Co2 Disaster Overnight!

[WendyinWichita]

I drove my kids to school this AM and came home, poured a cup of coffee and went to look at the tank in my living room. All of the fish were gasping at the surface and 3 of my Amano's were curled at the bottom of the tank dead. I did a 50% H20 change and threw in a bubble wand and did a H20 test. C02 was at 97ppm! Wow! I never registered a reading higher than 15ppm with my DIY! Here is what caused the change (I figure).

I upgraded my filtration to an Eheim 2026 and got rid of the 2 HOB filters. (they did have filter media stuffed into the outflow) My PH at the tap has always been high, 8.8 or higher so I never buffered my DIY mix in the attempt to get the C02 ppm higher than 10 or 15.

The tap this AM is only at 7.0! This weekend I did H20 changes on 5 of 6 tanks. The tank that didn't get worked on is also planted with DIY and the PH in it is easily 7.8.

My tap is well water, straight out of the ground, so not much I can do about that, except test it more often. I have never had it so low, I normally have to use a high range ph test to get a reading. Can cold weather affect ph?

My losses (so far) 3 Amano shrimp, there were 5 in the tank, I can only assume the other 2 bodies will appear as I fiddle through the plants. My male blue ram , My female of a mated pair of angels is struggling. She was on her side at the top when I found the problem, she is upright now, but very lethargic, she could have brain damage from lack of oxygen.

Bubble wand is still in place, ph 7.0 after H20 change, I dumped bicarb into the CO2. I have to go out of town today and won't be home until Thursday very late. Should I leave the bubbler with the CO2, take the bubbler out and unplug the CO2, or unplug one of the CO2 bottles and either leave the bubbler or take it out? Lots of choices. The wand is one of those bubble wall thins, it is about 10 inches long I can trade it for a normal airstone also. I grabbed it as it was the first thing that was handy.

My second planted tank has had HOB removed and now has a Magnum 350 canister, 2 bottles DIY CO2 plugged directly into the intake. CO2 on it this am was 37. I will probably set an airstone in it before I leave, I also dumped some bicarb into the 2 liter DIY mix to buffer.

The last 2 planted tanks still have HOB and PH is close to 8 so no prob there.

Anybody have any advice? I am open to anything, even being called stupid.

My well water changes with the seasons I guess. Last August during planting time the nitrates went sky high. I have farm ground surrounding my property so I am subject to what the farmers inject into the ground. I have researched RO, but with the number of tanks I have, doing 30%weekly water changes, and the temp of the water pumped up is about 40 degrees, I have no way of warming it prior to going into the tanks.

Thanks for listening, just writing it all down helps.

 

[iggy01]

Sorry to hear about your losses

Could you just clear a couple of things up please. Can you post the current KH and pH readings from your tank. I'm assuming if the pH from your tap is now 7, your KH must have dropped pretty drastically as well.

Also, was it this weekend that you upgraded your filter? If so have you taken ammonia and nitrite readings?

 

[danski]

hmmmmm..i know the standard m.o is to go with cannister or something else besides a h.o.b but after i nearly avoided a similar problem with my diy co2 i stuck with my aquaclears. not to mention i think my water looked better with the aquaclears. i tried to use my xp-1 again recently just never felt safe. after a quik water change and an air pump all was well but barely.it may use a little more co2 but the safety factor of my hob driving off excess co2 during the night makes me feel alot safer.sorry for your losses, and i hope the angels make it.

 

[WendyinWichita]

Current stats, PH 7.1, KH 13, so CO2 down to 30. Threw in an ammonia test for good measure and that was 0.

It was obviously a lack of oxygen since all the fish were gasping at the surface. It was amazing how quickly they recovered. The female angel is still laying on her side, then she will look ok, then go back to her side. She is full of eggs, her tummy looks like she has a small marble in it, and her breeding tube is out, she was going to spawn today. As a female, I understand the stresses of pregnancy. Wish there was some way to "abort" the eggs. Too late now, she is way too stressed. Any additional stress I think would nix any chance she has at all. Her "husband" is hanging out with her.

