Tank cleaning question

[Garrett]

So, I was away last weekend, and having instructed my wife on how much to feed the fish, I figured I'd be in good shape. Unfortunately, somehow the filter became unplugged and the fish went several days without filtration. This was not good for my peppered cories, who were all dead when I got home on Sunday night. The rest of the fish were okay, and I immediately did a huge water change followed by a normal one on Monday morning. It's been a week now, and the water levels are back to normal and have held steady. I replaced the cories, as I needed some bottom feeders in there, but I've encountered a problem. There are bits of debris tangled in the java moss and my siphon is just not sucking it out of the java moss. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the crap out of there? I'm almost thinking about combing the moss, but I figure that it'll tear up the moss too badly.

Suggestions? Will the cories eat the stuff in there? I'm a bit concerned about mold/fungus growing in the moss where I can't really see it.

[rich311k]

I clean my moss by swishing it with my hand. Worst comes to worse remove it clean it and retie it back on.

[Aeonflame]

if you have a powerhead, you can try using that to blow the moss clean

[lahlumdi]

So sorry to hear about your cories. I love the critters.

[bushwhacker]

pull it out and wash it clean if it bugs ya that much

[Northernguy]

Sorry about your corys!
I tear the crap out of my hornswort getting it out! lol Good thing it grows so fast!Got any pics!
Use scissors and be gentle!lol

[Garrett]

I was leaning towards the scissor method myself...I just didn't want to make seaweed salad out of the moss. That or an old comb might work.

I have not mastered the art of fish tank photography, so no pictures.

I was really bummed out by the cories, I loved the little guys. I kinda had to breathe deep and not blow my top, my wife's taken no interest in fish unfortunately and didn't even know what to notice to see the filter wasn't working.

[VIP]

oh... thats not too good...i am sorry to hear about your losses.

to be honest with you my friend dont really care about the fish either, but really like to look at the tank though, and will give me compliments about the set ups, to encourage me.

for the first time i ask him to feed the fish tonight...telling him how to do it and everything...( just flakes to start...), he look at me and tole me like annoyed: i d feed fish befor eyou know...? and me to answer to him: you never fed MY fish though...

i was looking at him doing it , trying to look like i was not really paying attention about what he was doing... but.. gee my fishes man ! how important those little living things are...!

I am sorry again about your cories...and about the moss, i dont have a lot of experience with natural plants, but i think Aeoneflame ' s idea seems to be pretty good...


i would definitly try you comb idea too, if its a bog comb, i mean with a big separation between the teeth, it should be ok i guess...

let us know what you ve did...

[Garrett]

Well, I woke up this morning. Two of the new cories are dead, a third's on his way out. They almost seem to have internal bleeding. This is 24 hours after they're introduced to the tank. The pleco's fine, everyone else is fine. Water params are perfect, ammonia's zero, ites are 0, ates are at around .4ppm.

I'm breaking the tank down now, going to replace the substrate with play sand and boil the slate/driftwood. Everyone's in a 5g 'oh crap' old betta tank my sister had with the filter running to keep the cycle going. I'm *sure* I'm going to get a minicycle with this, but really, what choice do I have?

[dragoonwoman]

I'm sorry for your losses. I have several Emerald Cories and I think they a lot of fun to watch.

Tear down and rebuild is something I've done before, but it's NEVER fun and I always worry about the "aftershock." GOOD LUCK.

Just wondering - did your wife use any chemicals around the tank? I killed a Betta by using air freshener in the same room as his tank (and YES there was a cover on the tank at the time, a tight one or so I thought).

[Garrett]

No, that wasn't the problem. She was actually sick all weekend, spent most of the day watching food network eating chicken soup. Not that I can blame her, that's my plan for head cold with ESPN subbed in.

Water's going back in now, hopefully the sand'll settle sometime before I have to head out at 4. Four plus hours should be enough to get the water to the point I can put most of them back in, I would think.

*edit*
Looks like the third cory's not going to make it, he's upside down in the ohcrap tank and not moving. The fourth one's doing fine, guess he didn't eat whatever it was that killed off the others.

[dragoonwoman]

It's heartbreaking to watch fish die one by one, especially when you have no idea what's killing them.

I feel your pain.

Hope your wife gets better soon, and that you don't lose any more fish.

[Garrett]

Well, the switchover's done, and what a day it was. I just finished adding water to my tank when I got a call from a buddy with a 40. His sprung a huge leak and had to be completely replaced, so I went over to his place and helped him set up the new tank. Filter's okay, he doesn't have to worry about a cycle. He did give me some of his half inch molly babies for my trouble, which is cool. We'll see how they take to the tank, I'll probably trade some of them in at the LFS when they're big enough to tell genders. With the barbs and zebras in there I'm not too worried about a fry explosion.

Now to continue my normal Thursday activities. I just want to be done running around and taking care of tanks, why cant' they all behave as well as my 10! :11: