Under-Gravel Filter Keeps Breaking

[BoristheFish]

Hi, I am new on this forum. My blood parrot cichlid, Boris, has lived for about 6 years now and is the hardiest fish I have ever seen. however, recently his old under-gravel filter broke. The only reason that we have an under-gravel filter is that my father insists upon them. I would say that the tank is about 55 gal, and when the old filter broke, we went off to PetSmart to get a new filter. I would rather have gotten a filter that hangs off the side of the tank, as that is what i have in my smaller fish tank, but my father insisted that he wanted another under-gravel filter, so we bought new powerheads for the filter. The bottom part of the filter we left unchanged. However, about a week after purchasing the new powerheads, one started making an obnoxiously loud noise and had to be unplugged. A few days later, the other powerhead met the same fate. They are new powerheads and I cannot understand how they broke so easily, which had led me to believe that the bottom part of the filter is to blame. I should mention that the tank has gravel, not sand.
Another thing I should mention is that boris loves to dig, and has exposed an entire part of the bottom of the filter. Do we need to take out the entire thing and start all over again? His tank is currently filthy, but he is so used to a dirty tank b/c he moves everything around into piles the filter is not very effective. What can i do to get Boris's tank in a new, clean condition? He hates the light so I would prefer a method without plants. Also, I would like to add a mystery snail as the gravel as of now is dirty beyond belief! However, I am worried these conditions will kill the snail. Any advice would be appreciated, as well as advice on how to clean all of the under-gravel filter. he questions i would like answered are, in short:
-How can i fix the new, broken powerheads?
-How can I clean the bottom of the UGF, is it needs a deep cleaning?
-Will taking apart a tank and putting Boris into a clean tank be too much of a shock for my dirty fish?
(he hasn't been moved his entire life)
-Would vacuuming the gravel help?
AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY
-Since both of his filters are broken, should I temporarily move the wall-hanging filter from my smaller fish tank into his?
Thanks, BoristheFish.

 

[alex.wardle]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
1stly he must be a hardy fish if u just asked the question. Should I vac
. I would recommend removing him from his dirty tank and giving it a right good dam clean. Take out all the gravel and wash it in a bucket of your tank water. Get rid of all the old gunk that will be under your old filter plate and tell your dad to get a wall hung internal filter or a external one. ( if you are to get a new filter i would recommend taking out some filter media from your other internal filters in your other tanks and adding it 2 the new or get you self a hole new under gravel fillter. I would also do a full massive water change as removing the old under gravel filter is going to kick up a lot of s**t.
Out of interest what are you stats.

 

[BoristheFish]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
1stly he must be a hardy fish if u just asked the question. Should I vac
. I would recommend removing him from his dirty tank and giving it a right good dam clean. Take out all the gravel and wash it in a bucket of your tank water. Get rid of all the old gunk that will be under your old filter plate and tell your dad to get a wall hung internal filter or a external one. ( if you are to get a new filter i would recommend taking out some filter media from your other internal filters in your other tanks and adding it 2 the new or get you self a hole new under gravel fillter. I would also do a full massive water change as removing the old under gravel filter is going to kick up a lot of s**t.
Out of interest what are you stats.

The stats are horrible, I just got the water tested at PETCO.
The ammonia is a little high but not too bad
the nitrates are off the charts

the man working at PETCO said that it was "the worse nitrate result" he had ever seen. I am going to do a major tank clean tonight, I had no idea it was this bad as my father seems to have a bunch of false information about the under-gravel filter. He said it did not need to have the gravel vacuumed, that the nitrates were fine, etc.
i found out the tank hasn't been actually deep-cleaned in 7 years and I am extremely upset b/c my father is supposed to be the one taking care of Boris and obviously he isn't.

The instructions I was given at PETCO were to get a big 5 gal. bucket and clean the sh*t out of it, then siphon water directly from the tank into the bucket and scoop out Boris and add him to the bucket. Then, siphon out most of the water left in the tank and dump it because it is useless. Then, take the UGF plates out from the bottom of the tank and CLEAN them till they shine. Then, scoop out all of the gravel and clean it and strain it until it is no longer covered in silt. Then dump the remaining water from the fish tank and DEEP CLEAN the whole thing, no soap. Then re-add in the UGF plates and tubing and powerheads (which should work if I clean the plates) and re add the cleaned gravel and fake plants and coral. then, add in 45 gallons of new water and the old 5 gallons of Boris water and add Boris in too. Phew.

This is a several hour job and I am starting right now, but first- are there any corrections to the cleaning method?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd hate to disagree with you alex (but I'm going to anyway!)

There's a thing called 'old tank syndrome' that might apply here; you could shock Boris by putting him in totally new water if he's been used to living in that dirty tank all his life. How often and how much water are you changing in Boris's tank at the moment? And how big is Boris? Do you have any test kits to check your water quality?

