My fish were gasping this morning.

maverick2402

maverick2402

AC Members
Feb 19, 2005
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Deptford,NJ
My German rams and my cardinal neons were gasping at the surface along with my amano shrimp acting funny this morning in my heavy planted tank.I changed 30% of the water ( which I do once a week ) last night and looked at them this morning to find the gasping.I hurried up and changed some more of the water and it seamed to fix it.The thing I am wondering is...I had the new water that was ready to go into the tank with the declorinator ( spelling ) stored in a couple of 4 quart Rubbermade plastic containers that have screw on lids for 2 days and one of the containers was new ,I rinsed it out with fresh water before putting the new tank water into it but could the new plastic have a reaction with the water and cause some chemical inbalance in the tank when I poured the water in it?This is the first time I have let ht ewater sit like that before putting it into the tank.
 
What are the tank parameters? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, exact numbers please.

Please also test your tap water and post those as well. It may be important.

Also, what did you use for a dechlorinator?

We'll know more about what is going on when we know what those numbers are.

It IS possible that just rinsing the container wasn't enough, but as I said there is no way to tell if that is even the problem unless we have the water readings.

Roan
 
I tested everything except my tap water this morning Heres the readings
Ammonia -0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 0
ph- 6.6
I use Prime by Seachem for dechlorinator.I'll have to get the tap readings tonight as I am at work right now.I also run a pressurized CO2 system that keeps the CO2 at 40ppm and turns off at night with the use of a solenoid on a timer when the light goes off.I also add the Seachem ferts and I follow the chart on their website as to how much to add and when to add it and have not had a probelm with the fert dosing since I started adding it almost 8 months ago so I don't thinkits the ferts.
Roan Art said:
What are the tank parameters? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, exact numbers please.

Please also test your tap water and post those as well. It may be important.

Also, what did you use for a dechlorinator?

We'll know more about what is going on when we know what those numbers are.

It IS possible that just rinsing the container wasn't enough, but as I said there is no way to tell if that is even the problem unless we have the water readings.

Roan
Click to expand...
 
I'm not too worried about the tap water if you are using Prime and you sound like you have all your bases covered.

Two things come to mind:

1. The container, as you suspect, could have had something nasty in it that rinsing didn't get out. Water changes, clean the container. You've probably already done that stuff.

2. I'm assuming you have very little if any surface movement so is it possible that they may not be getting enough O2 at night? I know you have the tanks on a timer, so do I, but my fish are oxygen intensive and I haven't bothered with minimizing surface movement. Have you done any CO2 tests first thing in the morning to see what the levels are overnight?

Up to you, but if it were me and I had already dealt with the container AND had no surface movement, I would run an airstone, on the timer, for a couple of nights and see what happens. Then turn it off and see what happens.

Now, you can wait and see if it happens tonight or you can just set it up for a couple of days to make sure.

If the fish are stressed from what happened -- and they probably are -- and it happens again there may be a fatality.

Up to you. I'm an over-cautious person so I would do it all at once so the fish get a good "breather" so to speak.

But that's me.
Roan
 
Roan,
Thank you for the advice.I think I'll hook up the air stone like you suggest.I think I'll cut back on the CO2 also and give the little guys a break.I also like the point you bring up about checking the CO2 levels in the morning.I'll do that in the morning .
Thanks
Jim
 
Cool :)

FWIW I run mine at 17-20ppm, but I just started and am still adjusting stuff. Because I'm new to this and the fish are so O2 intensive, I've been going slow and taking readings first thing in the morning, again around noon, sometimes around 4pm, and then finally at night before everything shuts down.

I'm running an Emperor and a Magnum, so there's a far amount of movement, but even with that in the morning my CO2 is around 10-13ppm. There's not a lot of O2 at night with the plants giving off CO2, from what I've seen.

Keep me posted, eh? And if you decide to do morning readings, can you post them? This type of thing is something I like to file away in my head in case I run into the same type of problem.

Roan
 
I'll definitly keep you posted.
Roan Art said:
Cool :)

FWIW I run mine at 17-20ppm, but I just started and am still adjusting stuff. Because I'm new to this and the fish are so O2 intensive, I've been going slow and taking readings first thing in the morning, again around noon, sometimes around 4pm, and then finally at night before everything shuts down.

I'm running an Emperor and a Magnum, so there's a far amount of movement, but even with that in the morning my CO2 is around 10-13ppm. There's not a lot of O2 at night with the plants giving off CO2, from what I've seen.

Keep me posted, eh? And if you decide to do morning readings, can you post them? This type of thing is something I like to file away in my head in case I run into the same type of problem.

Roan
Click to expand...
 
Well I cut back my CO2 level last night and tested this morning and my PH was 7.6 and my CO2 level was 4 ppm with it being off overnight versus the 50 PPM and ph at 6.5 when the CO2 is running during the day.
 
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