Idiot! Help Please...

[Meady]

I've been an idiot.

I had a lovely little tank setup that was starting to look drab, so the missus and I went shopping yesterday for new substrate and a few new fish.

We removed the old substrate, put in the new and cleaned the filter.

Today the tank has gone cloudy and my partner noticed all the fish swimming at the top and two have died about half hour ago, I have now changed around 30% of the water and they are all back swimming down in the tank but I don't know what else I should be doing or how often I now need to change the water etc...

I should have read up on substrate change clearly as I didn't think at all about the bacteria levels when I changed it and now it seems I am in a fish-in cycle, which is bad, I've had some of these fish for a few years and clearly don't want to lose any more...

Please help any advise will be greatly appreciated. I'm off to search some more for answers...

Regards

~James

 

[shelaghfishface]

welcome to my world

hi James.. you need to keep doing water changes ( what size is the tank) changing the gravel wont have annoyed the bacteria..washing the filter would have.. how did you do that?
remember to match the temp closly and declorinate the water going back in .. have you got an air pump? ( i sometimes notice lethargic fish can respond to this)

ps there is no such thing as too many water changes.. but i assume you have a water testing kit? if so leave an hour in between each chnage and then test again.. repeat if you need to if ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and you Hvae a nirtrAte reading then you should be good to go

 

[kaivalagi]

I too have just come a cropper with a mini-cycle, due to a couple of things I think

1) Had old (internal) and new (external) filter running for a week together, then put old media into new filter and ran solo for a week (levels okay)
2) Bought 6 new fish last Friday, 3 oto and 3 peppered cory (fish happy)

I did a water test late Saturday night and found Ammonia at approx 3 mg/l, Sunday morning (with little sleep) I did a 60-70% water change, and then 20-25% on days 2 and 3 (3 being this afternoon)

From what I have found out it's just keep-a-going with the water changes until the Ammonia and Nitrite tests turn out the way they should...the estimate is that it's all over by the weekend *fingers crossed*

Hope that helps you, this is my first time and it's not nice when all your lovely fish are at risk, I have 2 almost adult firemouth cichlids that may well pair up which are my main concern

 

[Meady]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply...

I have tested the water and have a slight nitrite reading and a slight nitrate reading, so it would seem that the cycle is well in, but not fully established.

I simply clean the filter by removing the sponges and washing them under the tap, but I found out yesterday (after having the tank a year off my in-laws) that the filter has two darn separate filter parts, one part holds 3 sponges and the other holds two deeper down at the bottom of the filter, and yes, I cleaned them all like a proper plonker!

I have not been able to dechlorinate properly due to lack of time since this all happened and have not got any of the required treatment but I will get some ASAP tomorrow, I just want to make sure my fishes get through the night!!!

Should I also get some beneficial bacteria from the shop and some filter aid???

Many thanks

 

[Meady]

kaivalagi - Thanks for your post. Glad you seem to have it under control!!!

I will keep doing water changes, I guess my saving grace will be that at least 'some' of the beneficial bacteria will be in the filter from the old water that was in the tank, I just lost a two year old chichlid when this happened, absolutely gutted!!! and four of the new livebearers I bought yesterday and a neon tetra and an orange lined tetra

Does anyone know why the water is cloudy? why isn't the filter removing the 'cloud'??? do I need to do anything for this? (see filter aid question above)

Again thanks for help peeps

 

[ian]

the water cloudyness is probably a mixture between the substrate and the filter, it should clear. Is there no way of getting some mature media from somewhere?

 

[Meady]

I know a guy with a tank, how would i go about adding mature media? simply expel one of his sponges onto one from my own filter?

Just noticed that even after a 30% water change the fish are starting to go back to the top so I've just changed another two large buckets of water (around 15%) and will dso another very soon one it has mixed a bit...

So annoyed with myself for this. What a cockup...

