Know Nothing About Aquariums...please Help!!

[marincaligirl]

My husband recently went back to work after a long hiatus. He brought his aquarium home from his last job and was always the one to care for it and the fish. Now, after he's worked long and hard all day, he doesn't have time to teach me or help with it. I absolutely have no clue.

After trying to fix some piping that fell to the bottom of the tank, I think I completely screwed things up...mainly the filter. I ended up taking the thing apart and cleaning the gravel sections, then reassembling. What a disaster! Now, the canister filter doesn't sound the same (noisy) and one rosey red has already died. Does this sound like an impellor might've come out? Or, maybe didn't clean good enough? I'm so worried I can hardly sleep. He's had these fish for years!

Tank: 32 gal. Freshwater
Filter: Via Aqua 750

3 different species catfish...(1 upside down), 1 albino, the other???
1 other big one...don't know what he is...bottom sucker though
1 angel (2" in length)
7 rosey reds.

Can anyone give advise for a REAL beginner??

Thank you!

LA - marincaligirl

[pitt420dude]

Hi Marincaligirl,
Congrats on inheriting the tank! WHat a bargain, lol.

I don't have a Via Aqua filter but can tell you that when I took my marineland Magnum Hang on Back filter apart, it was super noisey. It turns out I didn't fill it up with enough water before I started it, and teh air bubbles in it were making it noisy.

This might be it. If there are chambers or things in the filter that hold water, make sure you fill them up before you start the filter again. Other than that I can't help much, maybe peopel with that filter will be better able to identify that problem.

Are there any missing pieces? I'm assuming you didn't have anythign "left over" from when you reassembled it. Does the water move well?

The fish death may or may not be related to your filter issue, so don't jump to conclusions. How do the other fish seem? Colorful and hungry? Are they acting normally?

[tawolcott]

What did you clean the canister with? What about the media that was in it ; did u replace it or clean it too?