2 Questions for the pros - Really

[Fonkie]

Guestion 1:

Yeterday morning i did a 30% water change (tank hosts mainly fronts,deacons and 2 biggish tinfoils) the temp dropped by 1 degree (this always happens). About 5 hours later the 2 tinfoils died at the same time, dropped to the bottom and died in about 10 min. The other fish are perfectly fine (this morning). It can't be food neither the water change otherwise everything would have died or become ill - What happened.

Question 2:

About a week ago we had a power outage from 8 pm till 11 am the next morning. About at midnight i saw the fish arn't looking very nice so i did a 50% water change and go to sleep (if they wanne die they must die). At 6 30 am i woke up and see to my suprise they are as healthy as can be. I want to know why they almost die in 4 hours and lasts more than 8 hours after the water change - nothing was running in my tank. so now you gonna say its nitrite build up in the first 4 hours but what about the 8 hours after that.

Please explain

Fonkie

[Go-Big]

Hi Fronkie.

Being a SUPER PRO!!(not) Regarding question one. It is clear that something was wrong with the water you put in during the water change. It might be that the tinfoils were more sensitive to the problem and that is why only they died. Munisipal water is not always the same.

Just my 2c

[varachhia001]

Hi Fronkie, what size is your tank.....

Perhaps a ph change.

[SalmonAfrica]

With regards to question 2 - after those first 4 hours, any waste the fish produced or leftover food would have broken down into a nitrogenous compound - ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. After the 4 hours the beneficial bacteria would have started dying out and the more harmful of these compounds (ammonia and nitrite) would have started to build up. The fish would have been negatively affected by it; that is why they looked unhappy.

Once you did the water change, though, you effectively removed a good portion of these harmful nitrogenous compounds that were in the water, and replaced the water with fresh, clean water. The concentration of these compounds was decreased by your water change, and therefore the fish would have been much happier.

[Nick]

NEVER do 50% water change. maximum is 30%

Question 2:

About a week ago we had a power outage from 8 pm till 11 am the next morning. About at midnight i saw the fish arn't looking very nice so i did a 50% water change and go to sleep (if they wanne die they must die). At 6 30 am i woke up and see to my suprise they are as healthy as can be. I want to know why they almost die in 4 hours and lasts more than 8 hours after the water change - nothing was running in my tank. so now you gonna say its nitrite build up in the first 4 hours but what about the 8 hours after that.

Please explain

Fonkie[/QUOTE]

[Laure]

I can't comment on the original questions, but I can certainly rectify one of the other statements. There is nothing wrong with a 50% water change. If you can and if you have time, the recommendation is to do a 50% water change weekly. I often do water changes up to 80% when I feel I need to reset the tank balance, and I have never had a problem. And many other folks do the same.

The important things to remember when doing water changes:
1. Try to mature the water for a few days
2. Aggitate the water preparation tub by means of a filter breaking up the surface or a few airstones
3. Heat the water to the same temperature as the tank, unless you try to induce breeding activity by purposely dropping the temperature
4. Add a good quality dechlorinator, unless you mature the water with aggitation method in which case all chlorine will be gone within 48 hours (not chloramine!)

[fishcrazy]

Hey buddy check with your municipality as to when the dose the water,the closer u r after dosing the more additives are in the water and thereafter the strength should drop thereafter...just enquire

[Gareth]

I can't comment on the original questions, but I can certainly rectify one of the other statements. There is nothing wrong with a 50% water change. If you can and if you have time, the recommendation is to do a 50% water change weekly. I often do water changes up to 80% when I feel I need to reset the tank balance, and I have never had a problem. And many other folks do the same.

The important things to remember when doing water changes:
1. Try to mature the water for a few days
2. Aggitate the water preparation tub by means of a filter breaking up the surface or a few airstones
3. Heat the water to the same temperature as the tank, unless you try to induce breeding activity by purposely dropping the temperature
4. Add a good quality dechlorinator, unless you mature the water with aggitation method in which case all chlorine will be gone within 48 hours (not chloramine!)

+ 1 to that I do the same.

[Go-Big]

Fishcrazy. Im just refering to our local water here. Dosing is continues, its a well setup system but sometimes they also get problems and then rectify it with additional dosages. So no one knows when and at what scale this will happen.

I use rainwater.

[Fonkie]

Hi guys

Thanks for al the replies. If the water was the problem why didn't the other fish suffer from it (can it be that the tinfoils were sick and the water triggered a reaction that killed them). Salmonafrica i understand that process but the funny thing is why didnt the build up (amonia and nitrites) re occur in the next 8 hours surely the process must have started all over

F

[SalmonAfrica]

I suppose there wasn't much more to break down into the wastes. Once you did the water change, the water would have been pretty clean - ie: little in the water to become ammonia etc. I'm just guessing though.

[Fonkie]

It makes sense - and the fish wern't fed till the power came back on. I think in future i will defenitely do a water change when the power goes off just to be safe

[Vis]

To be clear for newbies: Changing 80 or 50% with aged water is different than changing 80% out of our taps.
The tap route you take a change that your fish might go into a pH shock.

[Bandit]

How long should water be aged for?

And is it neccesary to put a airstone in that water

[Go-Big]

Vis. Hp shock??? Doing water change out of the tap, Hp is the least of your worries!

[Go-Big]

If you do that big water change with tap water you WILL distroy all good bacteria in your filters!

[Zoom]

If you age your water, aim for 24hours min, 48 hours is preferable. If you can get an airstone in even better... this helps remove chlorine from the water. Some people have a permanent supply of aged water in large tanks, and just throw in a sumbersible pump to keep the water moving.

[Fonkie]

Ok Guys i don't understand the ph thing aren't the ph out of our taps more or less always the same. I do check ph from time to time and it is always around 8 so how can ph effect anything

[Zoom]

pH coming out of your tap is one thing. (lets say 6.8 for example). Let it stand for 24 hours, and do a reading, and it might have changed, to 7.0. Then there might also be stuff in your tank that could buffer it even more, resulting in a reading of 7.1. A change from 6.8 to 7.1 will send fish in to pH shock.

You can almost be guaranteed that water that is aged for 24 hours will be different to water out the tank.