Compliments of my 3 1/2 year old.

So he dumps an entire container of fish food in the tank. I make an emergency partial water change this morning, and another one this evening. There is still a lot of food embedded in the gravel, and the water is cloudy. I'll keep doing the water change regimen until the water goes back to normal.

My filter doesn't seem to be handling the fine particulates very well. I have a Tetra Whisper with the black sponge thingy and some poly floss (actually quilt batting I bought at Michaels). I may just use this as an excuse to upgrade the filter I got when I bought the aquarium used. Any recommendations? :D

Oh, the tank is about 29 gals with 4 (male) guppies and 7 panda cories.

__________________
Elly

Well crap. I found one of my cories floating. :(

I've been continuing my water change regimen, and I bought an aquaclear 50 and installed it today (old filter is still running). I just hope all my water changes and gravel vacuuming doesn't severely deplete my bacterial pals. I guess it's wait and see.

__________________
Elly

Multiple WC everyday could be worse then the food. What are your parameters at? Cleaning out the gravel is good, but you should be watch the water for an Ammonia spike and reacting accordingly.

I changed the water twice the first day, but I've only done it once today. The water was insanely full of fish flakes the first day, hence the two water changes.

I got my new filter, and it seems to have really helped with the water clarity. My old filter is still in there. I suppose I'll keep it in there for maybe a month?

Ammonia is 0.5 ppm
Nitrite is 3.0 ppm
Nitrate is 10 ppm

Before the mishap, my parameters were at zero, except for nitrate, which would creep up a bit right before my weekly water change. *sigh*

__________________
Elly

Daily 50% water changes won't hurt anything, just vac part of the gravel each time. I change that much or more on some of my tanks, especially in fry tanks with no problem at all.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

That's good to hear. My water change amounts are probably more like 15%, mostly because I only have 2 5-gal buckets, and I can only lift them with about 3 gals of water in them.

Should I just keep doing the frequent water changes until my parameters go back to normal?

__________________
Elly

I would just to keep the fish from being hurt.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Success! A couple of days ago, when I tested the water, the parameters were back to normal. The new filter really seemed to help. I really like that the aquaclear intake is the only part in the water. With the Whisper filter, the whole darn thing is in the water, and it's rather large. Looking forward to removing my old filter in about a month or so. :D

__________________
Elly

Go go Aquaclear !!!!!! lol i love my filter. 2 of my friends always have problems with their marineland hob filters.