Tried to clean my external filter now i have a bacteria bloom, have i done it all wrong?

[Marne]

So may tank has been set up for a month or 2, thought I would attempt to change a couple of the sponges (as the old ones were quite grubby when I put them in), I took the top of the filter and it was quite grubby (lots of poo and slime) so I removed the sponges and put them in a bucket, I then rinsed the filter (empty body bit), put it back together, put 2 off the old sponges (complete with slimy goodness) into the filter and replaced the other 2 sponges with new (thinking the 2 old ones would be enough to supply good bacteria). Now today its a bit cloudy am now worrying that I have messed my water up. Have I don't things all wrong?

[EauRouge]

Not necessarily, sometimes you get a bacterial bloom after cleaning the filter- a water test will tell you for sure what's going on :) Does your external filter only have sponges? No ceramic balls or hoops?

[Marne]

It has the hoops too, I just rinsed them roughly (just to remove the poop from the plastic pod bits). All the fish seem fine, my heater also broke (or stopped working) so I had a drop in the temp (corys were not happy) but luckily I have a spare so gradually go the temp back up, its not very cloudy, just not crystal clear like it usually is after I have done a water change. I will test the water tomorrow, fingers crossed its ok as I have had it spot on for a few weeks now.

[Marne]

Seems a bit clearer this morning, hopefully all is ok, don't want to mess around with it too much as it looks like my swordtail is about to have fry ( very excited but feel a bit guilty as most will get eaten as I haven't got anywhere to put them ).