Filter issues :(

[The_minnow_man]

Thanks for all the advice so far

The tank has minimal gravel in it. The thing is at one stage we had an otter in the pond and I held off for a few weeks letting fish go so it would move on and had a redtail, shovel nose (both about 10 inches) a peacock bass and a pacu in the tank all about the same size (the peacock was a donated fish as normal I keep it 3 or below in the tank at any one time). The water was not clear as it couldn't keep up with the fish however they were all fine and they stirred up the gravel like nobodies business.

I don't think there was something in the gravel. So I'm thinking the only options are directly related to the new filter. There was no lube at all with the canister. I think 3 or 4 layers..one carbon, one with a fleet, one with plastic bio balls and a uv light.

I'm going to test the water when i get back and if it clean. I'm returning the filter

 

[boldtogether]

Thanks for all the advice so far

The tank has minimal gravel in it. The thing is at one stage we had an otter in the pond and I held off for a few weeks letting fish go so it would move on and had a redtail, shovel nose (both about 10 inches) a peacock bass and a pacu in the tank all about the same size (the peacock was a donated fish as normal I keep it 3 or below in the tank at any one time). The water was not clear as it couldn't keep up with the fish however they were all fine and they stirred up the gravel like nobodies business.

I don't think there was something in the gravel. So I'm thinking the only options are directly related to the new filter. There was no lube at all with the canister. I think 3 or 4 layers..one carbon, one with a fleet, one with plastic bio balls and a uv light.

I'm going to test the water when i get back and if it clean. I'm returning the filter

I would probably do the same thing if I came up with no explanation. The only thing we can do sometimes is reverse the action just before the problem....unfortunately, fish often die and systems often crash.
I remember when I left for Army basic training, I had a Metaramba Damba (Pinstripe)...very rare fish. I had to leave it's care to my oldest son and we spent weeks training on proper aquarium maintenance.
About 8 weeks into my training I got a lettrr from my wife saying the Damba died...she said my son accidentally dumped too much salt into the tank....panicked....removed all the fish to buckets and did a 100% water change. He put all the fish back into the tank and forgot to prime the filter. He turned everyrhing back on and thought it was good...but an Eheim canister is silent...anyway...
if you get back and find the canister to be the culprit. ...return it and get a big HoB and some sponge prefilters for the intakes...water will be crystal clear.
Again, bummer to hear about your fish.

 

[smitty03281964]

This one can be a number of things because your problem started soon after attaching teh canister. Possible a chemical from the canister started the problem. I think it got compounded when you removed the HOB because whatever the canister was bringing to the water the HOB was filtering. I don't think the 2 weeks that nothing was in the tank caused it to crash. But I can not think of what chemical in the canister could have caused a problem.