Supersaturation?

[GouramiGuru]

Hey everybody; I am currently dealing with a problem that I have had very little experience with thus far in the hobby. I have been in the proccess of setting up and cycling a new/old 10 gallon tank. Now, everything is going pretty normal despite the speed bumps of finding out that my tap water has abnormally high ammonia/chloramine levels -- but recently some strange things have been occuring.

I am running a 10 gallon tank with two 10 gallon Tetra Corner Filters (we already had them, and money has been tight since moving), accompanied by an airstone. At the moment there is a Dwarf Gourami and an Anubias Nana attached to lava rock in the tank; however, when I added an African Dwarf Frog it quickly succumbed to Gas Bubble Disease. Several weeks later I added a small school of Corydoras (Brochis Splendens); initially when introduced to the tank they acted normally, however, after a few hours they became much more inactive, and I began to notice what seemed to be the initial stages of pop-eye on two of the smaller ones. When I woke up the next morning the entire school of them had passed .

Ammonia is at 0, Nitrite is 0, and small amounts of Nitrates are present (well below anything harmful to fish.) I am only now realizing that I may be supersaturating the tank with oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or an abundance of too much gaseous material in some way, shape, or form?

I love fish and absolute love this hobby; but this is an aspect of the trade I have never really encountered, so if someone could please enlighten me as to what my problem is or what I am doing wrong, it would be utmost appreciated.

 

[GouramiGuru]

Might I add, though, that the Gourami has never shown any signs of illness in the tank whatsoever and was introduced to the tank before the second filter or the airstone was employed. I am thinking this is not by coincidence; but I would like to hear what the experts hear think, as I am a bit out of my expertise here.

 

[GouramiGuru]

At this point I am thinking it must be one of two things:

A) There is a leak in the air pump. There were no bubbles forming in the bloodstreams of fishes or frogs before the introduction of the air pump; and I have noticed that the airstone doesn't work exactly like it should, as even on the highest setting bubbles only come out of select areas of the stone. But, if there is a leak, how can I confirm this?

B) I am overcirculating the water. This seems like it could be a possible culprit, but at the same time causes me to question what I know about filtration; there are people who run filters on their tanks that are 2 to 5 times what they are meant for with no ill effects; could two ten gallon filters and an airstone really be overciculating the water in a ten gallon tank to the point that it is causing supersaturation in the water?

 

[jsoong]

I doubt you are over-saturating the water in any way. Air stone or filter current merely move the water around and increases the surface area so gas exahnge can occur. You can't get higher than atmospheric pressure with that kind of setup. <if you are injecting pressurized gases from a cylinder, that is a different story ....>

For reference, I run 10x water turnover in my setup, and often run a HOT magnum at 150 gph in my 10 gal QT ... all without problems.

How do you determine that the fish died from gas bubble disease?? This happens only when the fish (or person) moves from areas of different pressures. <Say a diver or fish being moved from the depths to the surface ... I think you need at least 30 or 40 foot of water depth to get this.>

I would look for different reasons - perhaps the tank water parameters had drifted (check your tank pH vs tap for one) & the new fish are not properly acclimatized, or they were sick to begin with ... etc.

 

[Crepe]

Unless you completely seal a tank off it's physically impossible to supersaturate your water. The partial pressure of the gas in the water will equillibriate with the atmospheric pressure.

Also, you can't really over circulate the water unless it impedes your fish's swimming.
What are you using for tests? Liquid or strip?
Also what is your pH and if possible hardness?

I agree with jsoong.

I'm running about 200gph on my 20gal with no ill effect.