Fish Swimming At Top Of Tank After Cleaning Out Media Sponges

[crmpicco]

Hi,

I squeeze and rinsed out the two media sponges, that reside inside my filter, in the tank water this morning before doing a 50% water change. Before I done the water change the water was quite congested with occupants of the media (waste etc).

After doing the water change, de-chlorinating the water and putting the filter/pump back on the water settled and became clear again after a few hours.

However, since the water has settled I have noticed my 5 year old goldie "Jack" has been up the top of the tank for most of the time. I also have a small shubunkin in the tank who seem to be unaffected.

Do you think there is an issue with the amount of waste that was floating around in the tank earlier this morning?

Any other idea why Jack is spending most of his time up the top of the tank?

I should point out that I am currently treating the fish for White Spot (every four days as advised on the bottle)

Some details on my tank are:

• one 5 year old comet
• one 2 month old shubunkin
• 3 live plants
• constant filtered/pumped water
• temp 18-20 degress celsius
• Hagen Tropiquarium 68 tank

Thanks,
Picco
twitter.com/crmpicco

 

[Mothi]

Hi, I'm not sure what is wrong with your goldie but you shouldn't rinse the media in the tank. You should rinse the media in the water that you have taken out from the tank to throw away.

Cheers,
Mothi

 

[blinky000]

Sounds like you've stripped too much of the beneficial bacteria and now there's a build up of waste. My recommendation is 25% water changes everyday/every other day until you can get hold of some Nutrafin Cycle or another kind of filter bacteria aid. That should kick start the bacterial growth in the sponges and make sure everyone's happy again. Adding a little bit of aquarium salt (NOT table salt!) will help the fish absorb oxygen in the water a little better too.
Never clean more than about 30% of the sponges at any one time and try not to do it any more than every 2-3 months. And Mothi's right. Make sure it's in a separate container of original tank water next time
One more thing, your tank only holds about 15 gals. Each single tail fish (commons, comets, shubs etc) should have at least 20 gals each. That's probably another reason you're starting to see symptoms of waste build up so quickly. Great excuse to get a new tank

 

[crmpicco]

Sounds like you've stripped too much of the beneficial bacteria and now there's a build up of waste. My recommendation is 25% water changes everyday/every other day until you can get hold of some Nutrafin Cycle or another kind of filter bacteria aid. That should kick start the bacterial growth in the sponges and make sure everyone's happy again. Adding a little bit of aquarium salt (NOT table salt!) will help the fish absorb oxygen in the water a little better too.
Never clean more than about 30% of the sponges at any one time and try not to do it any more than every 2-3 months. And Mothi's right. Make sure it's in a separate container of original tank water next time
One more thing, your tank only holds about 15 gals. Each single tail fish (commons, comets, shubs etc) should have at least 20 gals each. That's probably another reason you're starting to see symptoms of waste build up so quickly. Great excuse to get a new tank

Excellent, thanks. This is absolutely the mistake I have made. I suppose in hindsight I just dumped some rubbish into my fishes tank Not good.

The fish seem to be ok now after last weekend's debacle, but I guess it wouldn't have been a good time for them. I will ensure that I rinse the media out in tank water that has been removed next time.

I believe the tank holds 72ltrs - is this too small for the fish I have would you say? I wouldn't say i'm seeing a massive build-up of waste but I have to do at least a 30% water change with gravel cleaning every week!

Cheers.

 

[blinky000]

With the fish you have, you're looking at a tank around 150l when the smaller one grows up. You would probably be able to get away with a 125l while the shub is still little. The waste you need to worry about is the stuff you can't see. Fish actually excrete hormones into the water that stunt their growth. It's a way to prevent them out-growing their living space but once it's in their bodies, the fish will be permanently stunted. The general rule of thumb with water changes is 25% weekly but since the tank is a little smaller than it should be, I'd personally up that to twice weekly, just to be sure there isn't a build-up of waste etc