[Mrs Behjet]

I bought a marina easy gravel cleaner, what a pile of crap!!!
I am so so angry.
I followed all the instructions and it took out at least half of my (perfectly clean) water and spewed all the rotten food and fish [censored][censored][censored][censored] into the water that was left, it sucked up virtually no mess.

My tank was so full of mess I couldn't even see my fish, plants, anything!
I have done 4 water changes so far and used the 'cleaner' twice more and although the murkiness has gone down its still really dirty and cloudy.

My water was PERFECT before using this, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate, ph 6.5, it was crystal clear and tannin stained and my fish were swimming happily.

Now I can't find one of my embers, my two cories just sit on the bottom, the albino one respiring heavily, now and then it seems to almost flip onto its side before recovering itself.

I am so upset, I just wanted to make their tank a bit nicer for them by cleaning their gravel, I think its poisoned them :icon_sad:

What do I do????
Will they be okay, what about my missing ember, what's happened to him???
These are my five year old's pets, he will be so upset if they die.

 

[Mrs Behjet]

I used it exactly as specified.

No, my tank actually was not dirty!
The water was crystal clear and the readings fantastic.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10

It said to rapidly move up and down to start, this took absolutely ages before I got any kind of siphon going.
Then it said to slowly move it, that it would suck up gravel and dirt then release the clean gravel and to keep going until that one area was clear then move on.
No gravel hardly travelled up, masses of clear water in my bucket and masses of mess in my tank floating freely.

Where exactly did I go wrong????

 

[Mrs Behjet]

Hmm, I will try that and check out the videos.

Yeah, I have never used one before.
This tank isn't that old, when I used to keep fish many years ago I used to wash the gravel by hand.
I've only just got back into keeping fish and it's my first go with tropicals.

 

[Mrs Behjet]

Yes 4 water changes.
What alternative did I have?
The water was literally so thick with mess you could see nothing.
I had to try and clear it.

I found the missing ember.

My albino corydoras has taken a turn for the worse, it just lies completely still.
Even when another cory bumped it, even when a flake of food fell on it, even when the glass was tapped.
This morning it was completely on its side, then it disappeared.

 

[Mrs Behjet]

No, I found it this morning behind some java moss. Dead.