Help please

[Fishtankman]

Have a 75 gallon tank and 2 of my filters of my 4 filters I have were clogged and I just added a 7.0 h buffer I noticed my fish gasping for air so I dumped 50% of the water and then added new water the fish were fine again until a hour later so I replaced the media and did a 50% water change again. This morning I lost 4 fish I checked my chemicals and the nitrite is off the charts so I added some prime to get rid of it I'll check again I'n a hour . Can anyone tellme what happen. Is it because of the filters or did I make a mistake when I added the ph buffer....... Hope to hear from someone soon thanks....

 

[Samzter]

Hey. First off, I'm not entirely sure you are allowed to post emails, but it's up to you.
I too, the other day had nitrite at 5+. This happened because one of my filters had broke and I kept feeding the same. What I did was do continuous water changes for 4 days. ( changed about 30% per P.C. ) then I didn't feed for two days. Brought a new filter ( still had another in the tank) then the nitrite dropped to 0.25 in the space of the week. Then for an additional two weeks I'm going to be feeding less . Good luck , I hope I helped.

 

[Rivercats]

Using buffers are never a good idea. If you have an extra air pump and bubbler on hand adding that will help oxygenate the water better (which is why fish are gasping for air at the surface). Do you clean your filters on a schedule, I'm not sure what you meant by clogged. But as stated above WC's are the best way to bring the nitrites down. I would do another WC now tho if the fish are still gasping at the surface.

 

[librarygirl]

Prime wont' get rid of nitrites; it'll help detoxify it to a certain point and it only lasts a day or two. If nitrites are high I'd do some water changes, that's the best way to get rid of them. Did you replace all of your media? Messing with PH isn't usually a good idea either; most fish can adapt to your PH. The fluctuations the PH buffers can cause often do more harm than good.

 

[dezzmondo]

Have a 75 gallon tank and 2 of my filters of my 4 filters I have were clogged and I just added a 7.0 h buffer I noticed my fish gasping for air so I dumped 50% of the water and then added new water the fish were fine again until a hour later so I replaced the media and did a 50% water change again. This morning I lost 4 fish I checked my chemicals and the nitrite is off the charts so I added some prime to get rid of it I'll check again I'n a hour . Can anyone tellme what happen. Is it because of the filters or did I make a mistake when I added the ph buffer....... Hope to hear from someone soon thanks....


Also keep in mind if you do use buffers it is only safe on your fish to move the PH .20 within a 24 hour period