Air / airstones

Morning people,
I just have a general question here. I'm looking at my 120cm tank, and all the snails are topside, and the last 4 remaining fishies are also staying at the top breathing. I have done a 50% water change yesterday at around 15:00, because I had the same problem then. This is after I lost 4 fishies last weekend after the same thing happened. The 2 pleco's and catfish doesn't seem bothered though. Could this be an air problem?? And now I'm guessing everyone's going to ask me about the ph and nitrate levels... Phew.. would have to learn to use that test kit sometime I suppose...

 

Yep - what are your tank parameters - also did the problem go away after the water change ???

 

How much surface agitation do you have?

 

Okay, I did the tests quickly. Hopefully didn't do anything wrong.. The tank is 120x44x45. The pH is 7.0, the NO2 level is 0 mg/l, the NH4/NH3 level is 0.5mg/l, and the NO3 level is 0mg/l, so is there a problem somewhere? What else should I test? The long black rubber airstone is not really emitting a lot of bubbles, and then there is a small round airstone. After the water change everything was fine for the evening. Another thing, there is an awful lot of waste again, cleaned that yesterday but wouldn't have guessed if you saw it now. (those pleco's sure waste a lot)....

 

What filter/s do you have on the tank ???

 

It's an Atman 883 internal biological filter, pushing 1500l/h. Did put a little diverter on because the stream was VERY strong, pushed everything away... LOL

 

Clean the filter - if you havent recently - add a good airstone or two - remember the oxygen is dissolved into the water at the air/water surface, if you can increase the surface agitation, you increase dissolved O2 - as Veegal said

 

LOL,,, we cleaned the whole tank (including substrate) last weekend... With a full water change... And here we're starting again... this is how it started last time, and the saturday morning our fishes were dead. Could the material plants be a cause? I've washed them but that didn't seem to take away the stringy stuff on them... (totally don't have an idea to describe that)... LOL

 

THIS IS THE PROBLEM - if you do a 100% water change you are starting the Nitrogen cycle all over again - what happened is you had an ammonia spike that will generally kill all the fish. NEVER do a 100% water change.

Max 50% and work on 30% a week, the filter material must be washed in water from the tank. If washed in clean tap water you will kill all the good bacteria.. Siphon the substrate - do not wash it..

I would suggest you go to the LFS and get a bottle of Seachem Stability - follow the directions and for the next four weeks - no water changes - just Stability. this way your cycle will complete and in 4 weeks you can go back to a 30% water change once a week or 3 10% changes a week..

Oh and get rid of the material plants and put in easy plants such as Vallis and Anubias.

Good luck

 

Yes, we added stability immediately after the change, and the water was clear for 4 days, and then on friday back to the same problem. That's why I'm thinking air, plants etc, that may be the cause. And we do wash the filters in tank water... And I've been trying to get decent plants for months now, but no luck.

 

Did you only dose with the stability once after you did the complete clean? You are supposed to do a largish dose immediately and for the next seven days I think it is, a half of the original dose daily. Real plants will definitely help as well.

Are the fish showing any other symptoms? Rapid breathing, not eating???

 

Yes, we have been adding the stability every day. Fishes are not on top anymore, but do seem like they're breathing rapidly. But no, they're eating normally.. I also add Organic Aqua in all my tanks once a week.

 

Hello

Use this as a guide.
Not cast in stone, but will point you in the right direction

 

your problem is when you cleaned the entire tank. you can do a 100% water change without issues if the parameters of tank water and tap water match 100%.

you cleaned the gravel....big problem, a lot of the nitrifying bacteria lives there.

your tank is going through a complete cycle again. your poor fish. the cycle has already started by the fact that your registering ammonia in your tests. it will take approximately 2 weeks for it to complete. hold your breath that all your fish live through it. there is a sticky around this forum that talks of water changes and general maintenance of fish. search for it.

 

The common misconception is that the airstone itself generates oxygen via it's bubbling process, which is not the case.

Oxygen is generated due to surface agitation, and thus the bubbles from an airstone should generate surface agitation more than just bubbles.


Of course the 100% water change in this case was a biological bad idea, I'm just saying for future reference.
This can of course also be achieved without an airstone, simply with a canister filter or power head pumping water back onto the surface, and generating lots of movement.

Awesome, thanks for that image Gilbert, will keep it for future reference.

 

Add an airstone and listen to what everyone else has said, should sort your problem out in no time!!

 

Guys, thanks a lot for all the advise. Think we got the tank sorted now. Main problem was that the filter was not doing it's job. The water was not going thru the filter (wool, sponge and bio-rings). It was being sucked in thru the cutout in the lid of the filter and not thru the path it was supposed to go (all that was happening was water circulation and no filtering). Plugged the pump with some filter wool and put a piece of glass over the cutout on the lid to cut the flow/wrong intake off.

But will put all the advise given into library. Could come in handy should I experience this again and the filter checks out ok.

 

We are quite happy to announce that everything is fine. Fishes are all happy and doing well through the whole ordeal. We did the 100% water change only because we knew there was a serious problem, as some of the fishes were dead and the tank smelled very bad. It was emergency intervention!!! But thanks for all the help guys..

 

Great stuff! :dancing2:

 

Yay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!