Mom left Bio-Media out to DRY!

So I'm going through a massive fish-emergency! I left the 25th to go to my fathers for Thanksgiving and came back today. While on the way back I bought 2 more Black Skirt Tetras to add to my 20 gallon and a 250ml bottle of Prime (I was running low on Prime), I get home and notice right outside of one of my 10 gallon Community Tanks, a dried out bag of Hydrocorn Bio-Media... I immediately feel a rush of anger and panic.

I go find her in her room and try to calmly ask her why did she take the Bio-Media out of my filter and let it DRY out... she completely writes off the whole situation and dismisses the fact that about 85%-or-so of the Beneficial Bacteria lives in the bag of Bio-Media, this got me SO angry to where I'm yelling, which then turned to crying, I was so devastated!

The 10 gallon Community that the Bio-Media came out of is the tank that I've been having some algae problems with (Which I've also started a thread about recently) and my mom has been trying to figure out the problem, which I have already figured out, she keeps saying the Moss Balls are doing it, oh the filters clogged, blah, blah. I don't mind her nagging and trying to be helpful, but for her to to start randomly pulling things out of my filter without even TELLING me (I spoke to her on the phone while away and she never mentioned anything about it) is so angering to me.

The only option I could think of was to go and get some Tetra SafeStart from the local pet store, which I did. Now I'm still angry but hoping I can save this mess. I bought the 1.69oz bottle of Tetra SafeStart Plus which say it treats up to 20g, but what else should I do? I don't want to do a W/C since I already added the TSS.

Thank you for reading, has anything happened to you similar to this?

 

How long has the media been out to dry? Even if it's been for all four days you've been gone, there's a chance there's some residual moisture deep inside the media with some BB still harboring there so it's worth plopping it straight back into the filter ASAP if you haven't already. Treat it like a fish-in cycle, use prime every other day, make sure your ammonia and nitrite together stay below 1. I don't trust the safe start stuff to actually work to any degree, but it's not going to hurt anything.

 

Agree with SM1199. Drop the bag back in the tank and let it do it's thing. It will repopulate with bacteria in a matter of 7-20 hours.

 

Don't panic. There should still be plenty of bacteria in your tank to keep your cycle going strong if the tank was cycled before the media was removed.

You may want to consider giving your Mom a break. She was after all just trying to help. There really was very little damage done.

 

So I'm going through a massive fish-emergency! I left the 25th to go to my fathers for Thanksgiving and came back today. While on the way back I bought 2 more Black Skirt Tetras to add to my 20 gallon and a 250ml bottle of Prime (I was running low on Prime), I get home and notice right outside of one of my 10 gallon Community Tanks, a dried out bag of Hydrocorn Bio-Media... I immediately feel a rush of anger and panic.

I go find her in her room and try to calmly ask her why did she take the Bio-Media out of my filter and let it DRY out... she completely writes off the whole situation and dismisses the fact that about 85%-or-so of the Beneficial Bacteria lives in the bag of Bio-Media, this got me SO angry to where I'm yelling, which then turned to crying, I was so devastated!

The 10 gallon Community that the Bio-Media came out of is the tank that I've been having some algae problems with (Which I've also started a thread about recently) and my mom has been trying to figure out the problem, which I have already figured out, she keeps saying the Moss Balls are doing it, oh the filters clogged, blah, blah. I don't mind her nagging and trying to be helpful, but for her to to start randomly pulling things out of my filter without even TELLING me (I spoke to her on the phone while away and she never mentioned anything about it) is so angering to me.

The only option I could think of was to go and get some Tetra SafeStart from the local pet store, which I did. Now I'm still angry but hoping I can save this mess. I bought the 1.69oz bottle of Tetra SafeStart Plus which say it treats up to 20g, but what else should I do? I don't want to do a W/C since I already added the TSS.

Thank you for reading, has anything happened to you similar to this?

