need help asap.. fish gasping at the surface

K

kidsofcarnage

AC Members
Apr 16, 2006
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i have a new 20 gallon high setup
penguin 350 bio filter water down to make a nice splash
water temp at 75
ph out of tap is 7.6 and i fill buckets with water and add prime and that brings the ph to 6.8 by the time i do water changes
hardness at 120
alkalinityat 80

i added first fish on friday and then next night they started gasping at the surface and today they are still doing the same

ive changed 25 of the water each day as the ammonia reaches .25
no nitrites being seen yet

i had bog wood in the tank and i took it out and now i dont know what to do

was it the wood???

the ph changes????

what do i do now to fix the problem i am completely clueless

-brian-
 
try doing a parameter check with the tap water.

also I am not aware ofthe addition of prime resulting in a drop in ph...
is the bucket you use. Used only for water changes?

if you are doing water changes and the fish are gasping I would suspect something else(if the water from the tap is good) as the culprit.


what fish do you have?
 
i only have 2 new danios that i added on friday to start the tank

the hardness and the alkalinity stay the same from tap to buckets to the tank
add 120 for hardness and at 80 for alkalinity the ph is the only thing that is not staying constant

i do only use the buckets for water changes 1 for clean water and 1 for the dirty water i take out

the ph read 7.6 coming out of my faucet and thats what the tank is also reading and the buckets only sit out 1 day with the prime added as i fill the buckets and i just checked those and they read 6.8 for ph

the only reason i use the buckets is because i was worried about shocking the fish for a temperature change

thanks for the help i am extremely stumped and pretty annoyed by now since i have never had luck starting up tanks
 
Do you have decent surface agitation? This sounds like there is not enough O2 in the water.
 
the filter is a penguin 350 which is a double bio wheel filter the covers all but like 5 inches of the tank and the water is down with a splash that shakes the whole tank

i did buy a pump today wuth an airstone that i am going to throw in but most people have told me online that ive asked said that isnt neccasary but its worth a shot i hope your right it would make my night
 
Ok it sounds like to do know about cycling.

There must be something else going on. The ph shouldn't cause them to gasp at the surface. Danio's are pretty hardy fish (in my opinion the best cycling fish) and shouldn't have a problem if you never let ammonia get above .25ppm (mine never had a problem). You wont shock the fish with a temperature change if your water going in is within three degree's of the tanks water. You should check the ph of you tank over a few days. If it is constant over three or four days, then it isn't an issue, but if your ph changes from day to day, then that is bad thing. You can use the same bucket for both adding water and removing water, it wont hurt the fish (there isn't any thing wrong with using seperate buckets though either).

Did the fish seem active when they were at the store? You might have gotten some bad fish. Other than that I would just continue to watch them and see if they get better. Sometimes fish die during cycling, even when things seem like they should be ok.

Oh and I would suggest only feeding them once every other day, or even every three days, untill the tank is cycled. They won't starve.
 
I've never heard of pH dropping after 24 hours. Mine comes out of the tap at 6 and rises to 6.8 after 24 hours.

Are you using strips or tubes for testing?

pH usually only drops with CO2 injection or when KH gets used up. Neither is happening in a bucket.
 
the fish looked great at the store i didnt get them from petsmart i live on cape cod and there are some real good fish stores around but petsmart is all thats open today and no one in the fish department!!

and before today i didnt know about the ph being different from the tank and the water i was changing with because of those dumb test strips i now know were horribly off since i got the master test kit with the viles and what not telling me a completely different story

today was the first time i fed them and i only gave them one flake but i hooked the water pump up and there still up there so we shall see.

so you just recomend i go as i am with water changes as the ammonia builds up and keep trying to cycle??

the only problem i can definately tell out of everything is my tank wants to be at 7.6ph the water i put in during 25 percent changes is 6.8ph
but that change wont make them gasp for air at the top???

bleh
 
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