Cleaning filter

[Wyckius]

I clean filter sponge and filter every 2 weeks with tank water .every month my one of the fish dies .do you think it is because of filter cleaning ?.I have live plants too.I
I doing water change every 2 weeks 50% and then I clean filter 20%

 

[Colin_T]

What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level in the water?
What sort of filter do you have and how do you clean it?

Established biological filters should be cleaned at least once a month. You are doing it every 2 weeks and that is fine. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. When you do clean the filter, wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. The filter case and motor can be rinsed under tap water.

If you are replacing the filter media when you clean the filter, you will be getting rid of the beneficial filter bacteria and could have an ammonia or nitrite reading, and this could kill the fish. Any ammonia is bad for fish and if the pH is above 7.0, it becomes more toxic. You appear to have some limestone rocks in the tank, which are made from calcium carbonate and that will raise the pH up to around 8.5, maybe a bit less. If the pH is this high, a very low level of ammonia could kill the fish.

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What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Mollies need a GH of 250ppm or higher, and a pH above 7.0.

Bettas and bristlenose catfish come from water with a GH below 150ppm and a pH below 7.0.

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What sort of fish have been dying?
What symptoms do they show?
How soon after the water change or filter clean do they die?

I can see a bristlenose catfish, a Betta and some balloon mollies.
What other fishes are in the tank?

Balloon mollies are badly inbred and severely deformed to have a much shorted body than their ancestors. This causes their internal organs to get squished up and the organs can't always work normally. This along with the genetic issues caused by inbreeding makes balloon fishes very weak and most of them die within their first year. It's preferable to avoid balloon fishes of any kind due to these issues.

Mollies from Asian fish farms regularly carry intestinal worms and gill flukes. These weaken the fish and make them more susceptible to diseases. You can't normally tell if the fish have worms but 99% of the livebearer fishes (mollies, guppies, swordtails, platies) coming out of Asian fish farms have them.

Section 3 of the following link has information on treating fish for intestinal worms. Round worms (Camallanus) are the most common found in aquarium fish and can be treated with Levamisole or Flubendazole.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

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[Archerfish]

I clean filter sponge and filter every 2 weeks with tank water .every month my one of the fish dies .do you think it is because of filter cleaning ?.I have live plants too.I
I doing water change every 2 weeks 50% and then I clean filter 20%

Are you cleaning the filter and doing a partial water exchange at the same time? It is best to alternate. I can't see any filtration in your picture. Where is the sponge filter? Have you tested your water quality?

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. I change half the water in my tanks every six to seven days, no excuses. I don't use filters for this reason. Filters are generally quite expensive and do a very poor job of removing pollutants from the tank water. In addition to an aggressive water change routine, you can't keep too many fish and you can't feed those you have more than three to four times weekly and just a bit of a variety. Fish just don't need much to eat in order to stay healthy. Funny, you could say the same about how much people eat too!

10

 

[Uberhoust]

Funny, you could say the same about how much people eat too!

Yea I learned that the hard way.

 

[MaloK]

Hello. I change half the water in my tanks every six to seven days, no excuses. I don't use filters for this reason. Filters are generally quite expensive and do a very poor job of removing pollutants from the tank water. In addition to an aggressive water change routine, you can't keep too many fish and you can't feed those you have more than three to four times weekly and just a bit of a variety. Fish just don't need much to eat in order to stay healthy. Funny, you could say the same about how much people eat too!

10

Have you thought about a 100% Biological filter, something like a large area of loosely bundled mesh that can have months of water flow without clogging.

Intentionally seeded with detritus worms, pods / cods etc... Breaking down all organic matter and rendering some products directly available for plants...

These scavengers will keep the filter clean and filled with all the goodies with nearly no maintenance. And also add some live food to the tank.

Instead of only trapping mechanically the particles, they are also digested turned to nitrogen and processed with the rest.

I'm working on something like that atm.

 

[gwand]

Have you thought about a 100% Biological filter, something like a large area of loosely bundled mesh that can have months of water flow without clogging.

Intentionally seeded with detritus worms, pods / cods etc... Breaking down all organic matter and rendering some products directly available for plants...

These scavengers will keep the filter clean and filled with all the goodies with nearly no maintenance. And also add some live food to the tank.

Instead of only trapping mechanically the particles, they are also digested turned to nitrogen and processed with the rest.

I'm working on something like that atm.

Fascinating! Tell us more..

 

[MaloK]

This been used in large systems since dawn of aquaria, I'm trying to make something that work in the same manner with a small HOB like any Aquaclear box... They have a lot less surface.

