The Water Change FROM HELL!

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squirrilah fish

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I'd like to use this post to vent, and allow you to share your stories about some of the absolutely unexpected insane happenings of caring for your beloved fish.

Tonight started like any other cleaning. I took our my rocks, lowered the water, scrubbed the glass and combed the sand. I began taking out my 5 gallon buckets at a time. It all started when I got down to 50%.

My rainbow shark jumped two feet out of the tank, over the light, and in the back of the aquarium. I reached my hand in the narrow space as far as I could, but he was out of reach. I just hoped he flopped into my hand. After a few moments he just stopped, I jumped up and went into the middle of the stand where there is a 4" gap and contorted my arm to reach him. I finally got ahold of him, covered in hair and other dirt I put him in the bucket I had nearby and rinsed him off. I tore a big gash in my own arm as well. After he caught his breath I put him back in the tank. Both of his eyes were cloudy and his skin was tattered.

I began refilling the tank, and restacking the rocks. By now I am pretty good at stacking my rocks, but tonight they just would not work, they kept falling over, I'd put one rock on, and the rest would crumble. After spending about 30 minutes getting them set up just right I see a rock start to shake and the whole pile comes crashing down.

Upset and at my end I reach in to find my electric blue hap has gotten himself stuck in a rock cave way too small for his size. I do my best to help him out, holding down his pointy dorsal fin. He violently shook himself out, doing much damage to his sides and face. He laid on the bottom of the tank for a while catching his breath and holding his fins close. He is scrapped up to hell.

As if this wasn't enough, after I get all the water, caves, filters, etc. clean and in place my UV filter decides to fall apart. The pieces won't fit together, the suction cups keep falling off, and I spend another 10 minutes sorting it all out.

In the excitement of it all I forget to run my UV filter in a bucket to get all the left over gunk out, so when I turn it on it just shoots a huge wad of sludgy garbage.

I make some more adjustments to the rocks. Add some Melafix, stability and prime. And prepare to call it a night. Then I look at the time.

What normally would take me an hour or less has just taken over two and a half. I have two fish completely mauled. And my water looks like crap.

Good frickin night.
 
To add to it all, after posting this, I realize I still haven't cleaned the outside of the glass.

Laugh at me, I sure am laughing at myself.
 
I'd like to use this post to vent, and allow you to share your stories about some of the absolutely unexpected insane happenings of caring for your beloved fish.

Tonight started like any other cleaning. I took our my rocks, lowered the water, scrubbed the glass and combed the sand. I began taking out my 5 gallon buckets at a time. It all started when I got down to 50%.

My rainbow shark jumped two feet out of the tank, over the light, and in the back of the aquarium. I reached my hand in the narrow space as far as I could, but he was out of reach. I just hoped he flopped into my hand. After a few moments he just stopped, I jumped up and went into the middle of the stand where there is a 4" gap and contorted my arm to reach him. I finally got ahold of him, covered in hair and other dirt I put him in the bucket I had nearby and rinsed him off. I tore a big gash in my own arm as well. After he caught his breath I put him back in the tank. Both of his eyes were cloudy and his skin was tattered.

I began refilling the tank, and restacking the rocks. By now I am pretty good at stacking my rocks, but tonight they just would not work, they kept falling over, I'd put one rock on, and the rest would crumble. After spending about 30 minutes getting them set up just right I see a rock start to shake and the whole pile comes crashing down.

Upset and at my end I reach in to find my electric blue hap has gotten himself stuck in a rock cave way too small for his size. I do my best to help him out, holding down his pointy dorsal fin. He violently shook himself out, doing much damage to his sides and face. He laid on the bottom of the tank for a while catching his breath and holding his fins close. He is scrapped up to hell.

As if this wasn't enough, after I get all the water, caves, filters, etc. clean and in place my UV filter decides to fall apart. The pieces won't fit together, the suction cups keep falling off, and I spend another 10 minutes sorting it all out.

In the excitement of it all I forget to run my UV filter in a bucket to get all the left over gunk out, so when I turn it on it just shoots a huge wad of sludgy garbage.

