Pls. Give Me Advise, Fishes Died After Cleaning

[RayBriJordie]

Hello, I have had my 55 gallon tank set up about 5 months now & my cichlids have been fine & happy till I did a water change yesterday. I cleaned out my jebo canister filter & changed some of the pads to new pads, but just rinsed out the carbon and rings with water. Then I also did a 20% water change. I put in Novaqua & some aquarium salt. Then when i checked the tank this morning I noticed that all of my fishes were trying to gasp for air up in the surface, and 3 of my cichlids were already dead, which only left me with 5 fishes (parrot, texas, oscar, catfish & blue lobster). I checked the amonia, it was 0 but the nitrite was at 0.5 ppm. I removed them out of my tank & put them in a 10 gallon tank, since I needed to save them. I did a 50% water change this time & put in Amquel & Novaqua & tested the water again & got a reading of 0 amonia & 0.2 Nitrite. I can not seem to get the Nitrite to get to 0. Pls. help me, I have no idea what to do next & what caused this, im new at fish keeping so any advice will be appreciated. Pls. let me know what I should do, I tried putting them back in my tank, but they continue to go up the surface & looks like they are having a hard time breathing. Is it the Nitrite? How do I get it to 0?

 

[WILDER]

You lost your benefical bacteria by changing the pads.
When changing filter sponges always squeeze the benefical bacteria off the old sponges, onto the new ones. Soak the new sponges first in tank water.
Never changed all the sponges at one.

Also running black carbon all the time is a complete waste of money, It's only good for removing med.
Black carbon only affective for 2 to 9 days and stops working.

Keep doing water changes and increase aeration. Do a 50% water change.
Dont' move the fish from the tank.

What are these used for Amquel & Novaqua

 

[Curiosity101]

You say you rinsed the other media with water? If it was from the tap then there is a chance that not only have you lost some bacteria through switching out pads. But they can be killed by chlorine in the water supply. I know it seems odd seeing as in theory they probably come from the tap water supply, but we've seen cases of huge die back when people wash pads in tap water.

You can't really 'squeeze' the filter bacteria from the old pads onto the new one. Not to give any significant level anyways. Also there's no need to soak them first. But giving them a quick rinse in a bucket of tank water isn't a bad idea if they've been stored somewhere dusty or something.
This is purely to do with changing to much media at once.

Also after 5 months the chances are your pads didn't actually need changing. They only need changing once they are impossible to un clog or are falling apart. To clean them, remove from filter and swish in a bucket of old tank water.

Gotta agree with wilder about the carbon. The length of time it is active corresponds directly to how many substances there are in the water that the carbon can remove. (Just if you were wondering why it often lasts roughly the time wilder listed).

Agree again, get those fish back in the main tank ASAP. Whilever they're not in the main tank the bacteria in the main tanks filter will be dying. It's only slow at first, but you certainly don't want to lose anymore, plus in such a small volume of water and in a presumably uncycled tank (the 10gal) their water will become toxic FAST.

I did some quick googling on the stuff you're adding into the tank...
Novaqua - Good looking water conditioner
Aquarium Salt - Not really neccesary unless you're keeping brackish or saltwater fish (which you obviously aren't) so you don't need to add that in future. It can be used every now and then as topical medication for things like bacterial infections (I think), but that's easily wilders area of expertise.
Amquel - Looks like a very basic water conditioner... so I'm not sure why you used them both together. Out of the two of them I'd probably opt for Novaqua, but you certainly don't need both.

Also just a little thing I noticed...I think your stocking may be asking for trouble long term. I'd definitely suggest you post in general section for a second opinion (if you wanted one that is), but I'm not saying this to be unkind or spoil the hobby for you. It's just that those are some pretty big and relatively agressive cichlids once they begin to mature. I'd be worried that the parrot would get the brunt of the bullying at first... but I doubt that the Oscar and Texas would happily live together in 55gal long term. I don't know enough about the blue lobster to really comment, but going on some of the other crustaceans, mixing with fish often doesn't go well.

 

[RayBriJordie]

You lost your benefical bacteria by changing the pads.
When changing filter sponges always squeeze the benefical bacteria off the old sponges, onto the new ones. Soak the new sponges first in tank water.
Never changed all the sponges at one.

Also running black carbon all the time is a complete waste of money, It's only good for removing med.
Black carbon only affective for 2 to 9 days and stops working.

Keep doing water changes and increase aeration. Do a 50% water change.
Dont' move the fish from the tank.

What are these used for Amquel & Novaqua

Hi Wilder, Thanks so much for Replying, I been checking here for any replies since I posted. Amquel & Novaqua are from Kordon Brand & Amquel is suppose to remove Nitrites & Novaqua is a water conditioner & fish protector. I already did a 50% water change & put the fishes back in the tank, but I noticed that they would still try to go up the surface and have trouble breathing, I also put a water bubbler in there to increase aeration, but they would continue to do it & when I tested the water, the amonia is at 0, but nitrites is still at 0.2. So since I most likely lost my beneficial bacteria, should I restart the cycling process again, by putting in guppies or do a fishless cycle? Should I put the fishes back while im doing this?

 

[WILDER]

Add the fish back to the tank.
Do you no anybody who could give you a mature filter sponge for your filter.