Help! All my fish look stunned, and washed out colour after a water change!

[ScotJ]

I did a water change of about 35 gallons today on my 150g tank, and came back to my office around 10pm, and turned on the room light (the halides has turned off already) and the I notice my niger triger was a very very odd colour and were acting very weird.

The niger trigger was swimming around very clumbsy and bumping into rocks, as was my clown.

My yellow tang is just riding along the bottom, and not hiding like they normally would when someone puts their hand in the tank or comes near.

I have seen the fish at night and they normally do not act like this.

All levels on the tank are normal - the only think I thought it might be is unfortunatley I haven't been able to setup my RO system and I thought maybe something from the tap water could cause this?

Should I do another water change right away?

 

[Mitchell0605]

I would leave the lights off and check em out the next day.
If you did another water change with tap water and there was something in it it would defeat the purpose of the change. Where had you been getting your water from before this change since you said your RO was down?

 

[cmor1701d]

Time to head back into the office and check on the fish. If they were startled by the sudden light that may partially explain the behaviour.

 

[melosu58]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/chem.htm

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

I think they will be fine, but tap water varies greatly around the country. Believe it or not, Detroit has some of the best tap water around - too bad they don't have a football team.

 

[melosu58]

I work for a water municipality so I understand what gets added in the name of treated water. And why you might be right in the phrase "Best tap water around" realize you are talking about treated drinking water and not reef safe water. Added nitrates and phosphates, silicates, ammonia and chlorine bleach to name a few are great for our drinking water and can make it the best in the country but not for our reefs. None of those compounds I just mentioned should be in our reef tanks. I hope this makes sense.

 

[thincat]

They had on their night...sleep mode...colors and when you turned on the bright light you startled them. Try and have someone shine a bright light at you when you were sleeping and see if you don't bump around for awhile..