Tank Disaster

[Jgeezer1986]

I have a 20g and a 55g freshwater tanks. My boy dumped a whole can of flake food in the 20 and almost a whole can of shrimp pellets in the 55 while i was at work. This was two days ago.. Both tanks were cycled.

The 55 has gravel for the substrate so it was fairly simple to clean. i did a 75% Water chance sunday night and another last night and the tank is crystal clear this morning, but both cartridges of both of my filters need cleaned and the tank smells kinda funny. I am going to replace the carbon in the whisper5 and clean the bag. But the penguin biowheel has sealed cartridges and i took the carbon out of it a while ago when i treated for ich. The biowheel filter can told two sets of cartridges , should i just put the new set in along with the old set and take the old ones out in a week? And should I change the whisper5's filters out completely , or just add carbon and clean them? The tank shows no signs of rising ammonia right now.

As for the 20g, i have a single aqueon filter on the back of it. Its has playsand for the substrate. It only had six baby mollies in it , approx two months old. I did two 75% changes on that the first night and another last night and it is still kinda cloudy. That filter also needs changed. The ammonia has jumped up above .25ppm , but not up to .50ppm.

In the 20g, flake food keeps showing up every time i clean it , i just cant seem to get it all. None of my fish have died yet and the 20g looks like its already going to go through a cycle again. Both tanks have been cycled for some time now.


Any suggestion on a good way to deal with this dilemma?

Thanks ahead of time

 

[krap101]

I'd continue wc's and keep cleaning out the filter of flakes (so they don't cause a nitrate spike). The shrimp pellets, if they've dissolved, are going to be a pain to clean. Don't move the gravel vac around too quickly, and (if they're like the shrimp pellets I had) wait till it settles on the bottom, and slowly move around and pick it up.

Carbon is unnecessary, but it might help with the smell. Btw, what kind of smell is it? Rotting something? A can of fish food dumped into the water?

Try to keep the ammonia under .25, and you should be able to ride through this without a hitch.

If you have decorations, moving them might release some of the flakes that got caught.

Oh, and keep the food a little bit higher

 

[Jgeezer1986]

I'd continue wc's and keep cleaning out the filter of flakes (so they don't cause a nitrate spike). The shrimp pellets, if they've dissolved, are going to be a pain to clean. Don't move the gravel vac around too quickly, and (if they're like the shrimp pellets I had) wait till it settles on the bottom, and slowly move around and pick it up.

Carbon is unnecessary, but it might help with the smell. Btw, what kind of smell is it? Rotting something? A can of fish food dumped into the water?

Try to keep the ammonia under .25, and you should be able to ride through this without a hitch.

If you have decorations, moving them might release some of the flakes that got caught.

Oh, and keep the food a little bit higher

Yes it is a rotting smell. Thats the only reason why i am adding the carbon. But i dont want to disturb the filters too god awful bad right now with changing the water so often.

 

[krap101]

If you're worried about hurting your bacteria, a vast majority (I'd say 70-80%) lives in your filter, 20-30% in your substrate and <1% (it rounds..) actually in your water. These numbers are guesses, depending on the filter, this number may actually be higher (water flowing through media creates a bunch of "virtual" surface area) If it is because of the smell, then you'll feel better knowing that it won't smell as bad the next time.

Also check to see all your fish are there, because spikes are pretty stressful (I'm assuming the ammonia got even higher) and you might be missing some fish, which would cause another spike

 

[Jgeezer1986]

If you're worried about hurting your bacteria, a vast majority (I'd say 70-80%) lives in your filter, 20-30% in your substrate and <1% (it rounds..) actually in your water. These numbers are guesses, depending on the filter, this number may actually be higher (water flowing through media creates a bunch of "virtual" surface area) If it is because of the smell, then you'll feel better knowing that it won't smell as bad the next time.

Also check to see all your fish are there, because spikes are pretty stressful (I'm assuming the ammonia got even higher) and you might be missing some fish, which would cause another spike

All the fish are still there. I know the changing water wont kill the bacteria, but i dont want to push too much stress on the tank. The water changes were to clean up and try to rid of the smell and cloudy water. I have not been changing water according to readings, although i have been monitoring them. I skipped the feeding yesterday and going light today. I figure there will also be an ammonia spike because the fish more than likely engorged them self, therefore the ammonia might spike from fish waste in addition to the rotting food.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

As far as the penguin is concerned, you can change the cartridges out. You don't have to put two back to back as the biowheel holds all the good bacteria so no worries there. It won't place too much stress on the fish because it'll basically be like them having a large water change. I wouldn't worry too much

 

[krap101]

I was actually worrying about the big water changes, as there'll probably be swings of pH, hardness, and temperature, but I decided not to say anything, as I think ammonia when in the higher regions is probably more of a threat.

I'd disagree about the bacteria in the filter though. Alot of bacteria lives in the biowheel, but I'd say 30-40% still lives in the cartridge. Removing them may cause an even larger mini cycle (lol if that makes sense)

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

I was actually worrying about the big water changes, as there'll probably be swings of pH, hardness, and temperature, but I decided not to say anything, as I think ammonia when in the higher regions is probably more of a threat.

I'd disagree about the bacteria in the filter though. Alot of bacteria lives in the biowheel, but I'd say 30-40% still lives in the cartridge. Removing them may cause an even larger mini cycle (lol if that makes sense)

I can't say I fully agree with the 30-40% but yes it does contain a lot of bacteria but IMO not enough to cause a mini cycle if changed as I have a penguin and have had one for almost 2 years now and have yet to experiance any mini cycle when changing out my cartridge. That's precisely why the bio-wheel is put in place.

 

[krap101]

Okay yeah, I did kinda botch it, but as he's experiencing a mini cycle now, it won't help matters.. I revise my estimate to 15-20%

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Okay yeah, I did kinda botch it, but as he's experiencing a mini cycle now, it won't help matters.. I revise my estimate to 15-20%

I can wholeheartedly agree with that lol