 

[coldcazzie]

Hi James,

Your mini cycle has been caused by washing the filter parts under the tap - your tap water has chlorine in it which is toxic to the bacteria which live in your filter media. In addition - by not adding dechlorinator and putting the water straight into your tank, this will also kill off the bacteria and may alsogo some way to explaining why your fish are behaving strangely!

Dechlorinator is essential if you don't have time to leave the water out to dechlorinate of it's own accord overnight (or similar ammount of time). If you're wanting to do some large water changes (which you will have to considering you have little to no bacteria in your filter, so no waste processing going on) then I would say fill your buckets now and let the water sit, and then once you have done the water change fill them again and let them sit so that whne you do your next one the chlorine has gassed off by itself.

The filter aid stuff is mostly just wasted money - it doesn't really contain any helpful bacteria as the bacteria which colonise your filter and process waste need oxygen and flowing water to survive - neither of which you can get in a sealed bottle on a shop shelf! As previously suggested you would be much better getting some mature media from another tank.

If you have a friend with a tank then ask nicely if you can take one of his filter sponges (obviously buy hima new one to replace it!) and put it in your filter - you may have to cut it up to do so. Try to make sure that the water flowing through your filter flows through his sponge first, or cut it up so that you can put bits of his filter media throughout your filter sponges.

You'll want to read up on fish-in cycling, and be prepared to do a lot of water changes. You don't have to cause your fish harm if you do plenty of testing and water changing until your filter matures again. Also, cut back on feeding until your cycled - your fish wont be harmed by this and less food in = less poo out!!

Finally - as someone else said the cloudyness is probably just your new substrate - did you clean it before you put it in the tank? Even if you did, that's still probably the cause so just wait it out. Eventually the motion of your filter will clean the water.

And next time - remember to wash your filter sponges in old tank water, not under the tap

 

[Meady]

Thanks Coldcazzie, great reply. Cheers

I am in a bit of a situation regarding the water changes, in that I have no option to dechlorinate tonight, well I have some old dechlorinator there but didn't know whether to use it as its past its use by date, and the fish need fresh water now. So i've had little choice but to change it. Lots of it.

I will go and buy some good dechlorinator tomorrow and just hope the fish survive tonight now... They are looking happier fish now, but seeing how quick the levels must have spiked earlier has me somewhat weary.

and yes i'll remember to only wash the filter in old tank water in future that said, i've never had a problem until now, but probably as I;d never cleaned the bottom sponges... and it's a practise i used to do!?!

thanks again to all

 

[kiriyama]

Was gonna advise on "borrowing" a sponge but see Coldcazzie has advised, if the fish are lethargic and at the top, are they gasping for air? Can you turn the filter up to cause more surface agitation, turn lights out to "de-stress" , depending on the fish, can you remove the hood (just trying to think of ways to get more oxygen in) , air pump (sheilagh(spelling?)),,, I had this problem a while ago , not by washing the filter in tap water but by stirring up the substrate and releasing some toxic gasses , lost 8 out of 11 Lemon tetras in 2 days. Is there any smell from your tank? Eggy? Future referance for the substrate is bung in a couple of Malysian Trumpet Snails to stir up the sand and prevent any pockets of gas, they are always going free on this forum....Hope you get it sorted.....

 

[theshadowinc]

Here are some tips, and some methods I have used many times.

You can use the water from someones mature filter canister, take a cup or two waste and all from the filter canister and pour that directly into the tank that is in a mini cycle or in a fish in cycle. I have seen this help tanks as quick as 2-3 days in completing the cycle.

Best way is getting ahold of a sponge or rings from someone elses cycled system already try and get 1/3 of there media if possible.

I am sure we have all done this sometime in our life weather it be change substrate and hit a mini cycle or just not thinking lets wash the filters out under the sink lol, even I have done this not really thinking about it, all this means is more work for you because now you have to do ALOT of water changes.....

we live we learn, i guess lesson learned here

GL keep us updated