Filter Broke and Now out of Control

[hawkeye477]

Hi All,
I have been having a problem for 2 weeks now and am at a loss at what to do. 2 weeks ago my eheim 2 prof broke, and the replacement part took a week to come in. I kept the filter sealed but all biological filtering seemed to die. I did 30% water changes every other day and have been doing so. But since putting the filter back on line I have been unable to control the ammonia. I am not sure what to do now as teh fish have started to die. I had 6 discus and am down to 5 now. Some fish are eating, most are not. They are jumping aroudn the tank which is common with ammonia spikes, also have tested and ammonia is high. PH is fine 6.7 and nitrates are slightly high.

Here are all my specs
40 gallon
Eheim 2 prof filter
UV Sterilizer.
86 degree temp
Use Salt in water
4 plants. all small

Any help on what i can do would be appreciated. Tank was fine for many years before this.

[Hollowman]

The only thing you can do while your new filter is cycling is huge water changes each day, feed very lightly and remove any uneaten withing half an hour.
My other suggestion would be to try to get some mature filter media from someone and put it on your new cannister.

Hope that helps a little.

Hollowman

[marchmaxima]

I assume the rules are the same with Discus as with all fish. When cycling with fish in your tank, change enough water each day to ensure ammonia and nitrite stay under 0.5ppm.

If that takes 50% water changes every day to keep these numbers, then that's what it needs. Sorry to say you might be in for a rough few weeks uness you can get some established media to help

Best of luck!

[costatoolio]

Seachem have a product "bacteria in a bottle" that would help get numbers of nitrifying bacteria back up.

[hawkeye477]

Thanks, will hit the fish store tomorrow and pick it up. Has anyone ever used ammo-lock? does it actually work or make the tank worse?

[taksan]

Hit it up with a double dose of Seachem prime
it detoxify ammo

[Tommy01]

Chemicals may and do work to neutralise ammonia but I found that with discus the fewer chemicals in the tank the better. I would suggest lots of partial water changes and minimise feeding as was said above.
Good luck!

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum hawkeye.

Unfortunately you biological filter died during the week your Eheim was being repaired.

Biological filtration consists of a living breathing colony of bacteria. They need food and oxygen to survive. Being locked in the canister for a week without oxygen would destroy the whole colony. You may have saved some of them if you had removed all the filter media, and put it in a bucket with an airstone.

Now we need to start over again, and recycle the filter.

Are you able to get some used filter media from a friendly fishkeeper near you (even an aquarium shop)? That will kick start your new bio colony.

You will need to do a water change each day to keep the ammonia level down. Discus are very sensitive to ammonia, and prolonged exposure will kill them, as you are finding out. Even it doesn't kill them immediately, ammonia damages the gills and affects the ability to take up oxygen, so the fish never does quite as well as it should, even years after.

At each water change you will need to add something to neutralize the chlorine. If you use Seachem Prime, it will not only neutralize the chlorine, but detoxify ammonia and nitrite as well, allowing you to safely cycle the tank with the fish still in there.

I know it works, I've done it myself.

It takes a lot longer for the tank to cycle, probably ten weeks, rather than the six weeks it would take normally, because the concentration of ammonia is very low, but it's really the only way to cycle a tank while fish are present.

[hawkeye477]

Thank you guys very much for all the help. I guess I will be doing daily water changes for a long time and using seachem. Did one the last 2 days and all except 1 is eating now, doubt I will be able to save that one but the other 4 are at least eating now. The one that is in bad shape looks physically fine but is just staring directly at the back of the tank all the time? Does that indicate something I should be aware of? Also thru all of this I notice a thin white film on some of the discus. I have never seen it before and it does not look bacterial, does anyone know what it means? Does it mean stress?

Thanks.