Put On The Sirens.... Again

[MyanRan]

So, my water parameters have been good recently. My Ammonia is 0, my Nitrites are 0, and my nitrates are still slowly decreasing. Almost at 30 I would say. The only thing I'm worried about is the favt that my two red eye tetras have started gulping frequently again. Last time I believed it was because of Ammonia or something, but nos this can't possibly be the case! The only thing I changed was from water changes every second day, to every third day...

 

[MyanRan]

This is what I'm talking about. Look at him!

 

[manbeast]

try increasing the surface agitation to promote better gas exchange, quickest easiest thing to try first

 

[MyanRan]

Ok here is what it looks like right now. It doesn't seem likely that that would be the problem. The surface is alway being broken by the filter and the plants are emitting oxygen. You were getting at the fact that there might not be enough oxygen?

 

[manbeast]

suface motion promotes gas exchange not only bringing o2 in but helping other gases escape, but from the looks of your filter that shouldn't be the issue so let's start at the bottom and work our way up what are you using to test water parameters, how old are the test solutions/strips, of using a liquid test are you shaking the bottles really well before adding to the water to be tested?

 

[MyanRan]

I am using the Nutrafin Master Test Kit to test my water. It is a liquid test kit, I use it fairly frequently, so I don't think age will be a problem. I don't shake the bottles of test liquid... But I shake the vials really well when mixing with tank water. I can try that and I will do a full test tonight. Of pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate.

 

[manbeast]

some test solutions can "settle" always bet to shake the bejeezus out of them before getting started, I also didn't know they had expiration dates until I found this site and had been testing my 150 with a kit that had expired around six years ago

 

[MyanRan]

Yeah, I'll check it out. I'll let you know the results.

 

[MyanRan]

Ok, so I shook up the bottles (which have no expiry date on them, but I know they aren't expired), and I got pH: 8.5, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, and Nitrate: I can't distinguish the different levels of pink (a form of colorblind). So here it is: the left chart is for freshwater.

 

[manbeast]

hard to say from a pic but it seems that it's at the highest level the test can read, just keep up the pwc's and make sure to use a dechlorinator like prime, it also neutralizes other contaminates besides chlorine/choramin

 

[MyanRan]

Yeah, I'm going to continue my "every-second-day" routine. It's funny because everyone was doing well, until I started to slow down the PWCs.

 

[Chronos313]

Ya it's at the highest level it can read so I would suggest doing a 50 or 75 water change immediately then do 25 percent afterwards to control the nitrates. Basically the nitrates are at a level of extreme toxicity. Are you rinsing your bio media in tap water or old tank water when you do a pwc?

 

[MyanRan]

No, it is just due to a complete lack of knowledge of tanks. I've built up my knowledge on the subject, but now I just have a lot of cleaning and fixing to do I guess.