Tank Maintenance Killed my cycle

kmail5776

kmail5776

SR20 Powered
Nov 28, 2005
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I have a 10 gal. at work that has been up and running for almost a year now. A few weeks ago, I started increasing maintenance for fear of OTS. I gravel vaccumed the 1/2 in. substrate, and pulled a massive amount of gunk. I then took the filter floss out of my whisper 20 filter, and thoroughly rinsed it out in tap water. That thing was nasty. Of course, I have a secondary foam element, specifically for nitrifying bacteria. That one I didn't touch. I removed 4 gallons during that cleaning, and refilled with tap water that was left sitting in my cubicle the day before. At this point, my tank conditions were fine, 0 nitrite, 40+ nitrate (oops), no ammonia test, I took that one home.

I come in the next day, only to find the angelfish belly up. My coworker wasn't too happy about that. Not only that, but the water was beginning to cloud up. I tested the water and was surprised to find 3+ nitrite. Yikes. Fortunately only the angelfish were the casualities. I have since done 40% water changes every 2 days to get the nitrites down, I think washing the filter floss killed the cycle, and my tank is going through another cycle.
 
Whisper filters have very poor biological filtration. :( You most likely killed a large amount of bacteria off when you rinsed the floss in tap water. Next time try using tank water to clean the filters off with. ;) You may have to do a series of water changes while your tank goes through a mini cycle to keep nitrite levels down. Good luck. :)
 
Yes, yes. Whenever you rinse the filter media do so in tank water, NOT tap water! You most likely killed all the bacteria that was living on the filter media by using tap water.

Hey, live and learn. :)
 
I also don't trust just leaving the water sit out before adding. Did you use a water conditioner for chlorine and chloramine removal?
 
This is exactly what happened to me... but because I didn't recognize it as you did, it took both of my fish. All you can do is keep up with smaller, frequent changes until those bacteria catch back up to the bio load.
 
rbishop is spot on..if your water source uses chloramines..they won't gas off like chlorine..they use chloramines as it is more stabile and stays in the water longer.

rinsing the filter off in the tap would also wipe out the bacteria..rising in old tank water won't but still remove the mulm.

as you have just learned..use a good conditioner and rinse the filter media in old tank water( I use RO but only rinse one of the sponges off)
 
In my tank is a small second foam pad - for biological filtration. I figured that would hold the bioload, boy was I wrong. Yeah, the primary filter floss was clogged with mulm, the overflow was flowing as much as the main return. I figured the foam pad combined with the three houseplants growing directly in the tank should control the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates. I think the filter floss washed under tapwater also brought something that may have killed off the secondary foam pad as well.

I've used the tap water before in all my other water changes. I let the bottles of water sit under my desk for a day or more. I didn't use a conditioner. That could have been it. Well, just a warning, water conditioners are important. So sayeth the error of my ways.
 
nope. you killed off half of the bacteria maybe more. the bacteria is all over if you wash some of it off in tap water you kill that off. your tank is now going though a mini cycle. keep doing water changes to get the nitrate and nitrites down. get another ammonia test kit so you dont have to bring them back and forth. when your at it pick up a bottle of prime. its worth it.
 
and don't replace the angel. i can't imagine it would have lived much longer anyway. they get far too big for 10g tanks. what else was in there with it?
 
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