Urgent Fish Lying On The Bottom Of Tank Not Moving Please Help!

ive added the boiling water because several people in this thread suggested to do so. i thought there was more bacteria in warm water- doesnt it come from a different source? i mean we dont drink the warm water and always let the tap run until its cold right? the hot tap is not drinking water so i didnt think this would be appropriate for the fish. and the cold tap is... well cold!

and the boiled water was added in with the rest of the water so it would also have been treated. my poor wording.
 
The water coming from your tap is all drinking water. And warm water coming from your tap doesn't help with the bacteria. All the water comes into the house at a single source, then some is channeled to your hot water heater and the rest comes out the cold tap. But it's all from the same source. The only reason to add warm water to the tank is to bring the temperature to the correct level.

I imagine it gets a bit confusing here getting all these different answers and trying to sort them out! But keep at it ... you'll get there. I can see you're willing to learn and that's the most important thing.
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touchee.....i agree. I used water from the hot tap...and have been known to drink it too? all water supplied to your home "should" be safe to drink.
 
thanks guys. ya it can be a bit confusing as people have different opinions, but the great thing is everyone working together and commenting on each others posts and not just mine which helps to figure out what IS the best thing to do. i am definately willing to learn. i think i had no idea how hard this would be at the start and if i had my time again i would set up the tank with no fish etc for 1 month and avoid all this. but i have the fish and i love them to pieces so ill do my best to learn how to best care for them. they are such cheeky little characters most of the time. my flat would be empty without their cheery little faces. i totally understand why everyone here is so passionate about their fish:)

p.s. they are asleep now but seem to doing ok:)

and good to know about the tap water. makes life a bit easier.

i love the fact that people on here are from all over the world too, as it means there should always be someone online to help!
 
Some people say that warm water can contain harmful sediments from your hot water heater, or can contain copper from copper piping. So, I have always been hesitant about using warm water from the tap.

However, if someone could convince me that warm water from the tap is definitely safe, I would love to just use warm water from the tap, it would make life much easier, then waiting for stuff to warm up or adding boiling water
 
I use the boiling water from the kettle as I have a very old combination boiler that a) I don't trust not have anything harmful to the fish coming through the pipes and b) it takes it too long to get consistant hot water.

I'm in agreement with Crusty in a way, I just don't trust what is coming out of that hot tap. I wouldn't drink it myself so I won't give it to my fishies. I just feel happier using boiling water from the kettle but then - that's just me. Sure we all have different ways of doing our water changes
 
most dechlorinators rid of coppers and things in the water anyway, so if there was any...these would deal with it..this is why some ppl do 1.5 x the dose or double the dosage. to be sure these are erradicated.
It's a whole different subject about germs/chemicals we ingest..but sometimes i think the world has gone mad with anti-bacs and hand cleansers. ( i know it's important in some jobs) But good lord....i ate things off the floor, and drank puddle water....and i'm still ere?! :lol:
 
We just had this discussion on another thread, but unless you have one of those boilers with no cover in your attic collecting dust, dirt and dead animals, you're likely fine to use the hot water. Copper pipes do not leach copper or we'd all be in big trouble. And any sediment in a hot water heater is at the bottom of the tank, and the hot water from you tap is drawn off the top. You're supposed to drain your hot water heater periodically using the tap at the bottom to rid it of sediment, but unless you're putting that in your tank you're safe.
 
I just let the hot tap run for a minute or so to flush the pipes, then I mix the hot and cold together. I have never had an issue.
 
@ everyone who offered advise. ive done another big water change today and the fish are pretty much back to normal and back to their usual responsive bubbly selves. i will just keep up the bigger water changes several times a week whilst its still cyclying so hopefully it wont get to that stage again.

thanks again

and thanks from the fish who are once again happy:)
 
Don't just do the water changes "several times a week" do the water changes in response to the ammonia or nitrite being too high (anything readable on the ammonia/nitrite test kit means that you should do a water change. The concentration determines how big the change needs to be. For example, if your reading is very light, less than the 0.25ppm, you could guess that it is about a 0.10-0.15ppm. Doing a 50% water change would be appropriate in this case to drop the ammonia to 0.05-0.07ppm. If your reading is 0.25ppm or 0.50ppm you really need to do as large a water change as possible. The stress of a water change is nothing compared to the stress of the toxin in the water. With a 0.50ppm reading, you would need to do a 90% water change to bring that level back to the "trace" level or at least close to it (0.05ppm). Ultimately, you want the ammonia to be at trace levels (or as close as you can keep it), which means that the ammonia test kit never shows any color change. Depending on which brand kit you are using, what color you want. For the API kit, you want a nice bright yellow with no tinge of green for ammonia, and a nice light blue with no noticeable trace of purple for nitrite.

If you don't have a test kit, please go out and get one. You need a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. You also want to complete water changes for excess nitrate as well. Generally, you want to keep your nitrate a fairly low number, but it isn't nearly as bad as ammonia or nitrite. Nitrate should be kept as close to 20-40ppm as possible with water changes. With goldfish that will be a little more difficult, because they are so messy. But, at the same time, that just means that your water changes need to be more often or larger when you do them. Fish can tolerate very high nitrates by comparison to ammonia or nitrite, but it is still dangerous to the fish if it isn't dealt with at all.

You are doing the right things, but you need to do water changes more frequently and larger.



One final thought. Whenever your fish are acting odd, before posting here, complete a large water change. That is basic fishkeeping first aid. When in doubt, do a water change. If you are keeping up with them the basic water parameters should be the same as the tap water, so there won't be a massive change for them to deal with. Meanwhile, a simple thing like fresh water is often enough for the fish to be able to handle whatever the problem is on their own. They have good immune systems. For the most part, it is only when the fish is stressed (like ammonia/nitrite poisoning, excess nitrates, etc.) that leaves them susceptible to many issues.
 
@eaglesaquarium- thanks for that. can i just ask what is the best equipment to do a water change? because at the moment im just using a 1l jug, a 20l tank and a 7l bucket. it takes forever this way. is there an easier way?
 
Of course. I use a hose and a shorter length of hose. I use the short length of hose to drain the water out and start the siphon before I attach the longer hose to it. I run the hose out into the front yard where my impatiens are. (The impatiens have never looked better than when I watered them with the fishy water!)

Then you can get an adapter for the sink to allow you to attach the hose to that. Just add the dechlorinator directly to the tank for the entire volume of water. (I know it sounds expensive, but I have a 50+G tank as well, and a bottle last me for MONTHS. Granted, I'm not cycling any more, but I still do a 30% weekly change and a 50-70% monthly change.) Then refill with water from the tap. Be careful that you don't add water that is too hot. Personally I generally just refill with cold only, but I do it as a very slow flow, so that the fish don't get a temp shock. Honestly, though, fish can handle a fairly rapid drop in temp more than they are able to take a rise in temp. You can use a little more of the warm water mixed in as well, there is no danger of pollutants or copper being added to your tank from your water heater.
 
@eaglesaquarium- ok so that makes sense how you get the water into the tank. but do you need a pump or something to get the old water out?
 

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