What’s wrong?!

[FishGuest5123]

Did you put your old filter media back in too? If not, then you threw out a big chunk of your beneficial bacteria that had grown on the media. That and the fact that you scrubbed everything down, leads me to believe that your fish are now in an uncycled tank. What are your water parameters right now?

 

[Naughts]

I wouldn't use any plastic that has been boiled. Heat can cause plastic to break down and leach chemicals.

 

[CassCats]

I would throw out anything porous.
Just restart fresh brand new items.

Unfortunately transferring cycled media from this tank wouldn't help as the toxins could be on the media too, which really sucks.

You aren't a terrible pet owner. You just made a mistake, it happens, but you are doing your best to try to fix it. The fact you care makes you a good pet owner.

 

[RenC]

Did you put your old filter media back in too? If not, then you threw out a big chunk of your beneficial bacteria that had grown on the media. That and the fact that you scrubbed everything down, leads me to believe that your fish are now in an uncycled tank. What are your water parameters right now?

I can’t use old filter media because the toxins might have seeped into it, I have no choice but to restart unless I want to continue to poison them all unfortunately

 

[RenC]

I wouldn't use any plastic that has been boiled. Heat can cause plastic to break down and leach chemicals.

I would throw out anything porous.
Just restart fresh brand new items.

Unfortunately transferring cycled media from this tank wouldn't help as the toxins could be on the media too, which really sucks.

You aren't a terrible pet owner. You just made a mistake, it happens, but you are doing your best to try to fix it. The fact you care makes you a good pet owner.

it’s hard because I’m a college student and I don’t have a lot of money. I poured a lot of it into redoing the tank but luckily most of what I had was live plants and the wood I used got coated in some rubber so that if anything did seep into it it was closed off now and basically fresh. And yeah I figured with the media so there’s new media in there

 

[FishGuest5123]

You will need to really watch your parameters and do a water change anytime your ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates go up. Prime will help too. So sorry you are going through this. I had a really bad ich breakout in the Spring and wantEd to just give up. We’ve all been there. Hang on!

 

[CassCats]

If budgeting new equipment is hard, there's some DIY stuff you can try that can help.

I hear you on the budget front. I had forked out a lot of money replacing stuff on my 55.

 

[RenC]

Did you put your old filter media back in too? If not, then you threw out a big chunk of your beneficial bacteria that had grown on the media. That and the fact that you scrubbed everything down, leads me to believe that your fish are now in an uncycled tank. What are your water parameters right now?

They’re good right now, 24 hours after being put back in the ammonia and nitrates are at 0ppm I will be closely monitoring it. Right now I think I have three fish that will live, there are two fish that are showing some symptoms but I’m hoping clean water and carbon and lots of monitoring and water changes will help

 

[RenC]

You will need to really watch your parameters and do a water change anytime your ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates go up. Prime will help too. So sorry you are going through this. I had a really bad ich breakout in the Spring and wantEd to just give up. We’ve all been there. Hang on!

I plan on checking them at least once a day and performing a water change as soon as it goes up and I have prime on hand. And thank you! I’ve been through this with ich before too and had all my fish die besides 4. It’s just hard seeing animals you love die and doing your best to help but not being able to.

 

[RenC]

If budgeting new equipment is hard, there's some DIY stuff you can try that can help.

I hear you on the budget front. I had forked out a lot of money replacing stuff on my 55.

Is there any diy stuff you can recommend? I throughly washed down my filter parts itself and ran hot water through the whole system for a while and then cold and did the same with my heater and air pump. Plants I hoped would do osmosis and get rid of any toxins within them over two days. And it was my bad saying I boiled the plastics I more tan them under hot water and scrubbed the daylights out of them and then let them sit in normal water for a day with water changes to make sure that if anything leeched it wouldn’t leech back in

 

[RenC]

If budgeting new equipment is hard, there's some DIY stuff you can try that can help.

I hear you on the budget front. I had forked out a lot of money replacing stuff on my 55.

Oh and I had a spare air stone that I used because I figured air stones are very porous and that since I had a spare one I would use that

 

[CassCats]

Id get a fresh jar, put your new filter media in it and create a DIY sponge jar.

Need:
1 jar
Media of whatever sort
A siphon hose tube slightly longer than the height of the jar.
Airline
Air pump.

Put your media inside the jar, put the tube in the middle of all the media, put the airline hose inside the tube. It works like a sponge filter.

I run a couple tanks on these actually.

My crayfish, betta, and fry tanks are run on these.

Id you already have the media and air pump, it'll be dirt cheap and easy to make.

Heck I even used an old intake tube from an AC filter to use my crayfish filter.

 

[RenC]

Id get a fresh jar, put your new filter media in it and create a DIY sponge jar.

Need:
1 jar
Media of whatever sort
A siphon hose tube slightly longer than the height of the jar.
Airline
Air pump.

Put your media inside the jar, put the tube in the middle of all the media, put the airline hose inside the tube. It works like a sponge filter.

I run a couple tanks on these actually.

My crayfish, betta, and fry tanks are run on these.

Id you already have the media and air pump, it'll be dirt cheap and easy to make.

Heck I even used an old intake tube from an AC filter to use my crayfish filter.

View attachment 122390

Cool! I have everything but the siphon hose tube

 

[CassCats]

Cool! I have everything but the siphon hose tube

A hardware store should have those available pretty cheap. Could even get one wide enough to fit the airstone in it depending on the kind you got.
Could use a PVC pipe instead of the siphon hose too if its cheaper.

 

[RenC]

A hardware store should have those available pretty cheap. Could even get one wide enough to fit the airstone in it depending on the kind you got.
Could use a PVC pipe instead of the siphon hose too if its cheaper.

My dad probably has some pvc laying around