I'd suggest;
Do a series of 25% water changes using a syphon tube (and a dechlorinator!) to remove as much of the gunk from the gravel as you can. Do a water change every day for a week or so until it's in a more reasonable state; then give his tank the big clean as alex explains. If he has no filter at all at the moment, you'll have to up those water changes to 50% or 75% at least.

Try and persuade your dad to upgrade to a different filter. Under-gravels are a bit old-fashioned now and aren't really suitable for large chiclids. Maybe it will help if you tell him that under-gravel filters will not work properly unless the whole filter plate is completely covered at all times. If he really won't budge on that, you'll need to get a gravel tidy; it's like a perforated plastic sheet; some of the gravel goes under it and another layer goes on top, so that Boris won't be able to expose the filter plate.

You could move the HOB filter from your smaller tank onto Boris's, but don't forget that then your smaller tank will be unfiltered and will need water testing and lots of water changes.

I have no idea what to suggest about the powerheads, I'm afraid. It sounds like gravel or grit might have got inside them, but I'm only guessing...

Don't bother putting a snail or anything in there; the only way of keeping Boris's tank clean is regular water changes and vacuuming of the gravel. Live plants would probably be a waste of time; they'd only get torn up; you could give him a couple of plastic ones to play with!

Hope this is of some help to you. Good luck!

 

[fluttermoth]

Please don't 'scrub the filter plates until they shine'!!! Just wash them and the gravel in some old tank water, or you'll lose all your beneficial filter bacteria and your ammonia levels will go through the roof, possibly killing poor Boris!

Apart from that, what they've told you isn't so bad, but try and keep at least half of the old water if possible; then gradually introduce new water over a week or so like I suggested with some big water changes. Don't forget the dechlorinator; the chlorine will kill off the bacteria too (and might damage Boris too)

It really could shock and kill your fish if you do it all too quickly...

 

[Tolak]

10% water changes daily for a week, a good dechlorinator such as Prime for the replacement water. I would at least double if not triple dose with Prime. If you are going to vac gravel that has been neglected for that long don't do more than about 20% per day. After a week a few good 25% water changes a few days in a row should have things set straight.

The old water is going to be considerably harder, probably with a lower pH, and without a doubt have much higher total dissolved solids than the replacement water. The pH change itself won't really affect the fish much, but ammonia is more toxic at higher pH levels. Stirring up the gravel to clean may raise the ammonia level, this along with an increase in pH will cause an ammonia problem.

As far as replacement water being softer than the tank water, this is the problem for fish. Osmotic pressure will cause the weaker solution, the softer water, to migrate towards the harder solution, the fish itself. This will create a situation where it is difficult for the fish to eliminate waste products.

Besides neutralizing chlorine & chloramine, Prime will convert ammonia to ammonium, which is used the same as ammonia by your nitrifying bacteria but is harmless to fish at levels found in an aquarium. Prime also claims to neutralize nitrite, I've been trying for years to get this trade secret component out of them, no luck yet.

 

[BoristheFish]

The smaller tank is filtered so I could put that filter into his tonight and have my smaller fish go w/o a filter for 2 days.

Boris is a very large fish, i would say about 6.5/7 inches long and his head is very fat (due to his deformed mouth I believe), i'd say his head is about 2 inches wide.

Current water changes are about 10-15% every month.

I can't even find a fish net for him to scoop him out of the tank so I am unable to do much at the moment.

The tank is a custom made built-in, so it cannot be moved or taken out of it's current spot in the cabinet, and there is only an opening of about 4 inches over the top of the tank, so I cannot easily scoop him up with a small container, I need a scooper and I'll have to pick one up this weekend.

I am going to use the gravel vacuum right now then do a 20% water change and add water conditioner and the HOB filter from my smaller, already established and cycled tank for tonight.

 

[BoristheFish]

I vacuumed quite a lot of waste from the gravel last night, and added what must have been about 15 liters of new water, mixed in with some of his older water to reduce the stress. I added stress coat/water conditioner and ammonia remover to the tank, with a little extra, but I fear that what I added may have been too old to properly function, as today Boris is slightly slower than usual and seems to be "gasping" in the water. He is not hovering at the top or the bottom, he is swimming around like usual, but he seems to be breathing harder and swimming slower. I fear that I made some kind of mistake, any help?

 

[fluttermoth]

It doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong; it's probably just the stress of the change. Just keep going with smallish, regular water changes and keep an eye on him.

(Oh, and buy some new dechlorinater, just in case)

 

[Tolak]

Feed lightly as well, about 1/2 to 1/3 normal. The changes in water parameters may be a bit stressful, but in the long run are for the better of the fish. Think about it, would you feel better physically handling a stressful situation when eating at a breakfast buffet, then having a huge sub sandwich for lunch, followed by a king cut steak dinner, or eating considerably lighter while dealing with something stressful. Fish really don't know any better, and will continue to eat even when stressed, which adds more stress.