Hey there everyone! I just got back from a 6 week road trip across mexico....yep is was awsome.

Anyway more to the point
i was gone for 6 weeks so i left my flatemates some detailed instruction on how to care for my tank while i was gone....30% waterchange every week, not to feed to much or leave the light on when not at home, they done an ok job as no fish died.

When i got home i was checking out my tank to make sure it was all in working order and found that 1 of my 3 fiters was not working and it happened to be my most powerfull filter. Before i left i was running-

1 x top of tank trickel filter 2000 LPH (came with my all-in-one AquaOne tank)
1 x 1500 LPH canister
1 x 2000 LPH internal powerfilter

I first of all thought that the filter was left unplugged after water change but after checking the plugs i found out that the filter was dead and there was no real way of telling how long it hadent been working.
I tested the water and results were a bit high
ammo 0.5 (if not 1.0)
nitrate 40
nitrite 0

Straight away i done a 50% waterchange and noticed that the grave was pretty dirty, flatemate told me the last water change was about 5 or 6 days ago.


soooo this is the course of action i have taken so far, any imput or advice would be appricated.
First of all i removed all the media from the broken filer washed in in tap water and let it dry out overnight......i read that if the dead bacteria made it way back into the tank it could cause an ammo spike.
Then i pulled apart the broken filter to find why it stopped working and waht i found was a broken shaft that the impeller spins on....i then pulled apart my internal filer and used the shaft for it to repair my trickel filter and it worked fine. The next day i replaced the media and got the filter running again.

Now i am 1 filter down and one of my filters isnt cycled, i still have my canister running and its been cycled for ages.

What i planned to do next was do more water changed to keep my levels down while the filter cycled but i tested my tap water and it came up positive to ammo = 0.50 My tap water always had an ammo level of 0.25 but with 3 filter running there was never a problem keeping it at 0.00.

I plan to do more water changes for the next month and add ammo lock to the new water. I use Prime to treat my tap water. Does this seem ok or should i add some bacteria in a bottle thet u see at the LFS?

current levels
ammo 0.25
nitrite 10
nitrate 0

and another thing, when i got home my computer decided it didnt want to connect to the internet any more so i will just be using my flatemates computer when i get the chance.
Cheers

first approach:
evaluate which among the running filter could you import some establish media.
this is what we called seeding.... get some and put is to the newly restored
filter. this will allow you to have bb in it and should work as if nothing
happened. just monitor the water parameters and you will be fine....

not losing any single fish is an accomplishment already for a non-hobbyist
who take care of the tanks while you are away....

pls post picture during the trip...

Keep doing water changes treating your water with prime.

As prime nutralises the ammonia, this should prevent any harm from coming to your fish. However, some test kits will still show ammonia after using prime (as it is still present in another non toxic form). After a few weeks start to reduce your water changes, so that you can check that the canister is cycling properly - because if you keep doing very regular changes the constant influx of neutralised ammonia may through your results off and cause you to think your canister is not cycled when it may be.

Bol

hey Paul i cant belive i didnt think of moving some media from my cycled filter to my non cycled filter....i must still be in holiday mode hahaha i'll do that tmrw.

as for the ammo in the tap water, should i use ammo block? or will prime cover it?

sorry mate...i never use those stuff so..it is up to you to decide..
keep us posted on whatever decision you've made....

bigtdotcom wrote:


Prime will cover it for you... In truth, I would just test your tank daily, and do water changes when needed. With still having cycled filters it wont take long to be back on track!