Freshwater Aquarium Folks - URGENT HELP NEEDED!

[beefy]

take a chill pill lisajean. just remember to plug it back in and all should be fine.

 

[Nugget]

Hey Lisa, I've had fish forever. Consider that the sponge is nothing more than surface area for bacteria to cling to. Short of boiling them you'll NEVER lose enough bacteria from a rinse in the sink. I never 'change' my filters, I wring them out under non-chlorinated tapwater. I've had the same ones for about 6 years. What you did is what you should do

 

[LisaJean]

Thanks everyone!

The fish seem to be doing fine. I'll do a water test later today and see what the levels look like.

 

[ChickenCop]

Glad all is well with your fish.... Been there done that with the filters!
Been breeding fish over 10yrs now with still 17 tanks up and running, getting a bit worn on it so im starting some chickens come spring! Cant get here soon enough.....
Check out my local "fish club" website if you get a chance.
www.circlecityaqclub.org
(and yes I drive 100 miles each way each month to make the meetings...i know im crazy!)

 

[quadcam79]

yeh i wouldnt sweat it, i have a couple fish living in my saltwater reef tank now, it's just cycling and has no filtration at all except for a little 2lb piece of live rock. if your freshwater tank is already cycled you have plenty of nitrate eating bacteria in there. plus when you do filter changes the new filter isnt colonized with anything and the fish do fine.

 

[bantymum]

I agree with all the above, I only have goldfish now but used to have tropicals until someone kicked the power cord out of the socket and water went cold. I was devastated.
I also had a beautiful axalotl who was apricot coloured and I had to try and keep her water cold in the summer.
She thrived in winter but summertime was horrible for her.
She got sick and lost her kife and I was so miserable.
So now I just have the goldies and have a filter with removablle filter which gets rinsed wach week to get rid of the gunk.
The aqaurium glass has a green tinge to it so I never have the beautiful clear blue look.
I dont use ph up or ph down powders.
They love green peas, just a few fresh or frozen, really helps them thrive.
I would say that your levels should hold with the plants etc in there.
Good luck

 

[helmstead]

Look for a product called MicrobeLift. If you can't find it locally, call 1-800-645-2976. The company is great, they'll deal with you directly if there aren't any local suppliers. We used this on all our new tanks, and it's great! It is a true, live bacteria. They also do ponds.

 

[s6bee]

I would'nt worry too much about it. I'm sure they are fine. Our tank is my husband's job, but usually what kills our fish is the amonia build up if we ignore the tank too long. We never clean the rocks and such and we only do at the most a third to a half a water change and that's when it gets really bad. We've been good for some time now. I also know that we use some salts that they sell, and add about a Tbsp. to our 20 gal. tank at a change. We use no addiitives. We only did it when we first started the tank 8 yrs. ago.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Hey LisaJean, unless you're trying to raise something like neon tetras that don't like normal water conditions, you really don't need to worry about it that much. I've got a couple of tanks that have done better since I quit trying to keep up with the maintenance -- even the baby fish are surviving instead of getting eaten. Just try to keep the water level up, feed 'em once or twice a day, they should be just fine.

 

[patandchickens]

I agree with all the previous poster, except that there is one thing that makes my ears perk up just a little -- when you say "all my fish", like, how much fish per how much tank are we talking, here?

A 2 month old tank is still really quite 'young' and not going to be able to gracefully and bombproofly handle all *that* much fish, especially if you've got other things going on e.g. plants decaying.

If you have already loaded the tank to half 'capacity' or more, you would definitely want to monitor water conditions over the next month (ideally testing all 3 kinds of N separately if you really want a good understanding of what is going on).

At the least I would suggest vacuuming out any remaining dead plant bits in the tank, and not adding anymore fish for a few *months*. The more fully you let a tank run in before you populate it seriously, the more stable it will be.

If your plants are dying you will also want to address that. What kind of plants and what kind of lighting -- there are hardly any plants that will do well under the 'standard' aquarium hood lights (single, non high intensity fluorescent bulb) - basically just Anubias, java moss, java fern, and also some cryptocorynes if tiy have the water chemistry right. Anything else will be a quick or slow trip to decay city, and is not good for your tank or fish.

(I have occasionally also had trouble with fast-growing plants under moderately high light having parts languish or die in a very new tank, I assume from lack of nutrients for the amount of growth they are 'programmed' for. )

Good luck,

Pat