Help!

[Cassius.]

I did a water change last night - about 30%. I woke up this morning to find one fish dying (albino taiwanii reef ) and most of the rest of my fish are swimming near the surface, gasping for air. I checked the levels and they're all fine except for the ph. I think I'm at 7.4 so I added some buffer (5 teaspoons).

I think I might have submerged the water outflow, whereas it was creating more bubbles before.

I have a 92G corner, an eheim pro iii 160 pump, and the tank has lace rock and onyx sand. The fish are Malawi and Victorian, and then yellow labs.

Damn. This is terrible, anybody have have any advice? Please help.


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[james99]

did you add dechlorinator? might be a silly question, but sometimes people forget. what are all of the "fine" readings from your test?

 

[DIDYSIS]

Make sure you have allot of air flow bubbles in the tank. Do a small water change.

Sent from my DROIDX using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[jrthor_85]

What are your nitrite and nitrate readings?

Didn't you post maybe two weeks ago some questions having just set this tank up to cycle? Two or three weeks is about the right time for your nitrate levels to spike, and fish gasping at the surface is a common sign of poor water quality (high ammo/nitrite/nitrate). Find out those numbers, increase air supply, and if required do a much larger water change.

Also, are you doing your Nitrate readings properly? If you're using the API Nitrate test kit, you MUST MUST MUST!!! shake the second bottle vigorously for 30+ seconds before adding the drops to the vial or you will get improper readings. I learned this the hard way. If you don't properly shake the second bottle, the test will always show "ok" nitrate levels while they could be several times higher than what you're seeing.

 

[Cassius.]

Ugggggh. I just found that I've also lost a gorgeous ivory head mloto.

I did use a dechlorinator, prime. As for my readings, ammonia is 0, and nitrites are 0, or very very close to 0.

In the morning, after I move the outflow, I also added a second dose of Prime. The rest of the fish seem to be doing better, except for an acei ngara - he's still breathing close to the surface.

I've learned that they shut off the water for most of the day before I did the water change. They were working on the boiler and plumbing. I'm afraid some sort of contaminant might have gotten in to the water through this. Feeling pretty ****ty right now.


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Cassius.]

As for shaking the bottle, I have to admit, I never shook it before - but I did before I took the last readings, and they're all the same.