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Miamiheat
12-17-2015, 08:59 PM
110 GAL tank with 10 discus - 5 adults 5 smaller juvies

1) I unintentionally did a bigger water change than usual (forgot pump running): 55-60% versus a usual 30-35% - my first fear is my clean water usually has a higher PH than my tank. 6.6 vs 5 if i remember well.
My KH is 0-1 on API test si I am a little concerned with the stability of the PH.

2) After that i realise my FX6 isn't running and i turn it on: i come to the terrible conclusion that it must have been off for days as the water coming out of it is stinky and is like milk. Suddenly my big tank is disgusting. As i fear an ammonia spike due to the filthy contents pouring in my otherwise fairly clean water my first reaction is to chuck some PRIME in the tank (thinking that should help detoxify a little until i can change more water tomorrow). Also added a polyfilter to the tank and change another 15% of water.

Fish seem OK but I am scared al of he above will hurt them during the night. Am I safe with having used the PRIME until next WC tomorrow?
I have another tank with clean water and no fish. Should I leave them here of move them for their safety? Any other advice?

I am usually careful but had a hell of a week and my head is all over the place.

Iowa_Discus
12-17-2015, 09:11 PM
I'm not the expert on here but it just seems like you'll have to let the filter bacteria grow back to full strength. Because your filter is back to zero, and doing more harm than good, now might be the time to clean it: rinse all mechanical filter media, add new biological media if needed or just rinse what you have off (many would say with dechlorinated water). Put everything back together and run it like usual. It's going to take awhile for the bacteria to recover, but it will. In the meantime, I would suggest frequent water changes until the filter is re-seeded and working at 100%. If you have any sponge filters running in other tanks, you could also throw them in the 110 to help with the bacterial filtration. I do not think I would throw them in another tank unless it was established (if it is established then throw them in, but I would wonder how it could be without any fish). Your problem isn't clean water, it's lack of bio filtration.

SNap0283
12-18-2015, 01:45 PM
Can you test the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates for us? Without any more info id say do as big a water change as possible each day until things stabilize.