Please Help!

[Miles_hot]

The bacteria in your filter need to be wet and preferably being fed with some ammonia solution. can you get the media out of the filter and into that sort of situation - maybe a cotton bag suspended in the tank which has the solution in it or a bucket? Obviously if you can get some movement that would be idea - maybe the convection current from a heater would be enough? Anything to prevent you losing all the bacteria by drying out / starvation...
Miles

 

[Mowbz]

Do you have and airstone you could put inside the filter and run? I would create a bit of water and oxygenation in the filter chamber while you wait for spares?

 

[-Jo-]

Do you have and airstone you could put inside the filter and run? I would create a bit of water and oxygenation in the filter chamber while you wait for spares?

I dont have that unfortunatly. The sponge is completly dry now.

 

[riogal_11]

What a bummer! Sorry you had such a set-back after 43 days of patience! Hopefully this hasn't discouraged you and you'll get everything going again in no time.

 

[-Jo-]

What a bummer! Sorry you had such a set-back after 43 days of patience! Hopefully this hasn't discouraged you and you'll get everything going again in no time.

Thank you - I can safely say I am well and truely gutted by the whole thing. Knowing that its basically back to square one after 43 days saddens me immensly Although I havent been discouraged too much - As soon as all my new bits and bobs for the tank have arrived it will be up and running again. I have learnt sooooo much from people on here that hopfeully my next expereince with cycling will go quicker (*prays!!!*) and without too many hitches as I know so much more about it!

 

[tribalbrit]

where are you Jo? could send you some "mulm" out of my well mature filter, if you're local

 

[-Jo-]

Im from Devon in the UK. My sister is hopefully going to get me some mature filter tomorrow as her work friend keeps tropical fish. But thank you!

 

[Mowbz]

Im also happy to post media to get it going again.

Theres a theory, that even dried up bacteria can "come back to life". Not sure its proven, but with a decent chunck of mature media in there as backup, i think you could be running in a week

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Im also happy to post media to get it going again.

Theres a theory, that even dried up bacteria can "come back to life". Not sure its proven, but with a decent chunck of mature media in there as backup, i think you could be running in a week

As resilient as the nitrifiers can often be there's one thing they definitely cannot survive and that's drying out. But that really does mean dry. If there's even a tiny amount of residual water they will probably survive. While a sponge can 'feel' dry to us it still may be plentifully wet enough for the nitrifiers, so it may still be worth using the old sponge.

 

[phoenixgsd]

Im from Devon in the UK. My sister is hopefully going to get me some mature filter tomorrow as her work friend keeps tropical fish. But thank you!

im from devon too i really hope this hitch hasnt set you back too far

 

[-Jo-]

What I will do is use the old sponge and see what happens. The sponge is a bit damo underneath - but very much dry on top. Im hoping that the new motor head and impeller will arrive today - so will be able to get it up and running again this evening. I have 2 carbon filters in the tank aswell - which are very dirty (due to my tannin problem i had a while ago) - is it wise to keep them in there or change them? I have bought 2 new carbon filters anyway just in case.

Can I just say, thank you so much for all your help and support. I feel so much better knowing that I have the masters of fish on here to help me out!

 

[Mowbz]

If the carbon has been in there a while its likely harbouring bacteria by now, so i would leave it in. Hopefull after a few days you'll see levels comingb back into line, but we'll have to see. Its an unfortunate set back, and not one ive ever seen before!

I would take up the offers of mature media, any extra help will get fish in that tank quicker!

 

[-Jo-]

I know what you mean - its a very bizarre set back! could only happen to me tho!

at the risk of sounding totally stupid (I will put it down to my devastation! ) but when I get mature media - what is it going to look like and where do i put it? People have said that it can be cut offs from other people sponges, and also it could be water from already matured tanks?

My stuff hasnt arrived today tomorrow then hopefully!

 

[Mowbz]

Unfortunately there is a pool of people that think the water is beneficial. If you were moving fish and media to a new tank i would say its worth chucking a 50/50 mix of old and new in if stocking straight away, if anything just to help settle the fish. For cycling, its pretty useless.

"Mature Media" can come in quite a forms, depending on the person donating it. It will pretty much be any type of media you can buy on the market, sponge, ceramic, floss, etc. This is where the majority of bacteria are. (Overtime a layer will build up on anything in the tank, a sort of slime, but this again doesnt provide the same level of biological filtration)

Some people might give you cuts from large sponges, some might give you a whole sponge from an external, etc.Some might give you a bag of ceramis balls or noodles, all are good. Especially ceramic. Not many people will give this away as its normally expensive, and lasts pretty much forever. Nothing wrong sponge however.

I normally give floss, as its the most commonly changed media i have. I swap out a quarter of an externals worth every 6-8 weeks, and by this time, its cycled, and the amount is probably good enough to immediately lightly stock the tank, and build up very gradually over a period of weeks. (Would always recommend a test with some ammonia over a few days before putting fish in however, which i can also place in self seal test tubes and post.)

In other words, only something from inside a filter is any good, and you get what you're given lol

Hope your parts turn up soon

 

[-Jo-]

I have ceramic noodles in my tank - so if my sisters friend decided to give me some of them to add to it then that would be great. Thank you for your help on that - its cleared up a lot of questions Ive had on it. Can you put it anywhere in the filter system? just squeeze it in wherever? ha!

All my stuff has arrived about 10 minutes ago - the postman left it with our next door neighbour because there was no one in to collect it. Am ripping everything open at the moment and will start everything up again pronto! will let you know when i get stuff started again!