Emergency!

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cds

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Aug 10, 2003
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Yesterday I did the bleach dip on my plants, driftwood, and rocks, and then a 35-40% water change trying to tackle a hair algae infestation. This morning I woke up and all my fish are at the top gasping for air! I dropped in a powerhead to provide oxygen and dosed with Amquel to perhaps kill some of the ammonia. Is there anything else I can do? Should I do another water change???

Please help, I don't want to lose my fish.

cds
 
I'm no expert, but I think you didn't give us enough information about your tank parameters. How long has your tank been established? What are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, GH and KH? After you bleached the plants etc., did you rinse them under tap water and dechlorinator? Are you using CO2?
 
Tank is very well established, almost two years... yes, using DIY Co2. I have added peat to the filter about 1.5 months ago to aid in plant growth... has not been a problem. Only problems started after the bleach dip. Since my first posting 30 mins ago I lost one fish (cardinal tetra) :(

Nitrate: app. 30ppm
Nitrite: app. 0.25 ppm
Total hardness: app. 200ppm
Alkalinity: appears to be "zero" (I'm using test strips)
ph: 6.4
 
Like I said before I'm definitely no expert, however, if I were in your shoes, I would do another large water change for sure. When you say you bleached some plants... did you uproot well established plants? Do you use fertilizer tabs in your substrate? It could be that you inadvertently released something in your water column by pulling up your plants to bleach them. Does the water smell? Could also be anaerobic gas from stirring up the gravel when you took out the plants.
 
None of the plants were established for more than a month. I could do another water change, but I'm won't that stress the fish even more??
 
Water changes stress the fish less than poor water conditions.

Did you rinse everything with a dechlorinator after that chlorine dip? If not, you introduced bleach to your tank, which is killing off bacteria and causing the spikes. Porous things like wood need to be rinsed and soaked with dechlorinator before being introduced to a tank.
 
You will not hurt the fish by doing a large water change provided you use the proscribed amount of Tap Water Conditioner with the change and keep the replacement water's temp close to the tank's temp.
You need to have zero nitrItes and lower nitrAtes. The fastest way to clean up the water is with water changes.
Did you use Tap Water Conditioner to dip the bleached plants prior to re-introducing them to the tank? Did you also dip your hands in the Conditioned water to get the bleach off of them?
What was the ratio of bleach/water that you used?
If you did, this sounds more like an over-dose of CO2 but it's hard to overdose a tank unless it's very small. What size tank do you have? What is your kH? You need to check that against your 6.4 pH to measure your CO2 level.
The bottom line is that in either case, a water change is the best thing for you to do now.

Len
 
I've seen this done before with over-bleached tanks, and it seems to work, but it will not be popular with the Plant Folks (myself included):

Get a powerhead. Aim the return upwards to make as much surface ripple as possible. This gets O2 into the water so your fish won't die from their new-aquired bacterial bath, but it WILL de-gas your CO2 (but that shouldn't really be a concern at the moment).

P.S. listen to Len. I followed his advice on bleaching my hydrocotle and marselia two weeks ago when I got them from a tank infested with BBA, and everything's growing great now with no die-off or algae.
 
...an update would be in order...

Wonder if the plants were rinsed thoroughly before going back into the tank. Or, did they absorb the bleach from sitting in it too long, and rinsing could only help a little bit (?)....

:(
 
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