I am running an airstone, but think before I leave (out of town for 2 days) I will unplug one of the two 2 liter DIY mixes. I can't cancel the trip, I am scheduled to teach a surgeon how to run a laser in surgery, I would have to be seriously ill or in the hospital myself to be able to cancel a training.

What a huge difference changing out HOB to Canister made. With the HOB, there was essentially no visual disturbance to the surface, but obviously it was there.

 

[iggy01]

Glad to hear things are settling down.

Your tap water must have come with a lot of CO2 in it this morning, with a KH of 13 and a pH of 7. It would probably have returned to it's normal pH of 8+ if it had been allowed to off gas before testing.

It's always a good idea to have a certain amount of surface movement if you're running CO2 24/7. Either that or run an airstone for a few hours at night when the CO2 isn't required.

Good luck!

 

[leafs]

I hope it works out for you WendyinWichita. I'm just curious, when you had the HOB did you use a sponge at the outflow to reduce the turbulance? That's what I'm doing on my Aquaclear HOB and it does look like the water is perfectly still, but what is considered too much turbulance? Would a very slight movement of the water make that much of a difference? I know that pseud has a HOB and he seems to get good c02 levels without modifying his filter.

 

[danski]

leafs..i think you would generally have to have some small splashing to make a real difference.like when the water is about an inch below the spillway. i just keep mine bout a quarter to half inch from the spillway with no problems
if i can hear the water dumping into my tank like a waterfall i need to top off.
generally i just keep an eye on it. and top off frequently

 

[leafs]

leafs..i think you would generally have to have some small splashing to make a real difference.like when the water is about an inch below the spillway. i just keep mine bout a quarter to half inch from the spillway with no problems
if i can hear the water dumping into my tank like a waterfall i need to top off.
generally i just keep an eye on it. and top off frequently

Thanks danski. Mine use to splash a little before I started using a sponge on the outflow but I always try to keep the water level high. I really like Aquaclears and I don't want to have to change it. My diy C02 runs 24/7 and I've never had any problems. I'd rather keep it running all the time so my pH doesn't flucuate too much. Also by using 1- 2 litre bottle on my 29 gal. I don't think I could reach dangerous C02 levels.

 

[danski]

sounds good..i prefer my aquaclears to my rena xp-1. and when i had diy co2 i really liked the fact of the hob gassing off the co2 at night with no worries.i know what you mean about the ph fluctuation,as ive found it a little hassle to keep the solenoid starting at the same flow as it was before.i almost wish i had (a regular) regulator without the solenoid so i can keep it constant.a little more tinkering and i might find the sweet spot..i am also using a 29gal.
sorry WendyinWitchita didnt mean to hijack your thread..

 

[WendyinWichita]

This tank is a 55 US gal, and I had 2 HOB's on it. A Marineland Emperor 400, and a Walmart cheapie. Both had the outflow stuffed with coarse filter media so the surface was very still. The tank has had 2 2liter DIY bottles on it using Nutrafin ladders for quite some time. The highest I was ever able to get the CO2 was 15. It usually stayed somewhere between 7 and 10. I have extremely hard water (Kansas is where limestone comes from). I quit buffering in the attempt to increase the CO2.

My only explanation is my water well must have opened up, or a new source of water has changed it, and then the addition of the cannister filter. I was planning on tapping the CO2 line into the intake of the filter, but just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I was actually hesitant to drill the expensive Eheim. Parts are very hard to come by in Kansas (in the event I messed something up)

I spoke with my mother and she checked the Angel, she is still alive (the angel), though still laying on her side. She perks up and swims at times, but it doesn't look good. I wonder if she has a swim bladder problem now.

All of the other fish are fine. I unplugged one CO2 bottle and left an airstone running just to be safe. I don't work next week so I will be able to sort it out. The answer maybe to put an airpump onto a timer and have it come on at night then off when the lights come on in the AM.