[chicago_animal]

I dont want to go into the reasons this all happened cause it will just piss me off again.

Basically after 3 months I found that my 135G has been running with only a heater, air bubble wand and a pump. Only light was from the sun and NO FILTER!!

I found one fish dead in the murky water. I added Microbe-Life Nite-Out 2 and Microbe-Lift Special Blend the last 2 days. Its supposed to help lower waste, ammonia and nitrates.

I dont want to do any major water change and harm the fish so I was thinking of doing 10/15 gallon water change every day till Saturday and then do a 25G change and leave it.

Any ideas on this?
Did some tests:

Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 1.0
Alk: 80
PH: 6.4
Ammonia: .25

 

[rgr4475]

You need to do a large water change right now and continue doing so to keep the ammonia and nitrites down. A large water change will not hurt your fish. Not sure about what you added but at least a 75% water change should be done right away. Since your filter hasn't been running you will probably be starting the cycling of your tank over. Since you still have fish alive, the only thing that will keep them from dying during this process is frequent water changes. Also dose the tank with Prime or something similar to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite.

 

[shellies215]

How do you not realize your filter was off ? Where you doing regular water changes over this 3 month time ? I'm not tryin to be funny here, but #@#% happens, I was lucky and was able to have my brother check on my fish a few times while I was locked up, but all he did was feed them.

 

[zimmy]

If you have not been doing regular water changes either, you'd be right to go very slow with changing the water. An abrupt change (even if it's to better quality water) can shock your fish. If you have been doing regular water changes (and my guess is you have since your nitrates are fairly low), I'd agree with rgr4475 that you should start doing large water changes.

+1 on the addition of Prime (or something similar) to detoxify the ammonia and nitrites.

What kind of fish are in the tank (Africans or SA/CA)? I'm asking because your pH is pretty low. This is a good thing in terms of ammonia toxicity.

 

[Lestango]

I haven't been in the situation but if for some reason I was asked to help a friend out of the dilemma you have described I think I would immediately do a 20% WC and then do a 10% per day indefinitely untill I were convinced the tank was stabilized by doing twice a day tests, b4 and after wc.

You said after a week you would stop the water changes. Why? :-? You won't need to do daily changes, but you need a sensible regimen of regular water changes. If you had been doing this, testing as you went, you wouldn't have gotten where you are. (sorry if this pisses you off-it does me too) :x

 

[chicago_animal]

I wasn't at home when this happened. I was out of town for business for 3 months. The filters were unplugged for some reason and not plugged back in. I still wasn't told the exact reason why they were unplugged in the first place. I was told that the water was topped off and fish were fed daily. That's all the "work" that was done.

I posted this cause of the water changes. I thought that it should be slow and not large. The water has only been topped off and nothing taken out except from evaporation.

Maybe my nitrates are low from the microbe-lift I have been doing the last few days?

And in regards to the last water chane on Saturday, I meant no more DAILY water changes. Lol

Thanks to all that replied and hope to hear more.

 

[zimmy]

I would definitely go very slow if there's been no water changes for three months. Your water change schedule sounds reasonable but I wouldn't stop till your water parameters tell you you can stop (ammonia and nitrites are back to 0). There might still be beneficial bacteria on the substrate and decorations so you're probably not starting from zero in terms of cycling the tank.

 

[rgr4475]

My main concern was getting that high nitrite reading down as well as the ammonia. I understand the reasoning for doing a slow water change but I think the extremely poor water condtions out weighs the worry of shocking the fish with a large water change. Just my opinion.

 

[jimmie]

Check it out ,check it out.do a 50% water change,get u some prime for when u add the new water,also clean out your filter,turn ur filter on of coarse,add some fresh water salt if u have cichlids ,an from then on,do a 25% water change every other week,an that would put u back on track....keep us posted an let us know what's up.Later

 

[chicago_animal]

Is the "Prime" people keep mention the Seachem Prime?

 

[rgr4475]

Is the "Prime" people keep mention the Seachem Prime?

Yes.

 

[PfunMo]

I find Ammo-lock is handy to keep on the shelf for times when I want to keep ammonia down. It's handy to hang in the outlet of a filter to soak up ammonia if there and it is very cheap, easy, etc.

 

[jimmie]

My main concern was getting that high nitrite reading down as well as the ammonia. I understand the reasoning for doing a slow water change but I think the extremely poor water condtions out weighs the worry of shocking the fish with a large water change. Just my opinion.

I agree on that one,you got that right,do a major water change.

 

[Dj823cichild]

:thumb: I Second that!

 

[borohands8593]

One possibly also, if you are keeping CAs or SAs anyway, is to lower the pH to 6.0. Ammonia is almost harmless at such low pH levels. Also agreed on ammolock, has saved cycling tanks of fish many times!

 

[PfunMo]

It may be way late to mention this but there can also be a big downside to doing large water changes. I would not go that way in this case without doing more study. It has been mentioned that ammonia is less toxic at low PH. What happens if he does a large water change and the PH flies back up to like 7.8 where the ammonia left may be twice as toxic. I would recommend getting the ammonia out before risking that.

The situation is probably much different than when originally posted Sunday. Any reports from
Chicago? Hoping for no more losses!

 

[zimmy]

It may be way late to mention this but there can also be a big downside to doing large water changes. I would not go that way in this case without doing more study. It has been mentioned that ammonia is less toxic at low PH. What happens if he does a large water change and the PH flies back up to like 7.8 where the ammonia left may be twice as toxic. I would recommend getting the ammonia out before risking that.

Bingo!

The situation is probably much different than when originally posted Sunday. Any reports from Chicago? Hoping for no more losses!

Me too. Curious to get an update on how things are going.