I'm in a bit of a jam...

[DagothUr]

Well, I really have no idea how this happened, and I'll figure that out later once my fish are safe. But for now my fish are breathing extremely hard, and I'm assuming they can't get enough oxygen. So far I did a 40% water change, and I rigged up a 15 gal air pump to put in some extra O2. I ran out of dechlorinator in that last water change. Is there anything else I can do before the LFS opens in 5-6 hours to remedy the situation?

 

[richiestang_78]

Not really, you really need to check the different levels of nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, pH, hardness etc and then post. Fish breathing hard doesnt have to mean low levels of oxygen.

 

[DagothUr]

Yeah, I did. Everything seems to be in the norm; nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia are all low, pH is fine (6.8ish), water is soft (as it has been for almost a year now), that's why I'm assuming oxygen. That's also why I'm asking advice, hehe. The reason I think it might be oxygen deprevation is I recently installed a CO2 injector, and I removed a lot of algae from the tank. It's not heavily planted yet (it will be on Monday) and so I think I may have poisoned the tank with too much CO2. Though, again, I have no idea what it could be. Luckily the water change did help, and I only hope it will last until I can get some more dechlorinater.

 

[BrianNY]

Most likely you've over saturated with CO2. This will suffocate fish. If you haven't removed the injection please do so immediately.

 

[DagothUr]

Most likely you've over saturated with CO2. This will suffocate fish. If you haven't removed the injection please do so immediately.

Yeah, that was the first thing I did.

And, I forgot to mention this, but the fish (before the water change) were up at the surface of the tank, including my pleco, which is why I initially thought it had somethnig to do with the O2/CO2 saturation fo the tank.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Most likely you've over saturated with CO2. This will suffocate fish. If you haven't removed the injection please do so immediately.

I would think you would have to really have a lot of CO2 to affect the fish. I also have pressurized, and currently I'm at about 58ppm CO2 minimum using my ph controller. Fish are not affected, as CO2 does not replace O2. They both act independently. So I'm thinking it's something other than CO2.

 

[JustOneMore20]

What size is the tank and what fish are in it? That will help us a little more. And what were your readings on nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia? Is the tank heavily planted or moderately planted? How much light is over the tank?

We need alot more info then you've given us...

 

[greenmaji]

CO2 poisoning has some strange side effects on fish normaly.. like swimming vertical head up..

How warm was the water before you made any changes?
How about now? Is the heater behaving normaly (going though on and off cycles)?
the temperature in the room?

 

[DagothUr]

CO2 poisoning has some strange side effects on fish normaly.. like swimming vertical head up..

How warm was the water before you made any changes?
How about now? Is the heater behaving normaly (going though on and off cycles)?
the temperature in the room?

That's exactly what they were doing, actually. Either way, it's fixed now, and everything is back to normal.

I'm sorry for not posting the water parameters, I was too focused in trying to save my fish in whatever way I could. It's a 70 gallon tank, it was lightly planted, although I changed that about 10 minutes ago as well, with 21 clumps of java fern...

Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 - 10 ppm
Ammonia: 0 -2.5 ppm
pH: 6.8
Temperature: 78° - 80° F

 

[greenmaji]

Ok.. glad to hear you have it under controll at this point

 

[Lonewolfblue]

In your parameters, are you getting an ammonia level? Is the tank cycled? You say ammonia is 0-2.5, but what is the reading? If it's over 1ppm, could also be burning the gills of the fish and the water changes are the only thing helping. What test kit are you using? I'm also taking it that the first nitrate levels you posted is really nitrite, and 0ppm. That's good there if it is.

 

[IceH2O]

What are you using for testing? Sounds like strips which are pretty inaccurate.

I wouldn't use anything that gives ammonia as a range of 0-2.5
Thats a crazy range to be using.

Go to some of the online stores, Petsmart,Petco etc and print up the page with the liquid testkits, they'll match the price and you'll save about 50%.

 

[eah]

I wouldn't use anything that gives ammonia as a range of 0-2.5
Thats a crazy range to be using.

I'm guessing it was a typo and DagothUr meant to say 0 - .25

 

[greenmaji]

I figured it was a typo or a really cheap kit.

 

[DagothUr]

I wouldn't use anything that gives ammonia as a range of 0-2.5
Thats a crazy range to be using.

I'm guessing it was a typo and DagothUr meant to say 0 - .25

Yeah, its 0 -.25. Also, I'm using a liquid test kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals.

 

[greenmaji]

Yea.. thats AP's result for 0 IME

 

[DagothUr]

Yea.. thats AP's result for 0 IME

I can never match the colors with the card, drives me crazy.

 

[eah]

Yea.. thats AP's result for 0 IME

I can never match the colors with the card, drives me crazy.

It's funny you bring that up because I've been wondering about that lately. I've been getting trace ammonia readings when I don't think I should lately.

How are the fish doing now?

 

[DagothUr]

Everyone seems to be doing great and swimming around happily. I'm going to be adding about 20 - 30 plants tomorrow, so that should definately help resolve any oxygen issues.