Changed Water And Applied Tapsafe - Fish At Surface For Air

[bencollier]

Hi,
 
I bought a new Juwel fish tank a month or so ago to replace a very old tank and have about 15-20 neon tetra jumbos, harlequin rasbora and zebra danio. I bought the most recent batch of a round 4 of each on Tuesday and they all seemed happy when I introduced them into the tank.
 
Yesterday evening I noticed that most were swimming at the surface for air as the pump in the Juwel tank wasn't pumping correctly so I took the filters out, gave them a clean and then replaced half the tank's water with fresh water plus a couple drops of TapSafe. Again the fish returned to the rest of the tank, until this morning when they were again at the surface. I took a water sample to my local fish shop, where they did a test as I was concerned about a nitrate or ammonia spike, but the water is fine. I now have 2 dead neons and they're still at the surface.
 
Does anyone know what on earth is going on?
 
Ben

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What is the nitrite level?

 

[the_lock_man]

When you changed tank, did you keep the existing filter?
 
What size is the tank?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Would have to look at this as a possible nitrite issue.
 
Would need the above questions already asked answered before can advise any further :
 
Tank size : ?
 
water parameters : ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH as well 
exact figures if possible using API liquid test kit or if don't have the kit, go to LFS with sample of your tank water and ask for the specific readings, don't accept the 'its fine' answer from them. This would help greatly.
 
When you say you cleaned the filters, what did you do exactly? cleaned ALL of the filter sponges in old tank water? 
 
Answering those questions would be a good first step in helping you.

 

[bencollier]

According to a Tetra 6-in-1 kit result:

NO3 is between 50 and 100
NO2 is between 0 and 10
GH is between 25 and 50
KH is between 100 and 250 (should do another water change?)
pH is between 7.2 and 7.6
Cl2 is between 0 and 0.8

I've taken all but one of the Harlequins and one of the Neons out and it's swimming around quite happily. Should I do another half tank water change?

I believe it's a Juwel Rekord 600.

The previous tanks was over 20 years old and used an under gravel filter system which was a nightmare to clean out! Please forgive my naïveté about this, as I've taken the tank over from someone so am pretty new to it all.

Thanks again for your speedy replies.
With regards to the filters, I cleaned the ones that came with the tank by removing the whole set from the tank and rinsing them out under the tap.

 

[KirkyArcher]

 I took the filters out, gave them a clean and then replaced half the tank's water with fresh water plus a couple drops of TapSafe
 
Does anyone know what on earth is going on?
 
Ben

 
Usually best to put at the recommended quantity of dechlorinator in for the volume you have replaced, possibly could be just chlorine/chloramine levels that's the cause of your trouble.

 

[Ch4rlie]

1st off, test strip kits are notoriously inaccurate. Much better with a liquid test kit, API freshwater test kits are ok.
 
Anyway, assuming this test MAY be accurate 
 
Nitrate (N03) - a little high but not to worry about too much
Nitrite (N02) - best at 0 - so a water change is recommended
pH - that is pretty normal at 7.2 to 7.6
 
CI2 is chloramine levels, as long as you add de-chlorinator to tap water. I've never tested for this before so don't really know about this.
 
Is there no Ammonia test results?

 

[bencollier]

Thanks again for the replies!

So, I'm presuming there's a difference between filling it with softened water and non-softened water? I'll refill the tank with softened water rather than from the outside feed. Silly question, but would I need a tropical test kit rather than a freshwater test kit as they're tropical fish?

And around 1.5 inner caps of tapsafe as its a 63 litre tank?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Basicially Tropical refers to the temperature of the water, freshwater refers to the salinity of the water.
Reef tanks are tropical saltwater tanks, and the more common freshwater communities are tropical freshwater.
However, many people refer to FW tanks as tropical.
 
I use API Freshwater Master Test Kit for my tropical fish aquarium.
 
Yes there are differences between filling with soft water, tap water, RO water, well water etc etc.
 
Really, no problems to stick to tap water and de-chlorinate before adding to tank.
 
My tap water is hard as nails, yup, no messing about with my water, even Millwall fans are scared of my tap water! lol, only joking.
 
Yeah i use tap water for my tank and that IS hard tap water, nitrate comes out at 20ppm, pH at 8.0, and is classed as hard water, no problems so far.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Those test results are not really usable. Saying nitrite is between 0 and 10 is like saying if you get into that bathtub the water will be between 35C and 45C. Are you going into that? Nitrite test kits read a lot of level between 0 and 10. Nitrite at .25 ppm fish can tolerate for a while, nitrite at 10 ppm has them at the surface gasping from nitrite poisoning. What is between pH 7.2 and 7.6 is 7.4 I would think?
 
CL2 is chlorine not chloramine which is basically NH2Cl. There should be no CL2 in your tank.
 
Most home water softeners merely substitute different salts for what makes the water hard.
 

 
Typical home water softeners soften water using a technique known as ``ion exchange''. That is, they remove calcium and magnesium ions by replacing them with sodium ions. Although this does technically make water softer, most fish won't notice the difference. That is, fish that prefer soft water don't like sodium either, and for them such water softeners don't help at all. Thus, home water softeners are not an appropriate way to soften water for aquarium use.

from http/fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html
 
Please get better test kits or get help reading the results.

 

[bencollier]

Ok. I've replaced 75% of the original water with new softened water and bought some new filter packs to replace the set that is currently in the tank. What's you're thinking about the Cirax filter? Is that to be used as well as or instead of a particular filter in the set? The fish again seem happy this evening but will check again in the morning. I've also ordered the API Master test kit so I should be able to get more detail into what's going on.

Thanks again for your continued speedy replies!
*your thinking

 

[bencollier]

All seems ok this morning - out of interest what do you use to keep track of levels, solely the master kits or these flash USB monitors like Seneye too?

 

[the_lock_man]

I personally just use chemical kits.