Cat fell in tank. Long story.

[chefkeith]

Crazy past 24 hours for me.

Yesterday night, I done a water change and was cleaning my hoses for my Rena Filstar xp3 canister filter. I have a sheet of styrofoam on top on my tank because I don't have a hood yet. Low and behold, my cat jumped onto the styrofoam, it broke, and the cat fell in the tank. No big deal I thought. It was pretty funny seeing it happen. I reconnected myhoses and started the canister filter, but the stinking thing is leaking in 2 spots. The cat broke the spraybar and inlet pipes when she fell. 2 small hairline cracks. I tried fixing it, but failed. Its getting late and I had plans to goto the bar with some friends for a few drinks. I was getting frustrated with the tank, so I left.

Also, I decided not to feed the fish, like I normally do at night.

Then went to go do some beer drinking.


Today I went ahead and built a new spraybar and inlet. It took me a few trips to the hardware store and a few hours, but the job is done and what I built is much better than the original.
In the meantime, I'm also busy preparing for a snow storm. So time has flown right by. Anyways, I hook up the new spraybar and inlet and they work great. I was very proud of myself and patting myself on the back.

Next thing I do is a quick check of water parameters. I though since I didn't have my canister running my ammonia might be a little high.

Ammonia- 1.0 ppm. (edited, changed from .1) I checked it 2x with 2 different kits, same results.

Fish are acting normal though.

I douse the tank with ammolock and do a 30% water change.

Ammonia- . is still about 1.0 (edited, changed from .1) and checked 2x again.
All other water parameters are normal.

I'm thinking about doing another water change.

The sorce of the ammonia is probably a combination of things. Possibly-
The cat
or an ammonia bomb in the canister filter
or the diatom filter that I used for a few hours.
or maybe because I feed the fish this morning.

any suggestions or comments welcome.

The tank is a 90 gallon and 33 gallon tank with a waterbridge connecting them.
Housed are clown loaches and tiger barbs.
filteration- filstar xp3 (350 gph), vortex xl diatom filter (part-time 350 gph), and 2- aquaclear 802 quick-filter powerheads (400gph each).

link to some pic's of everything
http://home.comcast.net/~chefkeithallen/page2.html

[chefkeith]

I should also mention that the 90g tank is new and is cycling somewhat. The 33g tank is/was established for 1 year before it was connected to the new 90g. tank. I'm not really alarmed on the water parameters.

[chefkeith]

I didn't even mention the water temps before I got the canister filter running. So I will now-
In the 90g tank the water temp was 84F.
In the 33g tank was 78F.

Right now both tanks are at 80F.

before though, the fish swam from tank to tank with no ill signs of temperature stress.

I forgot to mention that the inlet of the canister filter is in the 33g tank, while the spraybar is in the 90g tank. The water exchange between the 2 tanks is about 250gph.

[travelinman1969]

What is the ph? The lower the ph the less radial an amonia swing is to effect the fish. Is that the only filter you have for both those tanks?? You need more than that if that's it.

That must have been funny as all when the cat fell in. Wish mine would and my arowana would bite him, teach him to stay off. LOL!! :p

[chefkeith]

update-
Just did another water change, about 20% this time. Thank god I got a python a few weeks ago.

I think the ammolock 2 and having the canister filter running again will take care of the rest of this ammonia spike. Knock on wood. I'll give another update Tomorrow.

Everything is pretty normal in the tank, but Oh great, my Tigers barbs are spawning. I wasn't going to feed the fish, but they'll get a good caviar meal out of this. 3 of my barbs look like they are plumped with eggs.

[chefkeith]

thanks travlinman,

ph between 7.2 and 7.4.

You think I could use more filters?
Maybe I'll add another canister, but I really don't want to overdo it.

My 90g is a rivertank. It has 5 spraybars in it, there's some very nice current in there. The quickfilter powerheads do alot of the cleaning. Each of those filters does 400 gph. The filstar xp3 does 350 gph. Both tanks combined hold about 110 gallons of water, but probably a little less. The 33g tank is a refuge tank. The clown loaches usually go there to take a nap and to get away from the barbs. The Tiger barbs always stay in the 90g tank for some reason. I guess they like to have lots of space.

