I need help as soon as possible! All my fish are gasping for air!

J

Jeremy S

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Jun 26, 2002
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I really need help with this problem as soon as possible because I will be leaving tomorrow and won’t be back for a whole week.
For the past few days I wake up in the morning and all my fish are gasping for air. I’ve tested the water and the KH is 7 but the weird thing is that I can’t get a definite pH reading. I have a Milwaukee pH controller and it says that the pH is 6.9 but when I tested it with my regular test kit it said the pH is 7.3. Because these results were so different I decided to clean the pH probe and then calibrate it. I cleaned the probe with a soft cloth and I got most of the deposits off the top of the bulb but when I went to calibrate the probe I realized I didn’t have any new calibration packets and I only had some old ones that I had saved by putting some masking tape over the top. I decided that these were better then nothing so I calibrated the probe but it was only off by 0.1. Now, the weird thing was when I stuck the probe back into the tank it read 6.3 then after about 30 seconds it went up to 6.4 and now, about five minutes later, it says the pH is back at 6.9.
The first reading of 6.3 would make sense because of the fish gasping for air but why then would the reading go all the way back up so fast. If the pH was really at 6.9 I would have 26 ppm of CO2. Now I know that this is an over dose of CO2 would it really cause such extreme gasping in the fish?
The other weird thing is that in the evening the pH is around 7.1 and all the fish are happy and breathing regularly but as you know in the morning all the fish are gasping for air. During this time my controller had never turned on the CO2 so why would I get such a large difference in pH and such an extreme level of CO2? The only thing that I have been doing differently is dosing with melafix and feeding my fish with garlic food. The other thing is that when I do a water change I have to adjust the KH by adding baking soda because the KH right out of the tap is only 3. Thanks so much for your help.

BTW the tank is a 75-gallon heavily planted community tank.
 
Hey. I think your problem may be more easily solved than you realized. First, get new calibration packets if you haven't already. Second, a jump like that with the pH probe is the probe just 'warming up.' Think of it as a thermometer; when you stick a thermometer which has been inside your ice into the Icy Antartic, sub-zero environ such as the one you would find in my home state of Michigan, that thermometer needs a few minutes before it drops to the right temperature...and shatters.

Also, your plants 'use up' more CO2 during the day, (because of the lighting) then they do at night. However, that should cause your pH to drop during the nighttime hours as excess CO2 is not used, (but you are probably injecting to much if it is not all being used up by nightfall and you hadn't injected any all day.) Also, you said kH is 7. This is very high. All you really need is 3, although 3.5 would be better, it may not be worth messing with your tap for.

As for the gasping, it is probably a direct result of the excess CO2 you seem to have...I recomend consulting someone in the Aquatic Forum...djlen (have CD's, will travel,) is probably more than happy to help.
 
Jeremy,

First, do a 50% water change immediately.
From the sounds of it, your fish are suffering from an excess of CO2(carbonic acid) and this will remedy the situation immediately. You are going away and it's a good idea to do a water change at this time anyway. Dose ferts @ 1/2 strength.
Next, your options are this. Go to the LFS and buy an Aquarium Pharm. pH test kit and test with that until you can get whatever is wrong with the one you're using fixed.
If you have time re-adjust your injection according to the findings of the new test kit. If you don't have time, turn the CO2 down, at least by 1/2. If you don't feel comfortable with that, turn the CO2 off, and leave the lights off in the tank while away. It won't kill the plants, or harm them in any way, and it will ensure the safety of the fish(if CO2 poisoning is the problem, which it probably is), and you won't get a huge algae bloom while away.
If you do leave the lights off for the week, leave the curtains open to give the fish a sense of day time/night time.
If someone is feeding for you while away, have them feed VERY, VERY lightly.
Let us know how this works out for you.

Len
 
Dont plants compete with fish for oxygen at night so maybe the gasping in the mornings is the result of the battle being lost by the fish???

Allthough I may be wrong, as I am still fairly new to this
 
I would have done a water change but because of the filtration systems in our house I have to take the water directly from the wellhead and then adjust the KH of the water and the temp which usually takes at least 12 hours. What is interesting is that after one hour with the lights on the fish are just fine so I decided that I’ll turn down the CO2 to one bubble every second and a half. I’ve also turned the controller so the CO2 only comes on when the pH reaches 7.2. And just to be safe I’ve also put an air pump on a timer so it will come on when the lights go out. My family will still be home so they are going to be feeding the fish. I can trust them since they’ve heard so many times about how you should never over feed the fish. They also know how to do a water change if it comes down to an emergency. Thanks for everyone’s help.
 
Dont plants compete with fish for oxygen at night so maybe the gasping in the mornings is the result of the battle being lost by the fish???
Click to expand...

I'm a newbie also, but I think that's more or less what djlen was getting at sort of. In the daytime the plants take up Co2, at night they don't so if there is too much co2 at the end of the day, there isn't enough O2 for fish and plants at night, and by morning the fish are lacking the o2 they need.
 
Actually, the same amount of gas is being injected at lights out as during the day. If the tank has a borderline(high) CO2 content at the end of the day when the plants are taking up the acid, when the plants shut down, during the dark hours, the result is an over abundance of carbonic acid in the water table which can/will poison fish.
If the pH/kH relationship is tested immediately at lights on in the morning, we can get an idea of how much stress is created between then and the preceding evening, and adjust injection accordingly.
To be safe, 30ppm should be the cutoff point. The tank should not register greater than 30ppm at lights on.

Jeremy,
Glad to hear that the Riccia is doing well.
Tell your family to watch for algae blooms during your time away, due to the lessening of CO2 injection.
If this occurs have them shorten the photo-period or cut it out entirely until your return. For one week, the affect on the plants will be minimal.

Len
 
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