Big drama here kids. Drama with the fish tank. None of it is anyone’s fault.

Richard decided to do a big water change. Great! Except that he also decided that the filter had to be done immediately as well. Now normally we space those two chores out. Not because they both suck, which they do. We space then out for the safety of the fish. A big water change can stir up a lot of dormant pollutants. The filter has bacteria in it to deal with said pollutants. If you clean the filter you weaken the bacteria inside, so doing both on the same day can potentially harm your fish if the tank is dirty. Ours apparently was, and worse than we thought. We are on schedule with the chores, as both get done once per month. However, a fair amount of plants died while we were on vacation. Since we weren’t home picking out the leaves and such the filter was filthy and a bit clogged. This made the tank extra filthy. We hadn’t noticed. You see, the water chemistry had balanced out to the dirty conditions, and sustained life (although we have lost two fish since we’ve been back). We just destroyed that balance and now the water chemistry is out of control. Sort of like a brand new tank that you aren’t supposed to put live fish in. Richard has now done two consecutive 25% water changes. That amounts to roughly 50 gallons emptied and then replaced 5 gallons at a time. Yikes! That’s a workout! But the hope is to dilute the bad bacteria while the good bacteria re-establishes itself.

To make it all worse, there are two chemical products on the market to save you in just such an emergency that will rapidly eliminate the bad stuff in your water. We always have these on hand. Always. Except for right now. We have neither. I really wish we hadn’t put off that trip to the pet store. There really should be a 24 hour pet supply. I am surprised that there isn’t actually.

Anyway, even if this all makes no sense to you, please cross your fingers that the fish are alive when we wake up in the morning. 

tagged: pets fish aquarium emergency ph water chemistry ammonia spike