[travelinman1969]

Whether or not you need more filters depends on your bio-load. I have a 150 and I'm pumpin 1290 gph. I have a high bio load though.

The ammonia spike should not be a factor at that ph. at .25 to .3 it becomes an issue.

[chefkeith]

Good suggestion. Thanks alot Travlinman.

My bioload will be going up as my clown loaches grow bigger.

I'll definately be getting another canister in the weeks or months ahead. All my clown loaches are only 2-3.5" right now. I have 15 of them, along with 7 Tiger Barbs. So my bioload is kind of light right now.

My dream is to build a few 500g. indoor ponds in my garage if I want to keep all the clown loaches to adulthood. Lots of cinder blocks for that and I'll run some 8" pvc to bridge them to a large main tank. I'll need some big filter's in the future.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

I have a similiar story. I have a little 3 gallon that my cats were drinking out of and i didn't have a canopy for. So i cut a peice of picture frame glass and placed it over the top for a temporary cover. Well, cat jumped on top and broke the glass. There was glass in the tank which made me have to completely change the gravel. (which i was planning to do anyways). Cat was fine. Betta was fine. *whew*

[travelinman1969]

I have a 5 and 10 that my cats play with all the time. Wish my one tabby would stick his paw in the 150 once and see what the oscars would do with it. LOL!! :p

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

i bird fell in my tank when i had oscars lucky i was their or he would be legless now lol

[PumaWard]

I thought that I would add that ammolock, I believe, converts ammonia (NH3 ) to ammonium (NH4 ). Your test kit will givey your a false positive for an ammonia reading because it will still read the ammonium as ammonia.

If your filter or something wasn't running it could also cause an ammonia spike. Were the pipes the cat broke part of the filter? (Sorry for my ignorance :) )

[chefkeith]

pumaward- Yes, the pipes that the cat broke were part of the canister filter.

I should edit some of my posts. My ammonia readings were not .1, they were 1.0. I made a misprint.

[chefkeith]

update-

After a restless night, I wake up to see all my fish are doing well. All fish are accounted for.

Checked ammonia again and its still 1.0.
nitrite is about .1

I guess the ammolock worked. Like PumaWard said, I still get false ammonia readings though.

Oh, and thanks PumaWard. I almost forgot to thankyou.

I'm starting to think that I killed off all my benificail bacteria in my canister. I though the ammonia readings would of went down some by now.

[chefkeith]

update-
Nitrate reading shot up to 10 ppm. It was at about 1ppm Yesterday.

I'm going to check my tap water parameters, then do another water change.

[CordyRoy]

Holy Moly at the Clowns!!! I've never seen so many in one tank. I count thirteen, is that right?

[Alainuws]

I see 3 things that could be source of your problem.

1. You say your 90Gal wasn't cycled. Connecting both spread out the bacteria, making their number less.

2. You got a python(new). I know it seems to be a very cool gadget but i am not convence yet that it is good to use this thing for filling aquariums. Maybe some Python users could tell me how they remove the chlorine out of the tap water when filling their tank with it. I rather use buckets in which i put my water in 24 hours in advance and i also have heaters that i put in each buckets. I don't know but your problem tells me that that python can destroy bacteria by adding tap water directly in a tank.

3. Cat fell in tank. It might of added microscopic stuff that added to the bio load.

I would say that your bacterialogic filter will come back in time.
Once your amonia is back to 0 check your nitrite, it should climb too and then back to 0. And then check your nitrate and do water changes to lower it.

[Alainuws]

To re-establish your biologic filter as fast as possible.

I would suggest moving your gravel a little to get some dirt in suspension and wake up the bacteria in there.

[chefkeith]

After 3 water changes in less thana 24 hour period, my ammonia readings have been completely unchanged. They've stayed at 1.0.