Did you even test your parameters? Your mom has been trying to help, take a chill pill. You have a cycled 20 gallon tank right? Either transfer half of that media from that tank over to the 10 gallon tank or put your "dried out" Media back in the 10, add some TSS and watch your parameters. It could always be worse. Your 150 gallon aquarium could have exploded and you could have lost a few hundred dollars worth of fish, not to mention the tank...just sayin...

 

Did you even test your parameters? Your mom has been trying to help, take a chill pill. You have a cycled 20 gallon tank right? Either transfer half of that media from that tank over to the 10 gallon tank or put your "dried out" Media back in the 10, add some TSS and watch your parameters. It could always be worse. Your 150 gallon aquarium could have exploded and you could have lost a few hundred dollars worth of fish, not to mention the tank...just sayin...

I would never transfer Bio-Media from another tank to another, too much of a risk of spreading some type of an aquatic disease if there was one that went undiscovered, I went through a die-off due to a spreaded disease so that's why I'm careful now.

I don't have a 150g, nor do I have any expensive fish, although could be a 'what-if'. I wish I had that kind of a setup. I'm calmer now and she did apologize, but I was in a panic, not knowing what to do.

I believe everything is fine and the fish are showing no visible signs of stress. These fish mean a lot to me, and if something happened to them due to a mistake out of my control, I would be so hurt.

What made me angry was that I was never notified of what she had done. I did check parameters and everything seems to be perfect, I guess $10.58 for TSS went down the drain. If anyone in the future is reading this, if something is wrong with your fish, tank, equipment, just stand back and think of what to do next, don't act impulsively, and check your parameters.

Thank you for your help, to you and to SM1199 Cichlidude mattgirl

 

I would never transfer Bio-Media from another tank to another, too much of a risk of spreading some type of an aquatic disease if there was one that went undiscovered, I went through a die-off due to a spreaded disease so that's why I'm careful now.

I don't have a 150g, nor do I have any expensive fish, although could be a 'what-if'. I wish I had that kind of a setup. I'm calmer now and she did apologize, but I was in a panic, not knowing what to do.

I believe everything is fine and the fish are showing no visible signs of stress. These fish mean a lot to me, and if something happened to them due to a mistake out of my control, I would be so hurt.

What made me angry was that I was never notified of what she had done. I did check parameters and everything seems to be perfect, I guess $10.58 for TSS went down the drain. If anyone in the future is reading this, if something is wrong with your fish, tank, equipment, just stand back and think of what to do next, don't act impulsively, and check your parameters.

Thank you for your help, to you and to SM1199 Cichlidude mattgirl

I agree that you need to be cautious with cross contamination between new and established tanks, but if your tanks are well maintained, your fish are healthy, and you know that your tank is healthy, there is no reason to not use media from one tank to seed another new or struggling tank. I almost always cycle my tanks using biomedia from my other established tanks. If I can't trust my own well established tank to be disease free, it's not saying much for the care I give my tanks.
I did have a 150 that cracked and crashed and I lost every fish I had in it-some I'd had for years, that's why I said that. Dried out biomedia is a minor setback and easily remedied if you have another well established tank. I load my canisters with ceramic media just to have it on hand if I have an 'incident' like the one you just had. Extra cycled biomedia can equal an instantly cycled tank in an emergency. You might keep that in mind.

 

I would never transfer Bio-Media from another tank to another, too much of a risk of spreading some type of an aquatic disease if there was one that went undiscovered, I went through a die-off due to a spreaded disease so that's why I'm careful now.

I don't have a 150g, nor do I have any expensive fish, although could be a 'what-if'. I wish I had that kind of a setup. I'm calmer now and she did apologize, but I was in a panic, not knowing what to do.

I believe everything is fine and the fish are showing no visible signs of stress. These fish mean a lot to me, and if something happened to them due to a mistake out of my control, I would be so hurt.

What made me angry was that I was never notified of what she had done. I did check parameters and everything seems to be perfect, I guess $10.58 for TSS went down the drain. If anyone in the future is reading this, if something is wrong with your fish, tank, equipment, just stand back and think of what to do next, don't act impulsively, and check your parameters.

