HELP!!

[rubadub]

so i recently moved into a new homeand had to move my fish tank with its inhabitants
i was expecting a recycle and figured my fish wouldnt make the transition
however
i had both my filters (eheim pro3e 2076 and a eheim wet dry 2229) still full with water
it has now been 3 weeks
and my ammonia is so high that its basically Blue in the test tube (api freshwater test Kit)
still reading 0 nitrites
and 0 nitrate

for the past 3 days i have been pulling dead fish out 1 per day

i have 3 fish left in the tank

should i just euthanize the remaning fish and just try fishless cycling the rest?
should i wait for ammonia to drop?
should i add anything to the tank?
should i remove anything from the filters???

any suggestions are greatly appreciated

almost forgot
its a 72 gallon fish tank

 

[andyjs]

You need to do LOTS of water changes. Don't give up on those fish yet, just try to keep the ammonia down. I'd also look into getting some prime or something similar to neutralize the ammonia

 

[rhite]

There is a post here about the amount of time you can leave water in a canister filter without it running. To the best of my memory the discussion ranged from a time frame of 3 to 24 hrs max. After that the bacteria starts to die and it becomes toxic. Did you clean your filter or media before running it again? I will continue to look and hopefully can find it quickly for you. This would explain why your Ammonia levels are so high.

 

[rubadub]

it was the last thing i moved and the first thing i set up
litterally took me 3 hours from move to setup
i didnt clean the filter media (figured that defeated the purpose of used media)

 

[rhite]

This is from the "Surviving a Power Outage" thread. The other thread was a lot more specific on time. Three hours doesn't seem like long though. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

3) Perform filter maintenance, lightly rinse media/media chamber and float media in tank.

A very important thing to know is that the debris (organic matter) and the bio-mass in your filters can die and turn toxic in a very short time period. This can kill your fish if you let the filters flush this into the tank when power comes back, filter media should be removed and floated in the tank, this will preserve your bio-bacteria and they will continue to convert waste. You may improve the limited bio filtration by placing a airstone beneath the media to induce circulation thru the media... BPAP's can run sponge filters. The filters should be either unplugged or primed to restart when the power returns.

 

[mobilenetmomma]

Once again I am amazed at the unselfish exchange of knowledge and friendship extended to everyone on the list