I'm now looking at the ammolock giving me false ammonia readings. I used too much of the ammolock by mistake on my initial water change before the cat fell in the tank.

I;m going to do a test-
I'm going to take a cup of tank water, then add a cup of ammolock treated tap water, then do a ammonia reading on that. Then add another cup of treated tap water, do another reading. I'll just keep adding treated tap water until I get almost a 0.0 ammonia reading. This should help me find out if water changes is a solution.
I'll try this with untreated tap water too.

[chefkeith]

Originally posted by CordyRoy
Holy Moly at the Clowns!!! I've never seen so many in one tank. I count thirteen, is that right?

15 clowns, at my last count.

and

Alainuws- thanks for the suggestions and comments.

I've started running the tanks together since Dec. 15. I've had no ammonia until yesterday. It was expected after all that happened.
My nitrites have been going up very little though. Its been holding at 0.5.
My nitrates were steady except for Today when they shot up from 1 to 10.

I'll look into the python changing my water parameters after I do the Ammolock test.

[chefkeith]

I done the ammolock ammonia test. Ammolock didn't get its name for nothing. The ammolock distorts the ammonia test by atleast 500%. I'm not taking the test any further.

I'll conclude that their is no ammonia present in my tanks, just ammonium, (like PumaWard said, thanks again)

I did the test with -
tank water
untouched q-tank water
straight tap water
tap water treated with ammolock

All the results pointed towards the ammolock fouling up my numbers.

I will say this, I'll never use ammolock for water changes again.

I'll use the original amquel or even (gulp) stress coat.

I'm feeding my fish. They're very, very hungry.

[chefkeith]

I'll also add I should of done my homework on the Ammolock. I've just got done reading several threads (in the search- ammolock) here at Aquaria Central with the exact same problem. My ammolock problem is nothing new.

[critrcrazy]

Just a thought, but could have been, when your cat crashed thru the styrofoam, it scared the pee outa it :D hence, the 'instant ammonia'

[DEmigh]

Originally posted by critrcrazy
Just a thought, but could have been, when your cat crashed thru the styrofoam, it scared the pee outa it :D hence, the 'instant ammonia'

:laugh::bowing: :duh:

Mystery solved! :D

[chefkeith]

My ammolock/ammonia test results were as followed-

test subject,..................................initial reading, 1parts, 2 p, 3 p, 4 p, 5 p, 10 p, 15 p

tank water/ with ammolock treated tap water..... 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 0.25 0.20
tank water/with untreated tap water ................ 1.00 0.40 0.20 0.10 0.00 0.00
tank water/with q tank water........................... 1.00 0.50 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00

With ammolock added to your tap water for water changes, you'll probably never get your ammonia down to 0, unless you do a 100% water change. Ammolock distorts the test by atleast 500%, but its probably closer to 1000% distortion.

[chefkeith]

Update-
I checked my ammonia for the 1st time in awhile. The test read 0.0., no ammonia. I've learned alot from this tall tailed experience. Thanks everyone for taking interest.

[Macromatt]

This has nothing to do with your problem, But on the simpsons tonight, their cat- snowball III died by drowning in their aquarium. It was hilarious. :D :D :D :D :D


Matt

[Must4ng s4lly]

NO! not funny their little kitty drowned! I love the simpsons but kitties get sold so short in TV / cinema! I love kittties and they can co-exist with my fishies! AHHHH! all creatures rule!

[Macromatt]

If you saw it it would be funny....3 cats died in that episode.. one drowned, one jumped out the window, and 1 got ran over. In the end they found one that was just like their original one and named it the same name. Snowball II.

I love cats, and have always had at least one.


Matt

[Rometiklan]

I must admit, I found this post to be quite interesting. I enjoyed the running commentary and updates. It is actually quite insightful to see the progression from problem to a resolution. I would like to see more of this in the future.

[DEmigh]

Originally posted by Macromatt
[...]3 cats died in that episode[...]

3 dead cats @ 9 lives per cat equals 27 fatalities...

Oh, the felinity!