I noticed my 200g was getting cloudy, so I vacuumed the gravel and started a water change. Then I realised that my FX6 wasn't returning water into the tank. Looked into the stand and realised that after my last water change (a week ago!) I hadn't turned the inlet valve back on where the hose connects to the filter. First time I've ever done this.
Thankfully, I run two filters on all my tanks, so the big cheap Chinese filter had kept the cycle from crashing. I did a quick ammonia test and readings are at zero. So I rinsed all the FX6 sponges and media in old tank water. There was no bad smell or gunge, so I'm hoping the automatic priming the FX does each day was sufficient to stop the beneficial bacteria from dying and being replaced by noxious bacteria.
The water is clearing now, and I'll be doing daily ammonia checks for the next few days. Hopefully I got away with it and my stupidity won't harm my fish. And, needless to say, I'm double checking all my filter hose connections from now on.
Thankfully, I run two filters on all my tanks, so the big cheap Chinese filter had kept the cycle from crashing. I did a quick ammonia test and readings are at zero. So I rinsed all the FX6 sponges and media in old tank water. There was no bad smell or gunge, so I'm hoping the automatic priming the FX does each day was sufficient to stop the beneficial bacteria from dying and being replaced by noxious bacteria.
The water is clearing now, and I'll be doing daily ammonia checks for the next few days. Hopefully I got away with it and my stupidity won't harm my fish. And, needless to say, I'm double checking all my filter hose connections from now on.
