I Think I Might Have Killed My Filter Media!

[Ilya]

I did a 90% water change this last weekend, and today I checked my ammonia level and it's at .15-.20 ppm. One of my fish is dead, I'm taking it back to the store for a refund. I don't know what to do.

I was planning on doing a water change today.

 

[Fredox]

Were there any other changes to your tank other thn the water change and did you dechlorinate the water? Sorry if these seem like silly questions but information is key to figuring things out.

 

[raptorrex]

I did a 90% water change this last weekend, and today I checked my ammonia level and it's at .15-.20 ppm. One of my fish is dead, I'm taking it back to the store for a refund. I don't know what to do.

I was planning on doing a water change today.

if your ammonia is high the best way to reduce it is to do water changes. but it would be odd if water changes caused the problem, unless as has been stated the water was contaminated. more information on the tank size, total stocking. any other recent deaths, and if you have them the water stats leading up to the problem, is needed imo

 

[benniebru]

y did u do a 90% change any ways? should only be doin like 20% a week. did the filter dry out while ur were doing that? if not then i would say the water got contaminated somehow

 

[Ilya]

My tank was over run with algae. I left the water for 24 hours then I added water conditioner. But I left my filter media in tank water and it might have been sticking out of the water about 25-50%. So I think I might have killed it that way .

 

[indigoj]

That should not have killed off all the media unless it totally dried out.

I would be very concerned about the ammonia though and with ammonia present I know no LFS near me would refund a dead fish.

A 90% water change is very drastic and could cause a lot of stress to your fish.

Water stats, tank size, occupants, new additions any recent problems? etc

 

[Ilya]

I did a moderate water change. And I'm sure Petsmart will refund with ammonia. But I'm going in to get some more water conditioner, and if anything, a solution to my problem.

 

[raptorrex]

My tank was over run with algae. I left the water for 24 hours then I added water conditioner. But I left my filter media in tank water and it might have been sticking out of the water about 25-50%. So I think I might have killed it that way .

having a filter part in part out of the water is no bad thing, wet and dry filters are known to be very good. did you leave the filter switched on while it was in the bucket? and if so was there water flowing through it. filter bacteria does seem to need a constant flow of water to stay alive for any time. just keeping it wet is often not enough.

 

[shang hi]

And I'm sure Petsmart will refund with ammonia

i would have to say they will say.... no to that one.
this is a shop keepers view:
Ammonia is YOUR problem not theirs. i think they will say something like this
"The Ammonia problem was caused by you not taking care of your fish tank. And after a sale of a healthy fish it is yours and no longer in out responsability."
im sure you never intended for this to happen. but look at it from a shops point of view. you (not saying that you did) could of intended to kill the fish because you didn't like it and wanted your money back. (they will do anything not to pay up for it)
if they do give you a refund.. well ide be amazed so good luck at proving me wrong (and im not wrong often... Okay maby a little... Fine, sheash all the time! )

Shang hi

 

[raptorrex]

And I'm sure Petsmart will refund with ammonia

i would have to say they will say.... no to that one.
this is a shop keepers view:
Ammonia is YOUR problem not theirs. i think they will say something like this
"The Ammonia problem was caused by you not taking care of your fish tank. And after a sale of a healthy fish it is yours and no longer in out responsability."
im sure you never intended for this to happen. but look at it from a shops point of view. you (not saying that you did) could of intended to kill the fish because you didn't like it and wanted your money back. (they will do anything not to pay up for it)
if they do give you a refund.. well ide be amazed so good luck at proving me wrong (and im not wrong often... Okay maby a little... Fine, sheash all the time! )
Shang hi

i think you may be right there. though looking at the posts relating to this outlet, and the woefully incorrect fish care info the seem to peddle. it would surprise me if they knew what ammonia was! lol so the OP may be in luck

 

[Neo8223]

y did u do a 90% change any ways? should only be doin like 20% a week. did the filter dry out while ur were doing that? if not then i would say the water got contaminated somehow

Err dude, i do 50% a week and my fish LOVE it! Go to the planted tanks section and click on Estimative index.

As for the Ammonia problem, do frequent 20% water changes as often as you want to lower the ammonia levels. Make sure of 3 things:

1) You treat the water with dechlorinator eg aquasafe.
2) You do not let your water temperature fluctuate more than 1.5 degrees to be on the safe side, so pre-mix some water up in a big CLEAN bucket, warm it up to the tanks temperature and then add it.
3) Your filter is working properly and there is good flow. If not, then remove the media from the filter and attatch an air stone in the middle/below it. Then tomorrow buy another filter.


4) Never do a 90% water change, its too drastic.

I did the biggest schoolboy error a few years ago and lost 3 fish by swapping my filters over to an uncycled one. to fix that, i added some filter media from my dads tank to counter the problem. Worked a treat, so if you have a mate who has a cycled filter, ask for a little bit of his/hers. Dont ask for more than about 1/10th of their filter, otherwise they will have the same problem.

Hope that helps

Paul.

 

[raptorrex]

Neo8223
2) You do not let your water temperature fluctuate more than 1.5 degrees to be on the safe side, so pre-mix some water up in a big CLEAN bucket, warm it up to the tanks temperature and then add it.

that's an interesting theory. one i have never heard before. could you flesh out the reasoning, for me?

 

[Amunet]

Maybe your tank wasn't cycled to begin with?
Are you sure you didn't have any ammonia reading in the tank prior to the water change?

As for petsmart not taking fish back, trust me they will if you bring it back within 14? days of when you bought it.
We've had to get plenty of refunds due to our errors and they've never asked any questions about WHY the fish died.
Same with a store called Superpetz...

Now there is a local fishstore that only gives you 5 days to bring back a dead fish and you have to bring in a water sample with it as well. I dunno why though b/c their own tanks aren't exactly in the greatest conditions :\

 

[Mikaila31]

You said you were returning a fish that had died, how long ago did you get it? If you got it recently, my theory is that your tank was still adjusting to the increased bioload, from the new fish. Which normally wouldn't cause excess ammonia, but with the large water change. You might of lost some of your good bacteria, which is what happens every time we clean our filter and etcetera. Normally this loss isn't a problem and you don't get excess ammonia. So I think that the increase in the bioload from adding the new fish and the large water change which caused you to lose some of your good bacteria, created a gap. Simplified the amount of ammonia your fish produced went up and the amount you filter could handle went down. So you ended up with excess ammonia.

I would do daily water changes and add some prime to get rid of the ammoina. If I'm correct the loss of the new fish means your bioload is back to normal and your filter should catch up quickly.

^ This is only a theory though .