It's still clogging too soon to have fun, but it will last vacation and a lot more for the moment... It released large strips of biofilm filled with living critters in the cleaning process, the shrimps caught that in flight...

For the moment The worms are having a hard time with the current but the seeds shrimps thrives.

With their constant movement across the mesh and all the matter they break down they keep a fresh biofilm layer that catches the smallest particles flowing that gets processed along with the rest.

Large systems means, lower water changes.

 

[Fishfunn]

I clean filter sponge and filter every 2 weeks with tank water .every month my one of the fish dies .do you think it is because of filter cleaning ?.I have live plants too.I
I doing water change every 2 weeks 50% and then I clean filter 20%

This may be a dumb question, but when you do your water changes, is the temperature of the added water the same or a little warmer than the tank water?

Also, I agree with a previous poster: try not cleaning your filter when you do the water change and see if that prevents any fish from dying.

 

[MaloK]

Mmmm... The way I see it... When cleaning the filter is the best time to do bigger water changes...

It leaves less nutrients in the water, leaving a little more time to your filter to cope with the rinse it got. The time it starts building back.

But... All roads leads to Rome. OP doesn't mention: Filtration, water treatment, parameters... etc.

 

[Fishfunn]

Mmmm... The way I see it... When cleaning the filter is the best time to do bigger water changes...

It leaves less nutrients in the water, leaving a little more time to your filter to cope with the rinse it got. The time it starts building back.

But... All roads leads to Rome. OP doesn't mention: Filtration, water treatment, parameters... etc.

I agree; just trying isolate his problem using the divide and conquer method.
Also looking at his aquarium, the bio-load looks pretty low, so cleaning the sponge filter every two weeks might be self defeating the little bacteria growth that is present there.

 

[MaloK]

For the moment I don't see one on the picture. Well except the two tiny black thing in the right back.

I would imagine a box or a riser of at least 20 GPh in that tank.

 

[angiemike6]

I do a 35% water change every 7 days, at which time I clean all the filter media sponges in the tank water I have taken out. At the same time I siphon all the poop of the surface of the gravel. My tank is probably overstocked. I only feed 3 times a week. PH 7.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 40-80 (The water supplied by local water company has nitrates of 35), GH 17, KH 8. I very rarely lose fish, mainly through old age. Most of my fish are more than 10 years old.

 

[Wyckius]

I just change water today before water change My parameters is
no3-0,30
No2-0,25
Gh-7
Ph-7,5
Cl2-0
Co2-7
I have fluval 207 filter (I have it for 8month now)
In 10 month I lost(died):
8 Betas female
12 Cory
3 plecos
3 molies
3 guppies
2 platys

Betas before died usually have swallow belly and not eat at all and died or stay on top and eat but died anyway

Cory usually day before day starting going to top and staying there

Molies ,platys just staying in corner and next day die

The Fish usually die after 3-4 days then I clean filter .they never died after water change 70l just then I change 15l with filter

I have catfish ,plecos,Cory,ballon mollys baby (parants died),blue/red/amino shrimp

I add room temperature water and aquarium temperature then change water dropped min not a lot just half degree .


Every week on Sunday instead dry food I give them frozen daphnia,shrimp,topical food or bloodworm .

 

[TwoTankAmin]

you should have 0 nitrite. That kills fish by occupying the part of the blood oxygen normally would. So no matter how well oxygenated one's water, the fish are suffocating from lack of oxygen in their blood. A bit of salt in the water, because it contains chloride, can block the nitrite from entering the fish. Read this article for how to sue salt to counteract nitrite https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

The level of nitrite is low, but I am thinking it may have been higher for fish to be at the surface where they are trying to breathe oxygen out of the air which both Bettas and corys will do.

Cory catfish are a little different from most fish because they can breathe air. They dash from the bottom of the aquarium up to the surface to take a gulp of air. They swallow the air as a bubble and then their intestines get the oxygen out of the air.

Also, did you mean to say shallow belly? If so, that is likely what is called wasting disease. In its terminal stages the fish stop eating. They have sunken bellies and may lose mass elsewhere. They will usually have white stringy poop for some time while they are still eating and pooping. This disease is cause by internal parasites.

In the states my med of choice for wasting is Flubendazole, but I cannot advise on what you can find in the UK. If this is what is the problem with your fish and UK member should make a med. suggestion. Flubendazole does not need to be eaten to get inside of a fish, so it is effective when the fish have stopped doing so