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Hi there, I have a 4ft - 180 litre aquarium and my External Cannister passed over and it will take 7 days before the replacement can be shipped in. I have two questions.

1. What do I do to keep my fishies happy - my plan at the moment is as follows:

1. Feed fish lightly every second day
2. Change a little bit of water every day
3. Already have air stones cranked to max.

and

2. The old cannister is just sitting there with the filter medium still in it, covered completely with water. Will it be OK like that? OR just like above should I be chnaging the water in there as well every day or two.

Your expertised would be greatly appreciated.

AJ - Australia.



Fish are Fun not Food!

7 days until a replacement can be given to you? Is this a warranty job? If so I cant believe it can take that long. What lousy service!

Personally I would be adding some sort of filtration to the tank. Do you have a spare internal power filter? Any filter type at all?

I would reduce feeding even more, say to 4-5 days sparingly.

Where in Aus are you?

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Rush out to a shop, buy a small internal filter, and fill some of the chambers (ie like an eheim aquaball) with some of your old media , and dont wait, DO IT NOW!, and hope that the worst you get is a mini cycle, cos after a week with no filtration chances are your fish will be dying en masse. Do what you can to save as much media as possible while making sure the tank recieves filtration (even if not quite as much filtration as it is used to) or you will be getting cycling issues for months.Then, when you get your filter replacement, run that in addition to the small internal filter and hopefully it will mature and the transition can be made as smoothly as possible.Inaction will lead to losses here, just get out there and do it quick!I also wouldnt feed the fish much this week, it will save on water pollution and ammonia spikes.

Best of luck.

I had always heard that if you do enough water changes you can get by without filtration. A lot of heavily planted tanks don't have filters...even some fry tanks...it really depends on how heavily stocked the tank is and planting and such. Most people that keep filterless tanks do once or twice daily water changes. Not knowing what's in your tank I'd say you just need to really check the parameters and do larger daily water changes.

You may want to get a sponge filter or two for the temporary filtration. They will operate utilizing your current air pumps, thus providing surface agitation as well as filtration. They are also relatively inexpensive.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

I'd just toss in some airstones or sponge filters. It depends though how stocked the tank is and if it has any plants. You can most definitely run a tank without filtration especially if your using airstones to help oxygenate but alot of bacteria lives in a cannister filter. If this is a heavily stocked tank with no plants you just lost alot of your biofilter. You can try to pull the media out of the cannister and either just hang it in the tank or get a powerfilter to put it in but within a few hours of no water flow the good bacteria will begin to die and anerobic bacteria take over. If the media smells horrible when you open the cannister there's not enough good bacteria left and the material will just add toxins to your tank. Chances are you'll see at least a mini cycle and need to do frequent water changes to keep the levels down.

Go to the LFs that told you that and politly demarnd a filter that will do until the replacemeent arrives. If the will not do this go else where and buy a tempory internal filter. (remembering you will have a mini cycle with this and the replacement filter) Reduce the feeding greatly minium 3-4 days add extra airation and certainly a good cycle product. It would also not hurt to several water changes but not on the day of feeding. Even 10Lt water change every day (except on feeding day) would not hurt at all.
Finally start looking for a good LFS that will give you service. To help you find one in your area where are you in Aust.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Yea, i agree with sham, if you have left the filter media alone for an hour, it's trash.

With that being said, follow the others' advice and get something on there to move water and get some bacteria established. If you have another tank, you might borrow some filter media or gravel to hang on the back of the tank until a new unit arrives.