aquariums After Power Cut

[lilgem]

I’m new to posting although I have spent lots of time reading these forums since starting my tropical fish hobby 6 months ago and have found lots of useful advice.

Basically I have two set ups;

Tank one
Fluval Uno 500 with a Fluval Plus 2 Filter (probably over kill)
Living plants one piece of conditioned driftwood.

Stock - 7 Guppies, 1 Fighter and 3 albino corydoras all except the fight about ½ inch the fighter is an inch

Tank two

Older 30gal tank with fluval plus 3 filter
70% live plants with driftwood and man made ornaments

Stock - 5 angels (small) 2 dwarf gouramis (small) 2 three sport gouramis (medium) 1 fighter, 3 peppered corydoras (medium) and 3 bristle nosed catfish

I’ve never had a problem with either of them until two weeks ago we had an overnight power cut, I came downstairs to find the power was still out and by the rate my freezer had defrosted it had been out all Night. The two tanks were in a state clouded over fish gasping at surface.

Nitrite 5.00
Ammonia 2.00

Did a water change 75%, got levels down to 0.25 nitrite 0.25 ammonia

Two weeks later still having problems have to do daily 50% water changes to keep the levels down to 0.25 each if I leave it for 24 hours it spikes back to 5 nitrite and 2+ ammonia

My mum said I may have wiped out my bacteria base,

Is this a possibility, I’ve treated the aquariums with Nutrafin Cycle to promote growth, used aquarium salt and ammonia chips in the filter, have I missed anything, should I continue with the water changes

Please any advise welcome im really pulling my hair out

 

[rdd1952]

A power outage generally won't wipe out the bacteria unless the filters dry out (more a problem with bio-wheels). I have accidentall left my filters unplugged for over 12 hours with no harmful effects at all. Since you are getting nitrite, you obviously have bacteria processing tha ammonia. Rather than having a bacteria problem, it sounds more like you hava dead fish in the tanks that are rotting and creating a large amount of ammonia that your bacteria can't handle. And since there are other bacteria that break down dead things, they may be using so much oxygen that your bacteria colony can't reproduce as it should.

I would continue the water changes and stop using the ammonia chips and the aquarium salt. The chips are removing the ammonia which will prevent the bacteria from being able to catch back up and may result in more bacteria loss as they have nothing to feed on. You would be better off with a product like Ammo-Lock that makes the ammonia non-toxic. I'm not certain what effect the salt would have but it may not be good for your corys and catfish as salt usually burns their skin.

Just continue daily (or twice daily) water changes but I would cut the amount to 25 to 30 percent twice a day rather than the large change once a day. The large water changes could actually stress the fish more than the ammonia and nitrite.

 

[lilgem]

Thank you,

Will get some ammonia lock tomorrow.

should i continue to treat with cycle and tap safe?

also in your experiance how long do you think it will take to stabilize or is it a piece if string type situation.

Thank you again for your advice

 

[rdd1952]

You need the dechlorinator which I assume is the Tap Safe but I think the bacteria products like Cycle are pretty much useless. It takes the nitrifying bacteria about 24 hours to double itself. And that is dependent on pH and water temperature. Bacteria multiply faster at higher temps and pH levels (but don't try to adjust either as that would cause even more problems). This link has some pretty good info on how they are related.

 

[Jozlyn]

Of the track a bit, but is your Betta (fighter) a male? If it is, you need to move him out as he'll eventually start fighting with the guppies and he'll shred them, and yes I know "they're all getting along just fine at the moment" that's exactly what everyone says until they get up one morning and find dead fish

Edit> You also need to take the Betta out of your other tank as well as they're sort of related to Gourami (both being labarinth fish species) and will fight eventually as well.

 

[lilgem]

Hi Jozlyn

Thanks for you advice, don't mind it being off topic, im always open to surgestions.

I sometimes wonder if there are any desent aquatics shops in my area any more, before purchasing the fighters (both of which are Male) we consulted the 'trained' attendent. I had noticed one of the fighters chasing my guppies around and thought this normal , needless to say both are on thier way to more suitabe homes lol

Thankyou again

LG