Why Do My Fish Keep Dying?

[This Old Spouse]

Well when I rinse the sponge and carbon, is there anything I can do to minimalist shock to the fish??!

Why would this shock the fish? You should just be taking the sponge out of the filter and rinsing in tank water you've just siphoned from the tank. And you should just be using carbon after you've been medicating fish to remove any lingering medication from the tank, not for everyday use. It's only useful for a couple of days so doesn't do much good otherwise.

 

[Louiseness]

Thankyou akasha! Very helpful

Well when I rinse the sponge and carbon, is there anything I can do to minimalist shock to the fish??!

Rinsing the sponges in tank water is fine, changin them out for fresh ones isn't. You really only need to rinse your sponges if the filter starts to slow down though, otherwise I'd just let them be.

 

[Seed_Lord]

if you've still got fish could be a idea to get this http/aquariumpharm.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=95


I've not used it yet but with weekly charging of API aquarium salt it should take the toxins out, and lasting 2 months, giving your filter time to cycle, as ive said ive not used it yet so anyone with exp with it let me kno

 

[HayzH]

my tank has been up for almost a year now, doesn't it only take 6 weeks max to cycle and then you can slowly add fish? I think they were dying because of a fungus. But thanks anyway!

My tank is Fishless Cycling atm... nearly at 100 days now!
Everytime you "replace" any media with NEW you will be starting your cycle from Day 1 again. No matter how many yrs its been running.

 

[This Old Spouse]

+1

 

[bummen]

ah ok. that must have been the problem because I did buy a new one where ordinarily I will just rise it... I have put the carbon back in. It said on the filter packet that I should be rising or buying a new sponge and carbon every month, but didn't say anything about starting a new cycling if I put a new sponge and filter in, what a pain! Did I just read I should take the carbon out of the filter? If so why?

 

[Akasha72]

Hi again,

Okay, the best advice I've had is to take the filter instructions and throw them away!! They want you to change your sponges every couple of months cos that's how they make money - stands to reason when you think about it.

The carbon spondge stops doing very much after only a week or two. If you are planning to medicate your tank with anything like a white spot treatment etc then take the carbon out whilst the treatment it running then once the treatment has run it's course you can do one of two things. Put in a brand new carbon sponge which will filter out the treatment or do a water change.

Personally I got a box of the ordinary sponges for my filter and a fine one to polish the water. I threw the carbon away and now have 2 ordinary sponges and the fine one in my filter. The filter is working fine and I only rinse the sponges (always in tank water that I've syphoned out) now and then - if I notice my filter isn't working so well usually.

It will be fine without the carbon but ultimately it is up to you how you run it.

A good way to look at it is if you have 2 ordinary sponges in there and one is falling apart and needs to be replaced (only replace them if they are falling to bits) then you just need to change one sponge, the filter will then rely on the other old one to deal with chemicals whilst the new one gets going. Does that make sense?

Here to help where I can - Akasha

 

[This Old Spouse]

+1

That'll work!