The Puffer Forum

Hi,
I have a 20" MBU in a 300gal tank with 2 FX6 and another all pond solutions 1400 gph external loaded with Purigean and floss
current water
.Amonia-0
-Nitrite - 0
Nitarate -30
-PH 7.2

I had a nitrate spike last week due to cleaning out my filters and the nitrates went off the chart!
I did 50% water change 4 days in a row and have just added the other external filter loaded with Putigen and floss to bring then Nitrates down and keep them down. They are currently about 30 and still falling.

My MBU however has not eaten for a week and is laying at the bottom of the tank breathing very hard. He tries to swim on occasion, but is a huge effort for him, probably makes 1-2 body lengths and then crashes back to the bottom of the tank and continues to breath hard...

He usually eats once per day and his usual diet is whole prawns, cockles in the shell and muscles (varied from day to day)... he usually eats quite a lot (can do 5 prawns at once but I try not to feed that much!), he also usually hand feeds

Any ideas? There are other fish in the tank (severums, Clown knife, flag tail)and they are all just fine, no signs of distress at all,

Given the Nitrate spike, and assuming this was the problem, how long should it take him to recover?

Here is a short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNyt9bw_7Gk

Any other ideas?

Please help, I am very worried about him!

Your tank is overstocked, if the knife is full grown. How many severums & how large are all the fish?
Is it possible a cockel shell got stuck in him?
Cleaning filters should not cause a nitrate spike. What test kits are you using? Maybe get the water tested at your LFS to be sure?

How can I tell if he has a stuck cockle shell?
I have tested with both JBL strips, JBL drops and API drops and the results are consitent.
If he has a stuck cockle shell how do I help him?

Usually, it works itself through. I have seen some die from it. Do a search here. You need more WC, to get that nitrate down. If the tank is indeed overstocked, not much else will help other than reducing the amount of bioload.

ok thanks!
I am working on rehoming my clown knife now...I will keep doing changes and keep an eye on him. I live in the UK, and my nitrates are 40 right out of the tap so not ideal! I have 2 litres of Puirgen in the external filter (just put it the other day but seems to be working). Ill do another 50% but my concern at this point with water changes is that the tank is currently less than the tap. I am going to get another external with purigen and filter the water prior to putting it into the tank. I currently use 2 200ltr water buts to do changes and fill and heat them 24 hours before, if I make it a 48 hour cycle, the purge will have an opportunity to absorb the nitrates in the tap water.

I just don't want to lose hime after a year and a half, he is a brilliant fish!

Yes, they are! Do you have future plans on upgrading for him?
I hope he is OK & just in a funk.
I'd seriously consider adding a veggie filter to your system to remove nitrate:
library/water-filtration/veggiefiltersrtr/
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=150

I think this is a prime example why I don't use cannister filters because they are ticking time bombs .Many people fall behind on maintenence in them because they can over filter very well but when you get behind on cleaning the filters are just feeding amonia to your fish
They are a pain to clean and another reason why people fall behind on cleaning them and the worse is one day they will leak like it or not and dra in your tank down the bottom of the spout .Or if your power goes out and the good bacteria cant get oxygen to breath it will die and when the power comes back on well there is your amonia bomb
Im a big fan of the aqua clear and hydro sponge combo

My guess is why your having spikes in your readings is because you had very dirty filters and may have cleaned them improperly killing off your good bacteria, hope I'm wrong but I can't see what else would cause high nitrate

Not sure if you had a really bad canister experience before, but alot of us are extremely happy with ours. I know PP uses ehiems like i do and i dont think id use anything else for larger tanks with the exception of what the poster is using. The fx5 and 6's are amasing filters. Not sure how the cleaing is on these other models are but my g65 is a breeze.

Puffacus wrote:I think this is a prime example why I don't use cannister filters because they are ticking time bombs .Many people fall behind on maintenence in them because they can over filter very well but when you get behind on cleaning the filters are just feeding amonia to your fish
They are a pain to clean and another reason why people fall behind on cleaning them and the worse is one day they will leak like it or not and dra in your tank down the bottom of the spout .Or if your power goes out and the good bacteria cant get oxygen to breath it will die and when the power comes back on well there is your amonia bomb
Im a big fan of the aqua clear and hydro sponge combo

My guess is why your having spikes in your readings is because you had very dirty filters and may have cleaned them improperly killing off your good bacteria, hope I'm wrong but I can't see what else would cause high nitrate

absurd & ridiculous
a properly maintained external canister filter (easy to do) will cause none of those problems
maybe you had those problems, and use what you want, but that's a pretty wide brush you're painting with, and it makes you sound ignorant

Didn't tell the guy to stop using it simply giving my opinion and a warning . Very often when helping people with fish or water issues is 2 things in common 1 is a poorly maintained cannister filter and 2 way too much gravel in the tank.
plus the way most cannister filters are designed they will adventually leak from the rubber seals , there is tons off pressure pushing on the seals all day and night and with proper maintenence opening and closing the cannister also wears on the seals and any sand that might get sucked up al so wears on the seals

Please no name-calling here!
I happen to agree with both of you.

You tell em pp!

Pufferpunk wrote:Please no name-calling here!
I happen to agree with both of you.

..........I apologize, I'm sorry
it just really bugs the heck out of me when someone make such a blanket statement that is so invalid
Happy Christmas Everyone!

+1 my apologies for dragging you into my post PP. The blanket statement was a little much but i do agree with sand comment. This is why i run prefilters on every filter i have and why i keep spare motors and seals for most of what im running.

I do maintain my filters... I simply rinse the foam and media with aquarium water on alternating months ( so each filter gets a clean every 8 weeks)

I have turned off the pyrogens filter today and dosed with melafix and pimafix today and his colour has really darkened and he made an effort to swim across the tank a few times (although he still crashed at the bottom) he is still breathing heavy! I noticed he was clamping one of his gills this morning so now I'm wondering if it's parasites...

What are your thoughts on this guys?
I don't have a quarantine tank and he is not eating... So what is the best treatment? Whatever I will have to dose the whole tank.

Thanks!

Bret