I make some more adjustments to the rocks. Add some Melafix, stability and prime. And prepare to call it a night. Then I look at the time.

What normally would take me an hour or less has just taken over two and a half. I have two fish completely mauled. And my water looks like crap.

Good frickin night.

Man that was a bad night, hell I felted stressed out just reading through it. I think I would have probably ended up smashing something like the UV just out of frustration, you did good keeping your cool.
 
That's why I do my tank maintainance after 5 on sat or sun... Beer helps when that type if stuff occurs;) how they all doing now??
 
That's why I do my tank maintainance after 5 on sat or sun... Beer helps when that type if stuff occurs;) how they all doing now??


It got even more exciting... Did you know that prime can give you false NH/NO positives? I didn't, so I check my water randomly last night and see that it's all jacked up, and freak out and do another water change, and then retest, and it's the same, so I get online, and find out..... Hey it happens all the time,

Everything is golden now, people healing nicely. Water looks super clean.
 
Hahahaha. Stress!!! At leased u saved that fishes life tho ?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Yah I found that prime thing out too late too haha. Glad all has returned to as normal as a tank gets... I pulled a plant and moved it 2 weeks ago and blew a root tab cloud into the water... Massive algae bloom, gahhhhhh.. I feel like there's 6 ways to do a tank right and 12476008. Ways to mess it up...
 
I can say with confidence out of hundreds of water changes and cleanings last night was the worst.
 
Wow! That was the water change from hell for sure. Will the Metafix affect your nitrogen cycle? ( I'm learning)
 
Wow! That was the water change from hell for sure. Will the Metafix affect your nitrogen cycle? ( I'm learning)


Yes and no, I have noticed an increased rate of nitrate development with Melafix, part of it may be the death of bad bacteria, or the medication is causing the fish to breath faster, which means more ammonia/waste. But in my experience it has never been anything that has caused alarm.
I like Melafix a lot. It's pretty safe, and it has a comforting/calming effect on the fish. I've used it when adding new fish to dull down the excitement.
Doesn't matter what it is, anytime I drop a new fish in, my older ones have to be all over it, stressing it out even more,

But it works really well at healing tattered fins, and scrapes especially.

I do think it becomes an irritant after it expires, so you do want to do a water change to get it out after it's... worn out I guess.
 
I emailed Seachem about the false positives and their return went like this.

Hello George,

Thank you for your email. The false positive that will show on an ammonia test kit in the presence of Prime is not the result of an indication of ammonia when there is not any present. The "false positive" is referring to showing a false positive for toxic free ammonia. Since Prime has bound all of the ammonia in a system to an ionized NH4 form, it will still show up on a test kit as total ammonia, but it will be present in the system in a form that is not toxic to the fish. The only way to differentiate between NH3 and NH4 ammonia in the presence of Prime will be by using gas exchange technology such as what is utilized in our Ammonia Alert or MultiTest: Ammonia test kit or the Ammonia Alert. If you are using other conventional test kits on the market in the presence of Prime then you will get a reading for total ammonia, even though there will not be any toxic ammonia present in the system as long as you have used the proper concentration to fully bind the ammonia present.

You can also refer to this from our FAQ for further clarification:
 
Yes and no, I have noticed an increased rate of nitrate development with Melafix, part of it may be the death of bad bacteria, or the medication is causing the fish to breath faster, which means more ammonia/waste. But in my experience it has never been anything that has caused alarm.
I like Melafix a lot. It's pretty safe, and it has a comforting/calming effect on the fish. I've used it when adding new fish to dull down the excitement.
Doesn't matter what it is, anytime I drop a new fish in, my older ones have to be all over it, stressing it out even more,

But it works really well at healing tattered fins, and scrapes especially.

I do think it becomes an irritant after it expires, so you do want to do a water change to get it out after it's... worn out I guess.


Thank you! Everything you wrote is good to know. I took a pic of your answer so I can keep it handy.
 
Also just an FYI for a new user melafix will sometimes make foam/bubbles on the surface of the water. Totally fine!!!! I freaked the first time and googled it


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