Had An Emergency This Morning!!

[Artee]

I have some sponge filters that are seeded and currently running on my tanks, you are welcome to take a couple for your tanks....

I will be home this weekend , just give me a holler...

 

[cyradis4]

Well, a little late, but.....

Your description is like Deja Vu for me..... Has happened more times then I want to think about to me..... I believe the root cause is often a bacteria bloom from the move (especially if its white cloudy). The bacteria eats all the oxygen, leaving none for your fish. Why the bacteria bloom? I THINK its because the bacteria colony was disturbed, and the normal checks and balances on the colony shifted, allowing one to out compete the others temporarily. Best move? I agree, get a cycled filter. By preference, a sponge filter. And KEEP THE CRAP in the filter!!!!! It looks like dirt and mud, but it has ALL KINDSA beneficial bacteria.

Also, especially when you first notice this happening (it has a lot less effect later on, after things start to stabilize), up the air in the tank as much as you can, drop the water level a few inches, and if you have a spare power head use it to create surface agitation. The surface agitation of the water is what allowed the water to expel CO2 and absorb oxygen. Dropping the water level a few inches creates a larger vertical space for the O2 exchange to take place in. If the tank top is tightly closed, you might want to open it up a bit and place a screen over it to keep the fish in. Again, this aids in the air exchange.

What I do now to help prevent this issue is set the tank up with heavy surface agitation and lots of air stones on the bottom (to create water circulation) for an hour or so before I put the fish in. I know that my own water tends to be light on oxygen, and it can take a little while to stabilize.

Finally, get a dissolved oxygen kit. Plus a pH kit (low and high, even if you only have high range fish), and an ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, general hardness, carbonate hardness, and CO2 test kits. And any other test kit you can think of. These kits can eliminate a LOT of guess work when you have a bizarre problem in your tanks. You might only use them once a year, or not at all, but when you have to tell some one that your fish are acting strange, the ability to tell them what the O2 is, and the rest of the info, can be a priceless advantage in the race to save your fish.

Later!
Amanda.

PS: Love Prime. It locks ammonia as well as chloromines and choline. And does a few other things to boot.

 

[SubMariner]

Excellent hypothesis Amanda.


RM

 

[F8LBITE]

Thanks for the input Amanda seems like things have stabilized and everyone is doing fine. Ammonia is still testing zero or yellow in the kit and I had lowered the water level for more surface aggitation and the fish are all swimming freely and eating like pigs. I hadnt thought of it before but the day after all this happened I checked the PH and it was around 7.0 so I upped the PH over the course of this weekend and into today and now its right at 8.0 so maybe it was PH shock?!

 

[cyradis4]

Could be. On the other hand, when the bacteria converts ammonia to nitrite (or is it Nitrite to Nitrate? I forget which) it eats up carbonate hardness, which is what pH is. So in a cycling tank, you will often have your pH plummet when the cycling first gets going, due to the hyperactive conversion going on. Which, if your not on top of it, tends to do Bad Things to your cycling process and fish (bacteria doesn't like pH shock any more then fish, and cannot survive below 6.0 or so, but ammonia is in its non-toxic form at that pH, so its kinda a wash so long as you do lots of water changes cuz even though its not supposed to be toxic, at high enough concentrations ammonium is harmful, and a an ammonia test kit reads the total ammonia and ammoniam, combined, not separatly). Just something to think about..... Of course, if you REALLY want to hear about all the sordid details of the Nitrogen cycle, talk to my dad Paul (animacrazy). He knows MUCH more......

Glad the fish are doing better!

Later!
Amanda.

 

[animicrazy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Artee @ Aug 28 2008, 11:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

good thing u caught it in time,

one thing I notice with tap water these days, there is a strong sulfur smell, might be co2 but I now flush out the water for 1 minute before adding , not sure if that was your problem...

hope everything is fine...[/b]

This Will be harsh!!

Just not directed at anyone in particular - especially NOT F8LBITEva:

I have mentioned this before - and "discussed" the subject, at high volume, with a good friend of mine - who is both right and wrong.

1) Fish live in water - agreed.

2) Water is therefore fairly important - agreed.

3) The water supply changes constantly and unpredictably - a fact that some people don't get - not so much agreement.

4) I DO NOT care how many centuries a particular person has been keeping fish and doing so successfully; you must accept fact #3, learn ways to mitigate the variances, there are many from cheap to not so cheap - heated disagreement.

5) Accept the fact that less than 1% of the worlds water is potable, there is a world wide water crisis, being in the USA does not help you much, municipalities put known carcinogens into the water to make it "safe", tap water can have active bacteria, net out: Learn.

6) It's great to read a thread that everyone is right - listen to Amanda, listen to Sarah (no offense to anyone else) (I always try to get water with media dirt when picking up fish from someone - add to tank, run the filters with a little ammonia in the tank, cycles overnight.)

7) When and if ammonia and/or nitrite spike - do small water changes, not big ones. Reserve the 98% water change for when the tank has crashed and the fish have about 10 minutes to live - been there, done that.

8) Remember to feed your bacteria - mentioned in previous post but important enough to repeat.

TMS.