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All my levels have been great for the last 4 weeks of checking including just a day ago. Then today i changed my filter cause it was all black which was wierd too. i think the melafix and pimafix reacted to my filters funny. I washed out the larger filter and changed the extra carbon holder. On the other waterfilter i changed the filter completely. Could me changing the filters while the pumps are still running cause a massive nitrite explosion? Is there any way to prevent that from happening again?
All of the other levels are fine. I lost 2 fish instantly and in the morning i wont be surprised if a couple more are down.

I did another 35% waterchange and moved some of my fish over to another tank while everything settles. Im hoping it turns to nitrate soon and the plants absorb it fast.

right now everyone in the tank looks alright just stressed out. I put some salt and waterconditioner in to destress them.

the black stuff that you washed out was more than likly the bacteria that procces your amonia and nitrite into nitrate. in the case of canister filters (im assuming that is what you have) you need only gently rince the sponges and other materials in a bucket of water siphined from the aquarim durng a water change. also neve change all that media at the same time otherwise you need to re-cycle the tank. chang half at a time (i only change half my filter material every 6-12 months) the only exceptin to this is carbon which i change every 6-8 weeks.

see if you cant get some materals from an established filter to boost the bacteria in yours

good luck!

I have two side filters. The larger filter has a extra cartridge that i put extra white and black diamonds with its regular black diamond filter. The smaller just has a cotton carbon filter. I change the filters every month but two weeks apart. Ie the Extra cartridge and cotton filters on the 15 of the month and the black diamond filter on the 30th of the month. Plus the larger filter has a bio wheel to house benifical bateria.

But my fitler have never had that black slim on the filters before.