Shaina

Murphy's Law of Filters: Your old filter will die before your new filter arrives, even if you order a new filter while the old one is working fine.

Alright so I moved my 10 gal today since my 29 gal is going to be set up where the 10 gal used to be. Turned everything off, took out 1/2 the water, put the fish in that water, then removed the rest of the water. Moved tank, set everything back up, turned it on aaaand...no filter power.

I have one of those little Whisper filters, and it's about 6 years old. I filled it with water before turning it on, and it tried to get going then just stopped. The power source it fine, so it's not that. I took it off and cleaned it in case there was something stuck inside, but no dice.

Here's the thing: I already ordered a new filter for it from DFS yesterday (oh, the irony), but it may not arrive for a week. I don't really want to go buy another filter to tide me over for what may be only two days. Is there anything I can do in the interval b/w filters to keep my fish healthy? I have lots of bubbles going in the tank which provide decent surface agitation, and there are only two neon tetras in there right now. My main worries are
(1) lack of mechanical filltration
(2) lack of water circulation in main tank
(3) lack of helpful bacteria in the main tank, since there is no flow through the filter whatsoever.

If it's really necessary for me to get a little filter to tide me over I will yet this afternoon; just wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions first.

Tavel

I wouldn't worry about the lack of mechanical filtration for 2 days, but you still need that bio filtration.

Is your whsiper the internal kind? Maybe you could put an air stone or two in the filter to give it just a bit of circulation.

If not, maybe just put the filter cartridge in the aquarium with an air stone underneath it. Bubblers actually move a lot of water, so it might be enough to hold you over for the new filter.

Shaina

It's a hang on the back filter.

I realized that my unopened Aquaclear 50 was still in the bottom of my 29 gal, waiting for that, so I ended up putting that on the 10 gal on it's lowest setting after the rinsing the parts in treated water, and putting the old filter media from the whisper HOB in the middle in place of the carbon...hopefully the bacteria in the old filter media survived the transfer and can seed the new one. Even on the lowest setting and with the tank water filled to the brim it's a ton of current in there...

aquaclear 50 on a 10 gal--overfilter much?

COBettaCouple

Do the fish have little white-water rafts? Glad you found one to hold you over til the order arrives.

Shaina

Haha thanks CO, I *just* saw this.

I offered them rafts, but for some reason they elected to stay in the water...

COBettaCouple

LOL. I guess they're not extreme sports fish. Has the new filter arrived yet?

Shaina

Yeah, the whole DFS order came in Friday, which included the new 10 gal filter, so I put the new filter on the 10 gal too, to try to get it seeded. I had to rearrange the decor to create a calm water area for the poor neons -- 300 gph in my little 10 gal was a bit overwhelming for the little guys.

I figured they wouldn't be into extreme rafting -- apparently extreme swimming isn't up their alley either

Is it possible to over filter a tank? It makes me kinda nervous to have that much filtration on there, but I'm trying to get good bacteria colonies in both filters so I can move the bigger one to my soon-to-be-setup 29 gal...

COBettaCouple

I think as long as your fish are ok that you can't really over-filter a tank.. especially if it's just for a week or two.

BlueGreen

FYI: During Hurricane Charley, we lost power for six days and fortunatley not one fish was lost. You just never know.....

COBettaCouple

I remember that fun summer.

BlueGreen

Eheim all the way!