Water chemistry off?

[rjcatlin]

Guys,

The other day I had to shut a breaker off to do some electrical work. The breaker I turned off just happen to go to my aquarium outlet. After I restored power everything came back on. My air pump was running, but not supplying air. I don't have check valves on the air lines because my air pump is maxed out for the tank size (60 gal), and it won't supply a lot of air if I put them on.

At least a day or so later I noticed I had some pretty sick fish on my hands. My parrot went from bright pink to almost white. And my africans were all gasping.

My question to the forum is:
Could something in my water chemistry be off that would make this happen? Or is having air being put into the tank that important.

Regards,

rjcatlin

 

[Lawngnome]

Sounds like a lack of oxygen in the tank if they're gasping like that.

 

[JAB]

Hmmmmm... I've got to agree with Lansing - if fish are GASPING - you got air issues!

Broken pump - AGITATE the **** out of the surface by running a power head hanging off the side of the top rim and stick a piece of tubing into the air intake hole - on HAGEN powerheads anyway.

This should give you an immediate violent thrashing of the water surface thereby performing the gaseous OXYGEN/CO2 exchange your fish desperately need. RUN this noisy (if you can use the AIRLINE feature) for the next 3 days. (BUY an EXTRA pump for future emergencies)

As always plz post again and let us know your fish friends are doing!!

 

[hdultra]

How are ya doing?

How long was it off. Do you have surface agitation. What is your water chemistry.

 

[rjcatlin]

The power was only off for a couple of hours, but the air pump wasn't producing bubbles for a couple of days. I have a larger air pump on the way, one for up to 100 gallons.

As for surface agitation, I have a Fluval 304 canister filter it has a pretty powerful output.

The only test kit I have for the water is pH.

 

[hdultra]

Make sure it is breaking the water surface on top so that the gases can escape.
GET YOURSELF A API MASTER TEST KIT.

YOU MUST KNOW WHAT YOUR AMMONIA, NITRITE AND NITRATE LEVELS ARE.
YOU COULD BE POISONING YOUR FISH AND NOT KNOW IT. IT'S A MUST FOR EVERYONE KEEPING FISH, IN MY OPINION.

 

[rjcatlin]

Guys,

I got the proper testing kits and checked yesterday. pH - 8.0, Ammonia - 0, Nirite - 0, and Nitrate - 0.

 

[HUKIT]

Guys,

I got the proper testing kits and checked yesterday. pH - 8.0, Ammonia - 0, Nirite - 0, and Nitrate - 0.

In a cycled aquarium the nitrate levels should not be 0, I would double check the basics again including water test and temperature.

 

[hdultra]

Make sure you shake your testing solution bottles pretty well.
Retest.

 

[rjcatlin]

I retested and I shook the vial pretty well. I still got a nirate reading 0 ppm. I've done a little bit of reading about it, and I have yet to read that a nitrate reading of 0 ppm is bad. For the most part I have just seen that the test should read under 40 ppm.

 

[HUKIT]

I retested and I shook the vial pretty well. I still got a nirate reading 0 ppm. I've done a little bit of reading about it, and I have yet to read that a nitrate reading of 0 ppm is bad. For the most part I have just seen that the test should read under 40 ppm.

Is this a planted tank? Otherwise I don't see how it's possible to have 0 nitrates in a cycled aquarium. I would try another test kit or have a local fish store test is for you. Also how old are the test kits because they do have a expiration date?

 

[rjcatlin]

Upon further review, I was not doing the test correctly. I was supposed to shake bottle #2 of the test solution for 30 seconds and the vial for 1 minute. I will be doing a partial water change and filter rinse today. Thank you all for your help.