Hi everyone. Whilst I know most of the theory on this subject I have a few thing's puzzling me. I have a 50 Gal (75USA) bowfront with 6 silver sharks, a common plec and 6 clown loaches. I use x1 FX5 filter and have no aquarium plants etc just rocks etc to aquascape. I also have a powerhead that does 1200 LPH mounted quiet low in the tank (below halfway mark). Yesterday they where all fine and I did a water change of 50 percent (usualy x1 a week). The aquarium was a little low before and I filled it up higher (water slightly touched the glass strut along the surface so I assume lowered the gas exchange area.
About 5-6 hours later at least I noticed extremely rapid gill and mouth movements of all my fish and the plec surfacing every 10 mins to gulp air. Usually he would only do this once every 3 days to help with his gut digestion and buoyancy so I knew I was in trouble. Temperature was a little high (26 degrees), but waste was minimal since I had vaced the gravel really well. I also tested the water 0 AMM 0 Nitrite and 15-20 Nitrate.
I know I am overstocked but I don't see how the trouble started so quickly. Never had them do that before and I used to fill up the tank to cover 1 of the struts before; albeit I have not done that for about 3 months (water level is maybe 5 mm higher at one end so when you fully fill it up you get the water touching the one strut on one side and not the other).
What I did was at about 3AM last night lower the water level to allow the largest, full gas exchange area I could, doing that the fx5 broke the surface more as it did pre-water change and ensured the temp gauge was set to 23 degrees. Woke up today the temperature is still 26 degrees, and will lower eventually, but all of my fish are fine now - gills normal and swimming about happy. So I think I have to conclude it was gas exchange area.
My question really is am I going to be able to stay out of trouble as long as I ensure the full area is there for gas exchange? My issue I suppose is that I see much more heavily stocked tanks than mine on MFK and on you tube etc (yes some of these people are idiots but many know what they are doing to avoid problems etc). My sharks are about 5 inches long and loaches about 3-4 inches so they arent massive, medium is maybe a better term. ( I know how big they grow - don't worry I will upgrade when the time comes). I see some huge ass oscars and pacu in small tanks that don't seem to have come up against this O2 problem and it's the thing I just don't understand?
I wonder if anyone out there with some logic could talk on the issues I have had and any [sensible] advice they might have to re-assure me.
Thanks for reading.
About 5-6 hours later at least I noticed extremely rapid gill and mouth movements of all my fish and the plec surfacing every 10 mins to gulp air. Usually he would only do this once every 3 days to help with his gut digestion and buoyancy so I knew I was in trouble. Temperature was a little high (26 degrees), but waste was minimal since I had vaced the gravel really well. I also tested the water 0 AMM 0 Nitrite and 15-20 Nitrate.
I know I am overstocked but I don't see how the trouble started so quickly. Never had them do that before and I used to fill up the tank to cover 1 of the struts before; albeit I have not done that for about 3 months (water level is maybe 5 mm higher at one end so when you fully fill it up you get the water touching the one strut on one side and not the other).
What I did was at about 3AM last night lower the water level to allow the largest, full gas exchange area I could, doing that the fx5 broke the surface more as it did pre-water change and ensured the temp gauge was set to 23 degrees. Woke up today the temperature is still 26 degrees, and will lower eventually, but all of my fish are fine now - gills normal and swimming about happy. So I think I have to conclude it was gas exchange area.
My question really is am I going to be able to stay out of trouble as long as I ensure the full area is there for gas exchange? My issue I suppose is that I see much more heavily stocked tanks than mine on MFK and on you tube etc (yes some of these people are idiots but many know what they are doing to avoid problems etc). My sharks are about 5 inches long and loaches about 3-4 inches so they arent massive, medium is maybe a better term. ( I know how big they grow - don't worry I will upgrade when the time comes). I see some huge ass oscars and pacu in small tanks that don't seem to have come up against this O2 problem and it's the thing I just don't understand?
I wonder if anyone out there with some logic could talk on the issues I have had and any [sensible] advice they might have to re-assure me.
Thanks for reading.