Thank you for your help, to you and to SM1199 Cichlidude mattgirl

You just bought new fish from the LFS. You took that risk with an unknown tank.

Look I think you need to apologize to your mother and tell her why you were angry. Look at it from her side of things. You were discussing things with her and she tried to help you. Just tell her that if she changes something she needs to discuss it with you first. That or don’t ask for her help.

That is good advice about taking a step back before losing it. Mistake happen but life goes on. It’s hard when your young but you will learn that as time goes on. I wish you the best and be nice to your mother.

 

I agree that you need to be cautious with cross contamination between new and established tanks, but if your tanks are well maintained, your fish are healthy, and you know that your tank is healthy, there is no reason to not use media from one tank to seed another new or struggling tank. I almost always cycle my tanks using biomedia from my other established tanks. If I can't trust my own well established tank to be disease free, it's not saying much for the care I give my tanks.
I did have a 150 that cracked and crashed and I lost every fish I had in it-some I'd had for years, that's why I said that. Dried out biomedia is a minor setback and easily remedied if you have another well established tank. I load my canisters with ceramic media just to have it on hand if I have an 'incident' like the one you just had. Extra cycled biomedia can equal an instantly cycled tank in an emergency. You might keep that in mind.

After the disease, I was strongly recommended to not share anything from one tank to another, that's why I also soak all my W/C equipment in a sink full of hot water and a capful of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide, then wash and let dry, or wipe dry with paper towels if I need to use right away.

I do weekly maintenance and just got AquarioGest, I think there's a few threads on FL about it, basically just a tank managment and water parameter logging software, really nice and worth the price of it, I try to do my best to make sure everything is running smoothly and fish are okay.

Sorry to hear about the 150, I've seen some videos of tanks being cracked.

You just bought new fish from the LFS. You took that risk with an unknown tank.

Look I think you need to apologize to your mother and tell her why you were angry. Look at it from her side of things. You were discussing things with her and she tried to help you. Just tell her that if she changes something she needs to discuss it with you first. That or don’t ask for her help.

That is good advice about taking a step back before losing it. Mistake happen but life goes on. It’s hard when your young but you will learn that as time goes on. I wish you the best and be nice to your mother.

Very good point there. I just felt safe getting the fish since my dad had recommended the LFS,, about 20 years ago he traded in about a 14 inch or so oscar to the guy who owns it, only thing I didn't like it how pushy the sales people were, I wanted just two more Black Skirts and they wanted to give me 20 different Gouramis, Shrimp, and Mollies, I guess maybe they work on commission. I would like to set up a QT tank in the future, maybe a 5 or so gallon since I mainly like smaller fish.

I do feel a bit embarrassed about this post I would like to clarify though, the yelling wasn't directed at her, but actually directed at how I was going to handle the situation, just never considered it happening before. Thanks for the advice.

 

I do feel a bit embarrassed about this post I would like to clarify though, the yelling wasn't directed at her, but actually directed at how I was going to handle the situation, just never considered it happening before. Thanks for the advice.

Everything in life can be a learning experience. Even this. Before getting upset it would have been best to just step back and assess the situation. If you had known that the bacteria is on EVERYTHING in your tanks you would have realized removing this one thing would not affect the cycle in the tank. Now you know that so you have learned something from this experience.

You are young, I am old (well in years, amazingly I don't feel old). As the years have gone by I have learned that I accomplish a lot more by assessing the situation before taking action of any kind.

I am glad this situation is behind you. Now go give your mom a hug and Thank her for trying to help.

 

Hind sight being 20/20 you mentioned you think 85% of your bacteria was in your bag of bio media. Most likely it was a lot less. Considering your bacteria is all over your tank, sides of glass, substrate, ornaments, outside of filter and inside of the filter. I'm guessing for a 10 gallon tank it was more like 25%. Not much more than a cartridge in a filter. Which, BTW, gets changed and thrown out millions of times a day all over the world. A new cartridge is installed and all these millions of fish tanks go merrily on their way just fine.