What I can possibly test the water for?

U

Urgula

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2018
97
30
36
fishdance said:
Assuming the "wrong" silicon such as anti mold silicon was used, the volume of silicon compared to volume of water is miniscule especially for larger tanks. The chemicals used will rapidly degrade under water and several water changes is all that is needed.

Additionally these chemicals are quite large organic (long chain) complex molecules which are very easy to remove with activated carbon.

I say these things to give you some perspective and reassurance.
Click to expand...
The tank is only 70 gal. I always use carbon. Normally it lasts at least month or two before needing replacement.
Right now, after fresh carbon is installed, the fish are ok for 4-5 days, before starting gasping for air.

Do you think replacing carbon weekly will accelerate the removal of the "wrong things" from the silicon?
Did you ever have to deal with this type of things?
I know it's a case-by-case type of things, but how long it'd take to leach out "all the bad things from the silicon"?
I do water changes every 2-4 weeks.

It's hard to tell how many water changes I did in the past 3 months. First it was daily, then every 2-3 days, then weekly and so on.
Last water change break was 1 month because changing water this regularly wasn't helping the cycle.
Shouldn't the bad things have already "flush out" by now?
 
B

brianp

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 5, 2007
663
25
48
Fremont, CA
Urgula said:
I have this replacement tank, for the tank whose stand gave up on life and I've been having problems ever since.

The fish go pale and gasp for air at the water surface. Pleco and the rope fish are the only ones not doing this since they just get a bubble of air from the surface and use that for air.

I thought at first that I was having amonia or nitrite spikes and basically did water changes almost daily at first.
Then I've blaimed it on the bacteria bloom (water did get cloudy, but not that much since I've kept old media and didn't wash anything after tank swap).
Then I've started to test water daily and amonia, nitrite and nitrate are perfectly fine.

I've then blaimed it on the plants that I've stuck in. I thought that I didn't wash the roots good enough that they werer releasing fertilizer into the water.
That theory was also not true. I've stuck some of the plants in my nano tank with an eldery betta and raspboras. If the plants were releasing anything in the water, raspboras would be dead already.

It's also not the tap water because my other fish tank is fine whenever I change water regardless of the amount changed.

The issue did seem to decrease a little, however, this might be because initially I did have the nitrite jumps and now I don't have them.
The fish also have fin rot.

The tank seems to have new silicone on the botton seams. Is it possible that non-aquarium silicone was used or the fish would be dead by now?
The only time when I had a similar issue is when I've stuck tile in the fishtank to make maintenance easier, however, in that case there was no decreasein how bad the fish feel.


Did I simply get a tank that hosted sick fish? I did wipe it with 70% isoprophyl alcohol before putting anything in.

What I can possibly test the water for to identify the source of the problem?

Is it time to nuke the tank with some General Cure, Furan-2 and General Fungus from API or this sounds more like a chemical issue and I have to replace the tank (again)?
Halp!
Click to expand...
The symptoms you describe can be attributable to low O2, high NO2 or elevated NO3 at low pH. ..or a combination. Oxygen uptake by the gills is being obstructed. The warmer the water temperature, the lower the oxygen content. I agree with those who recommend agitating the water. This should be done in a manner which cycles surface water into the water column. Check your pH, nitrite and nitrate.
 
U

Urgula

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2018
97
30
36
brianp said:
The symptoms you describe can be attributable to low O2, high NO2 or elevated NO3 at low pH. ..or a combination. Oxygen uptake by the gills is being obstructed. The warmer the water temperature, the lower the oxygen content. I agree with those who recommend agitating the water. This should be done in a manner which cycles surface water into the water column. Check your pH, nitrite and nitrate.
Click to expand...

I'm the one talking about the "water gets oxygen by surface movement, not by bubbles in the water"
I do have airstones there. PH is 8, never had to change it from the tap water value before (oldest fish is 15).
 
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