Newbie Advice

[Toploadertom]

Hi all, first time on this great site.

I have recently aquired my first aquarium (details in sig) which was established for about a year before I got it. My heater was damaged during transit and resulted in a dramatic increase in water temp(It was 36.2C at the worst!). I brought a new heater as soon as I realised the temp rise and quickly lowered the temp with a water change of 5 litres.

Unfortunatly I lost 3 diamond tetra & 1 X-Ray tetra to the disaster. This was a couple of days ago and the remaining fish seem ok. My current water temp is 24.5C and was just wondering if I should consider replacing the lost fish or not?

Any advice welcomed...

 

[OldMan47]

It looks to me like you at least fully stocked Tom. A pleco gets quite large and can probably not be kept long in a tank that size. The zebras and tetras are probably OK but I would not replace the ones you lost. Have you obtained a good water testing kit yet? The kind that uses liquids for testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates is the kind you will need. When or if you have troubles with your fish, people will almost always ask what your water parameters are so they can help you out. Without the test kit you won't be able to help us help you. This is pretty much the same anywhere you go on the web since the water chemistry is often such a big part of fixing fish problems.
Edit; Sorry, I almost forgot to welcome you to the forums.

 

[Toploadertom]

Thank you Oldman. Yes I have a liquid testing kit and will carry out a full test tomorrow. After reading the forums a bit Im slightly worried about when I cleaned my filter. Like an idiot I rinsed my sponges in tap water and not tank water... Is this going to cause me future problems?

 

[JenCliBee]

maybe... but in my experience bacteria is in the tank aswell as the filters so u should have bacteria still either way so i wouldnt worry 2 much this time but at least u know u made the mistake so u wont have that problem next time

oh and to the forum

 

[rabbut]

Quite probibly, what type of media is it? Sponge? If so, you may have just given your self a major headache. IMO the tank is overstocked, so a bacteria wipeout would probibly mean yo find most fish deat tomorrow I'd try and tet tonight for ammonia and nitrite at least. If they are zero still, you should (touch wood) be OK. If they are trace, or higher, get a waterchange done, and be ready for upwards of another 75% chanfe in the morning, according to test results.

I hope you don't need it, but if you do get trace ammonts of ammonia or nitrite, read [topic="224306"]this thread[/topic]

to TFF
Rabbut

 

[Toploadertom]

Test results pending...

EDIT: Nitrite is 0ppm, but not quite sure about the amonia one. Cant tell if its 0ppm or 0.25ppm... Or somewhere in between!

 

[guppy fan]

I'd probubly do a water change just in case. It can be hard to tell, comapareing the colors, sometimes.
Oh, and !

 

[vinylman]

maybe... but in my experience bacteria is in the tank aswell as the filters so u should have bacteria still either way so i wouldnt worry 2 much this time but at least u know u made the mistake so u wont have that problem next time

oh and to the forum

The majority of the bacteria lives on/in the filter media and inside the filter. A small amount lives on substrate, but if the sponges have been washed in tap water, that's most of the bacteria gone, I'm afraid.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

maybe... but in my experience bacteria is in the tank aswell as the filters so u should have bacteria still either way so i wouldnt worry 2 much this time but at least u know u made the mistake so u wont have that problem next time

oh and to the forum

The majority of the bacteria lives on/in the filter media and inside the filter. A small amount lives on substrate, but if the sponges have been washed in tap water, that's most of the bacteria gone, I'm afraid.

yes and no, while i agree that the vast majority of the bacteria live in the filter there's increasing evidence that the chlorine in tap was does not nuke bacteria as previously thought (it is thought resistence is developing in the bacteria strains we commonly cultivate). depending on how thoroughly you cleaned you may have nuked the bacteria colony, maybe not..... only water test results will tell us the truth.

the tank is heavily stocked at best (overstocked really tbh...) so if you had no bacteria colony you'd very soon see high levels of ammonia, if your just getting a reading between 0 and 0.25 then the bacteria colony is still alive. the trace of ammonia is either a mini cycle indicating you killed some but not all of your filter bacteria or is a constant indicating the filter is underperforming for the amount of fish you have (this is quite likley).

do some large water changes over the next few days and monitor the ammonia and nitrite, when we know what they are doing over a few days we can give some more advice.

 

[waterdrop]

agreed, lots of variables in the vigorousness and amount of time spent washing the media in tap water, including the age and firmness of grip of the bacteria down in the media.

 

[kj23502]

The majority of the bacteria lives on/in the filter media and inside the filter. A small amount lives on substrate, but if the sponges have been washed in tap water, that's most of the bacteria gone, I'm afraid.

yes and no, while i agree that the vast majority of the bacteria live in the filter there's increasing evidence that the chlorine in tap was does not nuke bacteria as previously thought (it is thought Resistance is developing in the bacteria strains we commonly cultivate). depending on how thoroughly you cleaned you may have nuked the bacteria colony, maybe not..... only water test results will tell us the truth.

I think it'd be wise to continue using tank water to rinse, just to be on the safe side Increasing evidence is good, but I'd like to know who's doing the testing and how they are going about this. Not second guessing you, Miss Wiggle, I'm just curious. You're very knowledgeable and I respect that!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, no i totally agree. i would never advise anyone to use un-dechlorinated water or to clean sponges under the tap.... just think there's no need for a blind panic if someone does by mistake.

 

[kj23502]

lol, no i totally agree. i would never advise anyone to use un-dechlorinated water or to clean sponges under the tap.... just think there's no need for a blind panic if someone does by mistake.

gotcha