Oxygen Emergency

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

In my 29 Gal tank I just did a 30% water change and gravel vacuum and now it seems theres a lack of O2 in my tank. I took all the ornaments out (which i normally don't do) so that i could get a good cleaning and also so i could add some new plants, 3 to be exact. Now my Angels and White skirt tetras are all swimming towards the top and my Neons are dying off!

I put an airtube in it and plugged it in hoping to help oxygenate it. Is there anything else I can do immediately?? The tank has been established for about a year now.

 

[Tolak]

What are you using to treat the replacement water & what make & model of filter do you have running? Nitrite inhibits a fish's ability to process O2, and they act as if there is a low O2 level thing going on. A quick nitrite test would eliminate or indicate this being the cause.

Around this time of year some water companies tend to treat water differently, it has to do with the change of the seasons. It's a common problem by me. You have to add more dechlorinator than usual, this takes care of the additional chlorine & chloramine that is sometimes added without any notice.

 

[TurboVtec93]

When I had this problem I used a product called clout and it worked great. The price is a little high at around $25 usd for a bottle but it comes with 100 tablets that treat 10 Us gallons each. Its also clears up ich and parasites. Hope this helps you out.

-Alex

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I think you're right Tolak, its the damn tap water, the ammonia in that crap is like 1 ppm. What am I supposed to do now when I have to do a water change???

BTW I'm running an Aqua Clear 30.... guess maybe its time to move up to a 50.....

The Nitrite reading is zero but the ammonia is close to 1ppm....... what to do now... a water change is useless seeing as how that is the source of the ammonia!

 

[PaPeRo]

I think you're right Tolak, its the damn tap water, the ammonia in that crap is like 1 ppm. What am I supposed to do now when I have to do a water change???

Amquel+ to help detoxify the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate while the biofilter catches up with your new water supply.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Unfortunately everythings closed right now so I have to wait till tomorrow to go buy it. I just put one of the filter catridges from my 55 gal in a makeshift mesh bag (a plastic bag with a bunch of holes and tears) and hung it on my other tank beside the filter... hopefully that helps clear up the ammonia a little...

 

[Tolak]

I run 50's on my 29's, along with a large sponge filter when I start to stock them like a breeder. I was running the 20's, which I had running on 20 talls, but they didn't cut it when I upgraded many of my 20's to 29's.

If you have an ammonia problem, Ammo-Lock will convert ammonia to ammonium, which is harmless to your fish but still treated like ammonia by your bio filtration. My water swings in quality, when the water gets nasty, I use Prime at double the dose. I can usually get a good idea about the water quality by watching the weather, it affects my water supply, Lake Michigan. We had a really strong storm move through last night, I put off daily water changes on fry tanks for a day, as well as several other tank's weekly changes until tomorrow. Everyone is getting a double dose of Prime.

As long as your dechlorinator treats for chlorine, chloramine AND ammonia, add enough to treat the entire tank volume. This will take care of the ammonia. Any water treatment I can think of advises upping the dose for spikes, Prime states that it can be used at 5x the normal dose. I've used it at 4x on a regular basis on hatching tanks.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Thanks alot for the help. Looks like I'll be restocking my tank over the next few weeks.... ALL of my tetras are gone except for 2 neons, and my gourami is done for also. Thankfully my Angels are still holding on for now......

 

[Tolak]

What are you using for a dechlorinator?

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I have been using Aqua Plus but ran out of that so today I got Tetra EasyBalance, thats what I used for this most recent change. I've used that brand before, you think that had anything to do with it?

** edit- HOLY SH*T! I just realized this tetra easy balance crap isnt even a dechlorinator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God I'm sooo stupid!!!!!

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

Soooo... is there anyway you can change my little label thing back to "NEWBIE" ?! j/k...

But anyway, is it possible that my water has always had that level of ammonia but just never affected the tank when I used the real dechlorinator??

If so, Will not using dechlorinator one time cause that type of devastation?

 

[zoekin8yg]

the chlorine usually evaporated fairly quickly even without dechlor, the fish dont normally die straight away from high ammonia. Sorry I dont really know an answer, seems a bit strange that they went quickly?

 

[Tolak]

Ammonia is something that is quite harmful to fish. If you have plenty of bio filtration it can usually handle a slight spike. The lack of a product to neutralize the ammonia along with just enough bio filtration to do the job for the stock you have means the ammonia spike will probably last about 24 hours in a mature tank, as that's what it will take for your bio filtration to take care of it.

A buddy of mine, who has been breeding fish quite a bit longer than I have was having a problem with increased die off with fry this same time a year ago. He had been using Novaqua for years without a problem, but we were going through a really bad stretch of heavy rain. Novaqua takes care of chlorine & chloramine, but does nothing for ammonia. He was having ammonia spikes, I gave him some Prime to try with water changes, and it solved his problem.

It took about 24 hours start to finish for the die off problem to run its course. All these years his bio filtration had taken care of the ammonia produced, until our water company really increased the additives.

Don't kick yourself too hard, I screwed up a batch of bbs Thursday night, forgot to add baking soda to increase the hardness. It's been a busy week at work, as well as in my fishroom. Got a whopping 10% hatch rate, just enough to feed the fry that really need it. We all make mistakes, no body is perfect.

Try saving a little extra dechlor in an old bottle; use it for situations like these. I have enough saved to do all my tanks, when a new bottle gets enough used, I rotate in the little bit that is stashed, and add some new dechlor to the emergency bottle.

 

[Bignose]

Another solution that is available would be to do more frequent but smaller water changes. If you do small ones, the ammonia will be processed by the biological filter fairly rapidly, the fish only exposed for a span of minutes, and at a low level. This may be impractical, though, since I can easily see how doing a 5 to 10% water change every day (which would correspond to roughly 15 and 30% weekly water changes, respectively) would quickly become a hassle. If you can find some appropriate water conditioner nearby, or even order a large bottle off the internet (don't expose it do the sun, and it really doesn't expire) I think that that is the best way.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

to my 6 Neon Tetras and 6 White skirt tetras....................... luckily my other ones fought it through.. even my Gourami that I thought was dead.

Lesson learned.. always make sure you use the right dechlorinator, and be aware of the chemical levels of your tap water....