Could you help me figure out what is wrong with my fishtank?

Question

I have the Aqua Culture Starter 10 Kit It comes with the AQUA-Tech 5-15 Power Filter with EZ-Change Filter Cartridge. It was running fine until a few kids come over and decided to feed the fish (They were trying to be helpful) I think they dumped a handful or two in there. My black Molly died shortly after very bloated and rear fin stuck in the part of the filter that sucks up water. I didn't know how much food there was in the tank until this point (Probably an hour later). We got the fish out emptied the tank and cleaned the rocks because we don't have a rock cleaner. Reassembled everything but the filter is no longer running. Is there a way to fix this or should I get a new filter immediately so I can get the fish back in the tank? Also was it the filter or the food that killed my molly?

Great I didn't know I was supposed to put the water in the filter... Hubby does the setting up. Now the question is, My water is now very cloudy, How do I fix this? Up until this I always changed 10 percent of the water once a week followed the directions on the conditioner and aquarium salt and never once had cloudy water.

I think that Since I had the aquarium and air pump running for a bit getting water to temp, that the filter not running made the water cloudy if this is the case should the filter clear it up or will I need to do a 20% water change every 2-3 days til it clears up?

Tank has been running very fine for a month. I found out about the food within 2 hrs, when the child visiting told me he thought the fish was dead.

Answer 1

Your fish probably died due to new tank syndrome you've not mentioned how long the system has been working, but reading between the lines you bought the set up and then put the fish in?
If so there's several things that could have gone wrong, tap water contains lots of different chemicals for your benefit including chlorine and fluoride both of which are toxic and will burn the gills of any fish. Never clean your filter material in tap water hot or cold, they both contain it. Always clean the filter material in the water you've removed from the tank.
It could be that you used a product to neutralise the chemicals, this means that the death of the fish was down to new tank syndrome this is where the lack of bacteria in the system causes the levels of toxicity to increase thus killing the fish, a mature tank will have spikes of ammonia which the bacteria convert to nitrite and then ultimately the less harmful nitrate, which can be consumed by plants or expelled throught gas exchange at the surface, i would suggest you get tester kits to measure these chemicals before putting any more fish in. If after testing the measurements of the first two are high then remove 50 pct of the water and replace it with treated water or water that has been left to stand for at least 24hrs, if the levels of ammonia and nitrite are 0, then you can add a fish, you should find the following day and increase of ammonia, nitrite as the day progresses the bacteria should start to reduce those two and you should see nitrate starting to increase, once ammonia and nitrite are back to 0 and the nitrate is back below .40 ppm then it should be safe to add another fish. Go through the same process each time.

If however, your tank has been running for several months the fact that an excessive amount of food was put into the system could be the problem if it wasn't spotted for several hours, the food would have overwhelmed the biological filteration or Bacteria in the system spiking the ammonia, if your Ph is above neutral say 7.5/8.0 this would have more of an effect on your fish than if it was 6.0/6.5 on the Ph scale again this would have caused instant death to fish surceptible to this combination. So you really need a Ph test kit aswell.

Finally I find molly's to be very picky they need a certain amount of salt in the water for them to be completely comfortable, of course it depends what else you have in with them whether you have compatability problems, tetra's would be fairly adverse to salt, so you would really need to check preferably by reading up on the subject as some shops will just sell you what they have plenty off.

AJ

The cloudiness is a bacterial bloom which means your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all high, just monitor them for the time being if it starts having a detrimental effect on the fish you could do a partial water change, but I'm loath to suggest it because your water supply may have a natural amount of nitrate in it, so won't solve the problem, if you need to do a partial you need to get some R.O. water (reverse osimosis) this has been filtered through a membrain removing most things detrimental to the system. Failing that mineral water, and a last resort distilled but thats had everything removed and can effect the Ph balance dramatically. The cloudiness should disappear over the next few days on its own as the bacteria run out of food and drop to a normal sustainable level,

Answer 2

More than likely, it was the food. If it wasn't the food, then the fish was already very weak and would have probably died anyway. Check the filter to be sure that all the parts are securely fitted together (this was the most common problem that I had). Also make sure you follow the instructions for setting up the filter. If this doesn't get the filter running, then you will probably need a new one. If you need a new one, it will probably be ok to return the fish to the water (make sure you de-chlorinate it first!), but get a replacement filter asap.

I find this website to be very helpful w/ my fish tank. on here you can also sign up for Tetra Care, which is a service that will help by e-mailing you reminders about certain things.

http://www.tetra-fish.com/aquarium/default.aspx

Good Luck!

Answer 3

I can't understand why you'd need to get a new filter; just rinse the cartridge in cold water (hot water will kill any beneficial bacteria) until no junk comes out of it. Your tank is new and definitely not cycled yet but I doubt that's the problem: overfeeding a greedy type of fish like that, yes, will enable it to eat itself to death. Hide the food from the kids if necessary and let them know it is bad to put anything in the tank (I've known them to add a bit of soap to try and clean up mr. fishy before too!) Clean the water and be sure no food debris is left behind, get the filter running again, and you should be ready to try again. If food has been left behind a while then you might want to go ahead and clean the gravel with a siphon to remove it so it won't break down and generate ammonia in there as it decays. Good luck!

Answer 4

We use mollies because they are a sensitive fish. If they die...watch out because it could mean bigger problems to come. It sounds as though all is about well now. Do do fresh water changes because it is the only way to add H20 for the fish to breath. 25-50% every week.

Answer 5

it could be two things -- did you prime the filter when you put it back together? you need to pour water into the filter to get the water to move through it again.

it could also be a problem with the impeller being clogged up or jammed. the link is to a copy of your filter's manual so you can find the impeller -- just pull it all apart and wash everything off. in the housing is a magnet that will hold the impeller in place. don't try to push it back in.

http://www.marineland.com/products/manuals/penguin_manual.pdf