Well, lately I've been having a little water at the base of my tank on the stand. Not a lot, like a little seep on the side where the HOB biowheel is. I asked my aquarium store what it could be and they said that it could be my HOB splashing or a small leak somewhere in the tank. Now I have 2 filters on my 48 gallon tank a Filstar XP3 and the Penguin 330, so it seemed that Filstar would be more than adequate to handle the filtration so the advice I was given was to rule out the water from the HOB splashing to it turn off for a while and see if the water
problem cleared up. Well, I needed to do my water change that day anyway, so I went ahead and did around a 20% change, cleaned my canister filter, and left off my HOB for the trial to see if the water cleared up and went to bed.
Well, Sunday morning I woke to disaster (but could have been worse)! My fish were on top gasping for air and when my gold nugget pleco, Scooby, saw me he came to the front of the glass gasping and in distress! Well, I took action fast by putting in a couple of portable air stone pumps in the tank and trying to restart the HOB. Of course since it was off overnight it wouldn’t start right away. I noticed that Scooby was on his side in distress and barely breathing so I put a stone very close to him and took the HOB outside to clean the impeller and get it going
again. Got it back on the tank and ran it and two airstones with the canister for a while (the other fish recovered within an hour and the dojos where totally unfazed). The sad news is I was too late to save Scooby, but Twigs, my Bristlenose, survived. I’m back to having the HOB with the canister on the tank (got to check this morning to see if the water was there, but last night it wasn’t, so maybe moving my HOB solved the problem? I hope, I don’t want to tear down my tank to silicone it!). It could have been worse since I have some rare fish in my tank, but I lost one of my favorite fish, Scooby
. He was such a neat pleco,
not hiding and coming out to greet me, my son said he felt guilty not coming and waking me up sooner. Luckily I woke up soon enough before oxygen depletion totally decimated my tank.
Well I called the LFS and told them what their advice did to my tank! The canister, although sufficient in filtration wasn’t oxygenating the water since I have the spray bar below the water so it isn’t breaking the surface. I also have plants
in the tank, so they were probably depleting oxygen at night (reverse to the day when they make oxygen). This is the same store I bought Scooby from and they ask about him or mention him when I come in, they were sad to hear I lost him too. But now I know the workhorse filter is the Penguin oxygenating the water and not to have the surface totally still.
problem cleared up. Well, I needed to do my water change that day anyway, so I went ahead and did around a 20% change, cleaned my canister filter, and left off my HOB for the trial to see if the water cleared up and went to bed.
Well, Sunday morning I woke to disaster (but could have been worse)! My fish were on top gasping for air and when my gold nugget pleco, Scooby, saw me he came to the front of the glass gasping and in distress! Well, I took action fast by putting in a couple of portable air stone pumps in the tank and trying to restart the HOB. Of course since it was off overnight it wouldn’t start right away. I noticed that Scooby was on his side in distress and barely breathing so I put a stone very close to him and took the HOB outside to clean the impeller and get it going
again. Got it back on the tank and ran it and two airstones with the canister for a while (the other fish recovered within an hour and the dojos where totally unfazed). The sad news is I was too late to save Scooby, but Twigs, my Bristlenose, survived. I’m back to having the HOB with the canister on the tank (got to check this morning to see if the water was there, but last night it wasn’t, so maybe moving my HOB solved the problem? I hope, I don’t want to tear down my tank to silicone it!). It could have been worse since I have some rare fish in my tank, but I lost one of my favorite fish, Scooby
. He was such a neat pleco, not hiding and coming out to greet me, my son said he felt guilty not coming and waking me up sooner. Luckily I woke up soon enough before oxygen depletion totally decimated my tank.
Well I called the LFS and told them what their advice did to my tank! The canister, although sufficient in filtration wasn’t oxygenating the water since I have the spray bar below the water so it isn’t breaking the surface. I also have plants
in the tank, so they were probably depleting oxygen at night (reverse to the day when they make oxygen). This is the same store I bought Scooby from and they ask about him or mention him when I come in, they were sad to hear I lost him too. But now I know the workhorse filter is the Penguin oxygenating the water and not to have the surface totally still
.
