CRS dying after filter cleaning

[fastlane]

:cry:Any expert can enlighten me, please?

I cleaned my canister filter yesterday using tank water. Poured away the black stuff sitting in my canister bottom. And also rinsed out the mechanical filter. That is all. Put everything together and started running again.

Notice CRS became very active, like frantically feeding on "stuff" coming out from the filter outlet. And some started swimming around the tank. Quickly put double dose of shrimp tonic but found one SS dead in the morning and just now two more grade A dying off soon.

What should I do? Can I replace the mechanical filter with a completely new one? Could waste from the old mechanical filter be leaking into the tank after rinsing?

I test everything and nothing as changed.

PH 6.8 - 7
GH 4
KH3
Nitrate 5 ppm
Nitrite and Amonia 0

[seetharam]

Do you have any biological filter media in your filter like Bio Balls, Cermaic Rings etc? If not i suggest you add that. CRS love feeding on this bacteria as well which is what i think they were doing with the stuff coming out of the filter.

Could be possible that you wiped out your bacteria colony when you cleaned the filter out. If you have any filter like sponge filter running on another tank, squeeze that into this tank.

You might want to check those test kits as well .... they are not very reliable.

[fastlane]

I changed 10% of my water last night and added shrimp tonic, bioplus and BB. Things seemed to have stablised. But could I ask if I want to replace the mechanical filter (the white sponge) in my ehiem filter. How should I do it?

[seetharam]

You could just replace it, Just squeeze the old pad with water into the base of the filter, that will have lots of bacteria to start off again. Then start using the new pad. Your other Eheim Pads (Blue Color) should also ideally have a lot of bacteria, so just changing the white pad is fine.

Also do you have Cermaic Rings or Bio Balls in your Eheim? If not i strongly recommend you add that to enhance your biological filtration. 70% of my filters are stuffed with bio media.

[Justin12345]

:cry:Any expert can enlighten me, please?

I cleaned my canister filter yesterday using tank water. Poured away the black stuff sitting in my canister bottom. And also rinsed out the mechanical filter. That is all. Put everything together and started running again.

Notice CRS became very active, like frantically feeding on "stuff" coming out from the filter outlet. And some started swimming around the tank. Quickly put double dose of shrimp tonic but found one SS dead in the morning and just now two more grade A dying off soon.

What should I do? Can I replace the mechanical filter with a completely new one? Could waste from the old mechanical filter be leaking into the tank after rinsing?

I test everything and nothing as changed.

PH 6.8 - 7
GH 4
KH3
Nitrate 5 ppm
Nitrite and Amonia 0

what do you use to wash your carninster? Tap or aged water ?

[JonathanBKK]

I am glad I read this post after I did my 6 month cleaning of my eheim 2213 otherwise I might not have done it :(

I also wondered if a chemical got in the water while washing it out, or if something from your hands got in there who knows I guess

I guess the good thing is you arent loosing anymore, nothing is more frustrating than the death of a shrimp

Recently I had a "jumper" my SS female decided she wanted to jump clear out of the tank, not an easy feat considering there is a 2 inch glass lip around the edge of the tank......found her dried out and dead on the table, real bummer. The only thing that lives on are the 8 shrimplets she dropped a few days before her death

[fastlane]

Definitely aged. Water from the tank itself. I change the mechanical filter yesterday. No death today as yet. And behavior of shrimp seems ok. They were feeding happily this morning. And the water looks crystal clear. I am off this weekend getting more high grade CRS stock to increase my breeding population.

[Berlin93]

l am not sure if this helps, what l do l scoup out and wash my hands with the tank water first then sue air hose to suck out like yourself 10% of tank water into a pail(DON't THROW AWAY).
next rinse the white wool with the pail of tank water, l only change to a new wool when it is very dirty and when it seems to have 'broken' with holes on it.
I also use the pail of water to rinse the cr, biohome.

Lastly, l will scoop water from the tank itself and slowly full up the cannister. That way your bacteria are not compromised.

maybe others can add. . .

[fastlane]

thank you all. the change to a new mechanical filter did not have any negative effect. I think if we change the white one and keep the blue one. And not change all at one go will help keep the BB colonies.