For the past week I have noticed my fish acting very stressed and hyperventilating in the evenings. They're fine every morning and it only seems to happen at night.
I have a few theories but none make total sense:
1) I killed my bacteria and am getting an ammonia spike.
(I cleaned my filter out 2 weeks ago. To guard against this concern I swapped media with two other canisters though, so that ought to cover me. I'd add another filter, but the tank is acrylic and can't take a HOB. Plus my extra HOB definitely has dead BB, as it died while I was gone last weekend and sat idle for at least 2 days.)
Why this doesn't make sense: I'm not getting any ammonia readings. Also, I swapped the media. Just to be safe though, I have done daily water changes since this started happening.
2) Aeration is poor
I keep the tank at 83 plus the lights probably heat the surface some, so it makes sense that it'd need more aeration.
Why this doesn't make sense: Aeration is the same as it has always been. Surface distortion and an air stone have always been adequate for this tank and temp.
3) The fish hate Flourish Excel
I have been adding a double dose of Excel lately to deal with some black beard algae since I don't have my pressurized CO2 working (so far this seems to be working, which is good).
Why this doesn't make sense: actually it makes the most sense. The reasons I'm not totally sold on this are that it doesn't happen for several hours after the dosing, I've heard of others using megadoses of this several times before, and I haven't read of any issues with this either on plant forums or any indication at all on the label. Possibly irrelevant, but the pH has remained constant.
What I don't get is why this is only happening at night. That just doesn't make sense.
4) I reduced the amount of salt in the tank
For years I have added aquarium salt with water changes but lately I have tapered that off.
Why this doesn't make sense: I've halted salt in other tanks before without this issue
5) Temperature fluctuations
Why this doesn't make sense: The temperature is constant, except for whatever effect the CF lights have at the surface.
They're all breathing really hard right now, and I have done 50-60% WC 5 days in a row. I'm about to do another even though it's 2:45am. The clear solution is to stop the Excel treatment, but I figured I'd toss this out here too to see if anyone had any ideas, just in case.
I have a few theories but none make total sense:
1) I killed my bacteria and am getting an ammonia spike.
(I cleaned my filter out 2 weeks ago. To guard against this concern I swapped media with two other canisters though, so that ought to cover me. I'd add another filter, but the tank is acrylic and can't take a HOB. Plus my extra HOB definitely has dead BB, as it died while I was gone last weekend and sat idle for at least 2 days.)
Why this doesn't make sense: I'm not getting any ammonia readings. Also, I swapped the media. Just to be safe though, I have done daily water changes since this started happening.
2) Aeration is poor
I keep the tank at 83 plus the lights probably heat the surface some, so it makes sense that it'd need more aeration.
Why this doesn't make sense: Aeration is the same as it has always been. Surface distortion and an air stone have always been adequate for this tank and temp.
3) The fish hate Flourish Excel
I have been adding a double dose of Excel lately to deal with some black beard algae since I don't have my pressurized CO2 working (so far this seems to be working, which is good).
Why this doesn't make sense: actually it makes the most sense. The reasons I'm not totally sold on this are that it doesn't happen for several hours after the dosing, I've heard of others using megadoses of this several times before, and I haven't read of any issues with this either on plant forums or any indication at all on the label. Possibly irrelevant, but the pH has remained constant.
What I don't get is why this is only happening at night. That just doesn't make sense.
4) I reduced the amount of salt in the tank
For years I have added aquarium salt with water changes but lately I have tapered that off.
Why this doesn't make sense: I've halted salt in other tanks before without this issue
5) Temperature fluctuations
Why this doesn't make sense: The temperature is constant, except for whatever effect the CF lights have at the surface.
They're all breathing really hard right now, and I have done 50-60% WC 5 days in a row. I'm about to do another even though it's 2:45am. The clear solution is to stop the Excel treatment, but I figured I'd toss this out here too to see if anyone had any ideas, just in case.
