Basically, I've had a tank for about four months. 15-gallon. I cycled it and referred to my local fish store for help along the way; it's my first tank. I added plants that I grew myself and the tank has been my baby. I had a slight ammonia spike after adding new fish about 2 months ago but I did WC and added prime and it was okay. My tank has an all in one filtration system in the back with 3 sponges and white filter cartridges (fluval 2.0) it was a kit reccomended to me.
Yesterday i noticed no water getting to the output, my white filters were all clogged up and blocking flow. I washed them in tank water but they still didn't let water through, so I did research and saw that I needed to replace them and that my bacteria would be fine because it's in the sponges as well, so I took them out last night. I got home from my classes today with the new cartridges and saw that I had a 3 dead fish and others gasping. I immediately did a 50% water change and added prime as well as the new filters because the others were in my trash and had been taken out (my mistake). I had to go to work and after the water change the fish looked better. My friend went to the fish store for me to grab more prime and some advice while I was at work. The employee said that I should've never taken it out and that I needed to rinse in tank water, but I did that and it was all matted with no flow, it simply wouldn't let water pass through. I got home from work to find another fish dead, my electric blue ram and another struggling, I added more prime and watched one die in front of me, it was devastating, this tank is my baby. I'm down to only four fish now and I need to keep them alive. I went to an online vet who said to do an emergency water change again and add more prime and some stabilizer, which I did but I had to use off brand stabilizer from walmart because I ran out of seachem. What is the next step? and how can I avoid this. My fish are dying but what am I supposed to do when I can't get water through an old filter. Now I'm stuck with a new filter and it feels like I am re-cycling my tank while my fish die.
Yesterday i noticed no water getting to the output, my white filters were all clogged up and blocking flow. I washed them in tank water but they still didn't let water through, so I did research and saw that I needed to replace them and that my bacteria would be fine because it's in the sponges as well, so I took them out last night. I got home from my classes today with the new cartridges and saw that I had a 3 dead fish and others gasping. I immediately did a 50% water change and added prime as well as the new filters because the others were in my trash and had been taken out (my mistake). I had to go to work and after the water change the fish looked better. My friend went to the fish store for me to grab more prime and some advice while I was at work. The employee said that I should've never taken it out and that I needed to rinse in tank water, but I did that and it was all matted with no flow, it simply wouldn't let water pass through. I got home from work to find another fish dead, my electric blue ram and another struggling, I added more prime and watched one die in front of me, it was devastating, this tank is my baby. I'm down to only four fish now and I need to keep them alive. I went to an online vet who said to do an emergency water change again and add more prime and some stabilizer, which I did but I had to use off brand stabilizer from walmart because I ran out of seachem. What is the next step? and how can I avoid this. My fish are dying but what am I supposed to do when I can't get water through an old filter. Now I'm stuck with a new filter and it feels like I am re-cycling my tank while my fish die.
