HELP MY FILTERS LEAKING!!!!!!

[FishyGirl]

Did a rinse with my filter in tank water today put it back together and it’s leaking everywhere!!!!!! It’s a Bio Master 350 by Oase. If it’s on it is actively sucking water out of tank and flooding over!!!! Anyone know what to do? Please help me! Worried about my fish and my carpet. Will update if we find a solution. HELP!!!!!

[FishyGirl]

Ok so my filters busted buying parts to fix. Can my fish live without a filter for a little 

[JE47]

That depends on how long a little while is. If you mean a couple days then I would say no but if you mean a couple hours then its probably fine if you have an airstone they could go longer.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Do you have live plants? I would suggest not feeding them until you can get some other filtration up and running. 
 

If you can take media from the canister into the new filter that would help immensely. 
 

Agreed that an air stone could really help. I personally believe that you have more than hours, especially if you stop feeding. 

[Galabar]

I'd get to Petco/Petsmart and grab something like this: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/sicce-shark-adv-600-internal-filter-158-galhr-3425590

You can add some of the filter media from the Oase.  This should get you through until you fix the Oase.

[FishyGirl]

Ok thank you! I have just air bubbles, it’s late over here where I live can they last till morning?

[gardenman]

Can they live without filtration? As is often the case, it depends. Bioload matters a lot. The length of time the aquarium has been set up matters too. A single betta in a 120 gallon tank won't care if there's no filtration. If you have a school of twenty full grown Oscars in a 120 gallon tank,  things get a lot trickier. A planted, decorated tank that's been up and running for years will have good bacteria growing everywhere, maybe more than what's in the filter, and will be fine for a bit. A newly set up, bare bottom tank with nothing but fish and water in it won't have lots of bacteria established.

 

Just keep an eye on things and if the ammonia starts to spike or the fish look "off" a water change can help restore things until the filter is fixed.

[anewbie]

Depends on a lot of factor; you can use prime (or similar product) to help neutralize ammonia/nitrite for a few days. Won't help this minute but i'd recommend you put sponge filters in your aquarium as they have excellent bio-filtration even if the canister goes out. If you have a test kit i'd test ammonia level each morning and if it rises above 0.25 add the appropriate amount of prime (just add it once a day or ever other day don't panic and add it more often). 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/30/2023 at 10:09 PM, FishyGirl said:

Ok thank you! I have just air bubbles, it’s late over here where I live can they last till morning?

For the sake of helping someone who stumbles on this in future. You did the absolute right thing.

1.  Turn off the broken filter
2.  Move the media (ceramic) into the bottom of the tank
3.  Install 1-2 airstones with at least one of those being near your ceramic media
4.  Clean the broken filter out in case you are re-using any parts.  Do a thorough job and be sure to verify/lubricate the pump is ready to go, clean the sponges really well, and just try to dry things out in case you need to return parts via warranty.
5.  Test the tank every day for ammonia / nitrite and perform 30-50% water changes if you see any issues starting to crop up.