TOXIC POISIONING?

[pike]

hello i bought a hob filter 2 weeks ago .i used the sponge from the internal filter to cover the inlet and installed the hob .since then i have had dead shrimp 1 every day or so and today had a dead baby cory. had a look at the hob and it smells horrid a chemical/petrol smell coming from its two black sponges. so have binned it and done loads of water changes and will get some carbon to put in in a net.the hob was cheap of ebay but cost a lot in shrimp cheers jon

 

[mlgt]

Was the filter properly seeded? What about the tank? Cleaned properly? If the hob has a smell then probably something wrong with the sponges.

I guess sometimes with purchases its always good to give them a good clean in some taken ot tank water and soaked before adding sponges from other filters. Could just be a varient of incidents that affects shrimp deaths

 

[pike]

i only rinsed the hob sponges in tank water .the sponge i used for the cover of inlet was the whole sponge off the sponge that was from the aquael internal so plenty of bacteria. the cory was in the tank as it was very small and had come with shrimp by mistake and i was enjoying watching it grow and could not catch it,the two sponges from the hob are chief suspect more than likely not true aquatic foam and killed every thing.

 

[Kristoph91]

I think it may have been the sponges, this happened my friend before when he wanted to buy cheap sponge to go in his internal. He bought it from tescos as a car wash sponge I think - it was very dense.
About a week later he was getting a funny smell from the sponges when he cleaned the filter, like a plasticky smell.
Some fish died even though he removed the sponge.
I think some sponges probably contain some sort of petrochemical ?
Sorry for you loss!