Recovering from Disaster

[lilac]

Hi,

I had a 10 gallon tank set up with 5 glofish danios with an Aquaclear 20 filter. I had topped off my tank just before I went out Monday night and when I returned there was only an inch or so of water left in the tank. Fortunately, all the fish were fine. Evidently either the filter was blocked or it became unlevel. The silicon seal in the tank seemed to be lifting, but not leaking as of yet.

I transferred the fish to an uncycled 5 gallon tank. I added some of the substrate and the foam and BioMax from my old filter. I bought an Aqueon 10 filter the next day for the little tank. Currently, I'm doing daily 50% water changes. Also, I'm not showing any nitrites and ammonia is usually .25 - .5 - I use Seachem Prime, so it could be from that. The fish seem to be doing fine, although cramped.

I decided to go ahead and order a 20 gallon tank, which I had been thinking about anyway. So, I'm wondering what I should do. It'll take a little while for my stand and tank to get here.

Should I get an appropriate filter for the arriving 20 gallon tank and do a fishless cycle using my 10 gallon tank to get things going and just transfer the filter later - the larger filter wouldn't really fit on the 5 gallon tank or should I put the fish back in the 10 gallon tank and wait to do a fishless cycle when my new aquarium arrives.

Also, I really like the different media of the AquaClear, but I'm now a little leery since it flooded my condo. Is this something that could happen with any HOB filter or is it something unique to AquaClear?

Thanks for any thoughts!

- Kate

 

[Brookster123]

It was an hob aqua clear?

 

[lilac]

Yes, it was a hob AquaClear 20 Power Filter.

 

[reefdiver]

If it was the filter it may have pushed the sponge up making is overflow.

 

[lilac]

I'm pretty sure it was the filter - I refilled my tank and it didn't seem to leak as I watched it the next couple of days. Also, I was only gone for about 3 - 4 hours, so I think there would have been an obvious leak if it was the tank. But, with the silicon starting to peel, I think I would like to fix it before putting back into long-term use.

I did fill the tank a little on the high side, so perhaps the sponge did get pushed up. I definitely learned my lesson to observe my filter carefully after making any changes.