Tank Disaster...what To Do Next?

[ozgirl_bkk]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some advice…I live in Bangkok, and I recently went home to Australia for three weeks. I arranged for someone to care for my fish while I was away, but instead they turned off the electricity to the tank and all my fish died At least I assume they died as there is no sign of any fish (or remains) now. I am looking for advice on the best way to rebuild and restock my tank….

I have a 120 litre (40 gallon) tank that had been running for about a year. Most of the filter media is housed in the cover on top of the tank. The pump forced water up into the media, but when the electricity was turned off, the flow of water stopped…should I throw away the old filter media and start with fresh filter media, or reuse the old filter media and hope that some of the nitrifying bacteria can be saved?

I have a second filter submerged on the bottom of the tank, which also contains filter media and is attached to an air pump. The electricity to this was also switched off. Should I throw out this filter media too or keep it?

The tank currently has several large rocks, some driftwood, decorations and a couple of live plants. Five smaller plants died and decomposed while I was gone. The water is clear, but the nitrate levels are very high. There are a dozen or snails in there now, who don’t seem to be bothered by the nitrates!

I originally planned to siphon out the water, put the gravel in a bucket of tank water, and vaccum up any waste left in the bottom of the tank, then put the gravel, live plants, decorations, rocks and driftwood back in, along with fresh, chlorinated water, then add fish later.

Should I hold off changing the water and put in fresh filter media, in the hope of getting a new colony of nitrifying bacteria going fast? (Bottled ammonia is not available in Bangkok)

My kids were very upset about the fish dying and I would like to get the tank restocked as soon as I can.

FYI – I turned the pumps back on as soon as I returned, three days ago, and have not done anything else to the tank since.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

 

[anon02]

I would do a down to gravel water change and remove any rubbish, then I would refill, dose with 2ppm ammonia and test after 24 hours, just as if I was starting a fishless cycle, to establish if there is a bacterial colony, if there`s no bacteria left I would start a fishless cycle

 

[waterdrop]

Hi ozzgirl_bkk and Welcome to our beginners section!

As you may know, the rate of growth of the two specific species of autotrophic bacteria that are our friends in creating a working biofilter is very unforgiving about impatient situations. The noisy world of trying to make people happy in the fish shops forever tries to ignore this truth but nothing can really hurry up the current state of mother nature.

You don't state how long you've got before you have to leave your tank and return to Bankok but it might not be long enough to provide satisfaction for the kids. The time it takes to get a tank going from scratch can take from 3 weeks to a more likely month and a half to over two months. It is very unpredictable. If you simply want the a working tank for a week and then all plan to leave or want your kids to just be able to dream that the tank back home is working then perhaps we need to find a different goal.

OK, enough with the pessimistic stuff (now I too will try to be optimistic about it !) Wow, you did the right thing by just stopping where you were, with the water still in and then finding the forum! There is a reasonable chance that a small fraction of the bacteria may remain alive down in that previously used media or that the biofilm material that remains will provide just the right sort of media for a quicker start for new autotrophs. Regardless, I think your plan for a very thorough clean of the -tank- aspects (not the filters) is a good one. You do want to go ahead and get all that excess dead plant debris out of the substrate and a removal clean is a very thorough way to do that.

Now, how to cycle? As said, you want to preserve the possibility that some of your biomedia has some life in it. Yet still, finding freshly living mature biomedia from someone else that you could additionally add to the filters would be absolutely the fastest way to get back in the game. So being creative about finding mature media from someone else would be a very wise pursuit!

It sounds like you understand that simple aqueous ammonia is the best and most controlled way to know your status in building a working biofilter and I wouldn't give up right away necessarily on finding some. Seek advice from pharmacists/chemists. University labs and the odd business friend have sometimes been the successful route for some of our other members in the "down under." BUT, if you must give this route up then I wonder if the fish-in cycle might not be the way to go. You have the opportunity to make sure only a very few fish are used, to make the water changing less of a task. The members can throw in good opinions for you there. You'll have to think about the filter media. Perhaps it will make sense to leave some of it that might still be in good shape (ceramics for instance) but perhaps some of it (old sponges?) may need to be replaced because of physical breakdown. Only you can be the judge of that. If it is mechanically good then keep it.

I'm sure I'm misunderstanding your situation but hope I've added a few thoughts that might help you in thinking about it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miles_hot]

Please done use "fresh, chlorinated water" - make sure you de-clorinate before putting into the tank just in case there's something worth saving in the gravel / filters / bio film etc. Putting chlorine in there will kill it all

Good luck.

Miles