Did a water change yesterday, now my fish look tired and gasping.

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J

johnnycoolxx

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 22, 2009
425
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Grandma's Basement
I have a 100 gallon tank and did a 30% water change last night. Now, many of my fish look listless and tired. Some look like they're gasping for air and they are swimming by the water surface when usually they wouldn't.

I checked all the water parameters. PH was 7.6, Nitrate was 20, Nitrite was 0 and Ammonia was .25. Temp is 74-75.

I did another water change (this time 40%) and hoping for the best.

What's wrong with my water and my fish? I fed them live blackworms last night. Could that be the problem, parasites? None of them have white spots or cotton mouth on them.

Please help me out and tell me how I can help my fish. Thanks.
 
How high did you fill the water up? Is there a possibility that the surface agitation isn't as strong as it was before? I know with mine, i have to leave just a little bit of room for my HOB to create more flow.
 
Do you always have ammonia, or is that new?
 
I left about 3 inches from the water surface to the top of the tank. I have a filter with a spraybar (eheim 2217) and looks like the filter is flowing and agitating the water.

Is it an oxygen problem? What would you suggest I do next? Thanks for your help.
 
Do you always have ammonia in your tank, or is this a new development?
 
justonemoretank;3692987; said:
Do you always have ammonia, or is that new?
Click to expand...

I think I've always had a little bit of ammonia in the tank. I do water changes and try to get every corner of the tank, but it stays at .25 for some reason.

My fish looked ok with the ammonia at that level. I bought some baby silver datnoids 3 days ago, and even those guys were ok with the water paramaters I had before.

Should I take out more water at a water change?
 
Well, if the ammonia level was .25 after the water change, it was probably around .5 before it -- or is it always the same level? You shouldn't have ammonia at all. If you do, it means the tank is overstocked, underfiltered, overcleaned, or you're overfeeding -- or possibly a combination of these. This may not be the direct cause of the fishes' current problems, but it must be somewhat stressful to be constantly exposed to any level of toxic ammonia. You should figure out what's wrong. You should have 0 all the time -- water changes are to remove nitrate and other waste products, but ammonia and nitrite should always be zero.

Does the pH of your source water match the pH in your tank? What's your KH? I was thinking this might be shock from pH fluctuations. What do you think?
 
I re-checked my PH after the water change I just did a few minutes ago, and it is at 7.6, same as last night. Every time I check for ammonia, it looks to be about .25 so I don't think that the ammonia is fluctuating that much.

I added another airstone to help with oxygenation and my filter appears to be working fine because the water looks like it's flowing normally.

Would you suggest I clean my filter? I was afraid of doing that because I just changed my water and I don't want to kill the good bacteria on my filter.
 
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