More help please

Hiya again, I am sorry to bother you but I am worried about my fish again. You might remember my other posts when I wrongly just filled my tank with water and fish and had loads of trouble - ich, fish dying, water full of ammonia, it was BAD!!

It looked like things had settled down but I am getting worried with a couple of the fish again. A couple of them seem to be hanging round the top of the tank and not swimming as well as they were, the rest seem ok.

What do I do please??

do they look like they're gasping for air?? If so then you have a lack of oxygen in your water. Try angling you filter or moving it towards he surface of the water so that the surface is agitated. Also try a bubble river or air stone.

If they're not gasping then i'm not sure. What are your water stats and is they're any visable sign on your fish (eg bloated belly)

As above khelly. Check your water stats and let us know what they are? Also do you have an air stone in the tank - get that going if you do.

it wouldnt hurt to do a water change as well

I've done a water test and I have both ammonia and nitrite. I couldnt figure out why but have just realised that my filter isnt working properly.

It doesnt seem to be putting out much of a flow at the top. Would this be the reason for the poor water?

I've done a water change and got the air stone on and the fish look a bit better. Any idea why the filter wouldnt be working well?

Oh sorry, it's a fluval filter.

It might need cleaning khelly. Have you washed the fom sponges in the filter? If not, take them out and wash them in some of the water from your tank.

The other thing that needs to be washed is the impellor. Take that out by squeezing the patterned bars on the side of the filter, and wash that too in some old tank water. That should sort the filter out and get it working.

Hope you've got it sorted khelly, are the fish ok now?

Sorry fidshfan, I didnt see that you had asked this. I took the whole filter to bits - it was the impellor that had stopped working. I didnt even know it was there, never mind I had to clean it .

I have given the foam bits another wash and the impellor too and now the filter is working fine again.

Do I just leave things now or do I have to keep doing water changes? Do you know?

What are your water stats khelly? If you have any reading of ammonia or nitrite, or a reading of nitrate of over 40 then you have to do a water change of about 50% and keep doing that until things return to normal.