One of my Cory's acting crazy

[monaro_gto]

After my tank seemed to stabalyze (4months in now) I went to weekly water tests. Last night I tested and nitrates were the 60ppm ish. I normally do PWC's on the weekend but given the high level i figured I would do a PWC of around 50%.

I have a 44g trash can with primed water I keep in the garage at tank temp. KH and GH are low in both. ammo and nitrite's are 0 in both but there is a swing in ph. 6.8 in tank 8.0 in trash can.

Tank is a 29g with top fin 30 and AC50 filters.

So i did the PWC last night and while I was watching tv I noticed something floating down the tank. To my horror it was one of my Cory's. He floated to the bottom and remained upside down. Closer inspection showed his gills still moving. After 30 seconds he flipped over and off he went. He did this all night. I turned the lights out expecting to find him don for this morning but he was swimming around back to normal.

Has anyone seen this before? I have had issues after PWC's before (not like this) Am I doing something wrong?

 

[monaro_gto]

Any help would be great. Came home today and looks like Nitrates are around the 20ppm mark but everyone in the tank is acting real nervous. The platies and cory's are all hiding and dart away.

Something is not right with my tank.

 

[monaro_gto]

I just realized I posted in the wrong place. Can I get this moved to unhealthy fish please? I would really love the help.

 

[Berylla]

I just realized I posted in the wrong place. Can I get this moved to unhealthy fish please? I would really love the help.

Don't put prime in your aging water barrel as it promotes bacteria growth. I would clean out the aging barrel with bleach, rinse well, then fill with water and add a large airstone and a heater. When you are ready to change the water, add the dechlor then pour into tank.

Perform water tests on the aged water and your current tank to see if the water parameters are within normal limits.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Is there any reason you age your water in a trash can instead of treating the tank with prime and filling it straight from the tap?
The trash can maybe leaching toxins into the water.
That's a huge ph swing.

 

[monaro_gto]

I did not know that Prime promtoted bacteria growth. I have ran all tests on both sources of water and they are
Tank, 0 ammo, 0 trites, trates high (trying to bring down with PWC) GH and KH low. PH 7.4
Trash can 0 ammo, 0 trites, 5ppm trates gh and kh the same. Ph 7.4

Weird thing is I just did a PH test this morning and they are reading the same. Last week that was not the case.

The trash can is the same Brutt bin that I know a log of guys use for sw. It just makes y PWC's easier.

 

[Berylla]

Aging water in a Brutt bin is a good thing if you have a huge PH difference between your tap and aged. It's very stressful for fish, especially when the carbon bubbles out of the water. Think soda pop. I reduce the stress of the PH swing by refilling our tank using a filter wand that has lots of holes and from a height so that the carbon bubbles gas off quicker.

If you put dechlor in your aging barrel, it will grow bacteria since it's warm and there is no chlorine to curb the growth of pathogens. There is no benefit of adding dechlor to your aging barrel while it's aging.

Also, I would not run the aging barrel for days before using. The airstone will gas off all chlorine in about 24 hours and then the pathogens will start to grow.

Unfiltered tap water actually contains small levels of bacteria and even nasties like cryptosporidium. These pathogens will grow rapidly in the right conditions (warm + dark).

Signs of growth in the Brutt can:

1. walls and bottom are slimy
2. water smells "funny"