Holiday carnage

One week in Malta was all I asked!

I came back to my 400l Cichlid tank smelling like piss.
They had not been overfed too much, but there was fish waste everywhere.
Immediate panic set in and I have cleaned the tank bottom, which was completely covered in fish waste. Neither of my filters were working properly.
The Fluval 4+ internal was clogged, but I knew this was coming and just didn't have time to clean it before I left.
But I had cleaned my Fluval 405 external filter, and its flow rate was down to a trickle.
I cleaned it out again (not much new dirt) and after breaking the pathetic plastic primer got it going again the old fashioned way (yuk!).
Its power or flowrate is not good, its less than a year old too.
OK so now the water is still a bit smelly, but the fish are much happier, as they were very lethargic and gasping for air etc. I have changed out about 100l.
How many more large changes should I do?

Losses.
Not many thankfully.
1 Tretocephalus dead and uneaten, which leads me to think it happened just before we got back on Sat. This fish had been bullied by another tret, so I probably should have gotten rid of it earlier.

1 mouthful of L. Caerulus eggs/fry lost.
I don't know if they died or didn't hatch because of poor water or if they were just eaten.
Either way, dammit.

1 Male Caerulus with a nasty mouth injury, top lip on one side bitten clean off.
All you can see is his row of sharp little teeth. He is in fine fettle and it doesn't seem to be causing distress or stopping him eating in any way. Neven seen this before, anyone?

I'd appreciate comments or suggestions on any of the above.

I've did about a 300L+ water change recently on the 400L Tanganyika tank and the fish were grand. Wouldn't hurt to do another 100L today and maybe a further 100L at the weekend. As long as the bacteria are ok in the filter and the water is treated going in you should be fine.

In this case one big water change is better tahn two small ones. Did you actually test your water? I'm not too sure how well your filter bacteria have come through all this but that doesn't really matter in your case. I'd change 80% of the water and keep an eye on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If you get spikes in the former two you might have to repeat big water changes until your filter bacteria have built up again in sufficient numbers. Clean out the internal filter. there was no waterflow over it for a while and you might as well get rid of all the gunk.

I am no great friend of Fluval external filters (you probabyl have all figured this one out by now) and this is just another case of a bad design gone horribly wrong.

You male caerulus should be Ok and heal up (the lip might not grow back though) once your water parameters are OK.

sorry for your losses... When i go on holidays i usually use an automatic feeder and feed about 1/2 of the regular dosis... fish can survive for a week with no food without any issues so don't be affraid to reduce the ammount of food for a few days... also these reduce the ammount of waste they produce when the tank is unattended...

As Apistodiscus mentioned... you better of doing a big water change.. as your filters are mature

good luck!
Pablo

Right, I'm going to test the water now, and start another big water change.
Thanks all.