Caryl Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 You might have read the thread re my 4ft x 2 x 2 African tank and the unplugged filter. Things have gone from bad to worse. I now have 5 electric yellows plus 3 other fish (hard to tell at this stage but I suspect a couple of borleyis and a blue something left. In my rubbish are my favourite S ahli (15cm), an 8cm J marlieri and a couple more 11 and 15cm borleyis When we discovered the unplugged Eheim wet/dry filter, Grant cleaned it out thoroughly, put the media back (it now smelled OK) and restarted the filter. Next day fish were not looking their usual perky selves so we figured it was the media. We unplugged the filter again (all the while the tank still had a fully operational Jebo 819 running) and sterilised the media. We found 3 electric yellow fry in the filter too! This morning (still not replugged the Eheim in) I saw first the S Ahli, then the other blue dead in the tank and the marlieri missing. I realised there may be other fish missing as they are hard to count when they hide in the rockwork so decided I had to strip the tank totally to get them all out and do a head count. Lifted a rock and phew! What a smell. A well and truly dead, by now unrecognisable as it had lost all colour, fish. Big barrels brought inside and tank stripped. Fish divided up into barrels to prevent too much aggression. As well as finding the other large fish I also caught 1 electric yellow fry about 1.5cm and 21 more the same size as those in the filter - about 0.5cm. The one bright spot in my day. I now have the tank refilled and have slowly been doing partial water changes in the barrels to prepare them for their total water change. I have not dared turn the Jebo back on as it will be full of smelly polluted water. Do you think I should sterilise its media as well? This would mean recycling the tank with 8 large fish in it (ranging 8cm - 14cm), or just empty the water out of it and refill it as is? I think I will have to recycle and be resigned to large water changes as it progresses. I think I will pinch the Fluval 404 off the golden barb's 3ft tank and leave them with a couple of internal Shark filters and use the Fluval through the cycle. What do you all think? Sorry this is so long but I am so upset. We have had these fish 3 years and they did not deserve to die like this. PS. Saved the fry and dumped them in a spare small tank. Will need to find a filter for them too. Got several sponge and box filters around here somewhere :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PETEYPLECO Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry for your loss of fishies, I know what its like as I lost a few after a long power cut. CHIN UP ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Oh wow, what a horrible thing to happen. Sorry Caryl! K, you've probably heard of water going bad and killing off fish and this probably is the case here. The best thing to do is replace all water and start from scratch, including the filter media. Rinse the filter media from the 404 and dump the gooky water into your cichlid tank (with fresh dechlorinated water) to kick-start the cycle. Put a light load of fish in there and you should be up and running in a few days. Just be sure and get all the dead fish and fish bits from the tank and filters... That's just a suggestion and feel free to do whatever you want. That's just what I would do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry about the loses Caryl , but the 404 fliter is a good idea, it will have heaps of "good" Bugs to start the cycle with a hiss and a roar. Clean the tank completel first, add the 404 and rebuild the hideing places , you will have to watch for ammonia spikes so dayly water changes will be needed as it cycles. Good luck, and the yellow babies are your silver lining to a nasty black cloud If you lived closer we could house them till its cycled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Oh No! That's really awful Caryl. I am so sorry to hear it. I agree with Billaney but you know so much more about this stuff than me anyway. Cheers Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry to hear about your loss Caryl Look on the bright side. Soon you will have several thousand litres of cycled water at your disposal... provided it doesn't leak underground before you want to use it :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keri Anne Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Big hugs for Caryl. Pitty you're not in Napier - I have 20 new 2foot tanks stacked up in my hallway waiting for me to get started on my fish room this weekend. If you were close I would have happily lent out a few while you got things sorted. Good luck and keep smiling. At least you have some babies to comfort you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry to hear about the fish Caryl On a postive note, when your new electric yellow babies grow up you'll have a story to tell. I have 20 new 2foot tanks stacked up in my hallway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljtan55 Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 So sorry Caryl, its horrible when things like this happen to the nicest people. Those babies fishies sound pretty awesome though, hope everything goes well and take care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Poor fishies. I wouldn't think you'd have had a problem with the filter, all I usually do when I forget to plug a filter back in or similar is just give everything a rinse and plug it back in. No problems doing that. At least you'll have some space freed up you can replace them with some NICE cichlids...Meaning South American cichlids. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 I still have some left Ira! The filter was possibly unplugged for at least 2 weeks and really stank. The odd 'fudged' bits along the front glass are badly scratched areas from when we had lots of big gravel and rocks in there when it was a coldwater marine. Badly damaged the glass on all sides Anyone know what this one is? Set up the Fluval from the barb tank and have restarted the Eheim after sterilising the media. Will do the same for the Jebo later tonight. Have a club meeting here later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinity Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry for your loss Hope you get things sorted quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candy Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 aw caryl if u lived closer i would say u could of put your fish in our tank that been cycled for about 3 months but still has no finish in it (goldfish dont count) hope it all works out and u dont lose any more fishys... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minchton Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Cant add anything to what has been said but to let you know you have our sympathy from Taranaki. Like all of us who have been through this sort of thing time and fish heal all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted May 17, 2006 Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Sorry to read what has been posted. One pet hate of mine is the reliance on the mechanical side of things, heaters, pumps... Just feed te fish a bare minimium for a while. Once every 2nd day is heaps, being bigger sized cichlids they will be fine. Add a heap of val plants. Plants aborb some waste. Val is one of the best so I have been told. {good thing is they are on the cheaper side} Seachem do a good bio booster product. {name escapes me} Keep up small water changes. Keep salt handy incase of a nitrite spike. {I would use salt anyway while cycling a tank} Keep up the airation too. Good luck. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2006 Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions. Fish seem well this morning, no sign of whitespot yet. No vallis around here Frenchie (unless I head to the river and gather up the illegal stuff ) Fish haven't been fed since the disaster. May give them a little tonight and see if they are interested. The tank now has 3 filters running on it. A fully cycled Fluval 404 and the Eheim wet/dry and Jebo 819 which both got thoroughly cleaned (and the Eheim was sterilised as well). Since I hate adding stuff to tanks I will leave it as is, since the Fluval should be enough, and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Another day all survivors seem to be happy and swimming well with no sign of disease. Will feed them tonight. Haven't done so since the strip down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Another day all survivors seem to be happy and swimming well with no sign of disease. Will feed them tonight. Haven't done so since the strip down. Thats good news Caryl ,seems like you've limited the loses anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 Good to hear you are getting things back to normal after the disaster Caryl. Might be a good time to consider a dedicated outlet.. or some form of alarm or visual warning. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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