Fish At Top After Water Change

[Marley]

I did a 20-25% water change and vacuum 2 days ago. I added aquasafe and stresscoat plus. My nitrite/ammonia out of the tap is good. Within a couple of hours the fish started going to the top. I have brown gunk growing in my filter lines and have seen a decrease in flow rate. Today I noticed one of my venustus scraping himself on the bottom. Water is clear, smells good. ???
Thanks in advance,
Marley

 

[rabbut]

Can you give numbers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if you have a kit for it, Oxygen. Also, what test kit do you use, how big is the tank, how long has it been running and how many of what fish do you have in there?

Answering those questions will help us answer yours

All the best
Rabbut

 

[mark.w.jones]

Brown gunk in your filter lines is actually a good thing. A lot of it is beneficial bacteria although it does need keeping in check to a certain extent. This is not the cause of your fish's behaviour. As mentioned above, need to know a bit more than you've told us. How long has the tank been set up for? How long since you added fish? How did you cycle it before adding fish? What volume is the tank?

 

[Marley]

29 gal tank running for about 5-6 weeks. ehiem canister filter,api master kit.
1 blood parrot 6 cichlids 2 tiger barbs 2 silver dollars 1 bristle nose pleco 1 electric blue lobster. 1 unknown
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate- 3 to 4
ph-6.6 to 6.8
oxygen-?

Thanks,
Marley

added the lobster and the unkonwn in the past week.

 

[Marley]

added the lobster and the unknown in the past week.

 

[auntylin1]

hi marley,
Not an expert, guess they will answer later. Dont know if your fish are big, as some of those you mention can be, so need a lot of oxygen, if theyre big fish and youve only one pump that isnt giving out the usual amount of oxygen that could account for it, as fish lacking oxgen can go to the surface to try and get more. Youve put a question mark at side of oxygen so guess your thinking that too. all l can suggest is to make sure the tubes from the pump are clean and clear of any debris and it pumps out to its full capacity. Or you could take a quarter of water out and replace with fresh water which is more oxygenated. Good luck.

 

[Marley]

Well, I think it's fixed. When I set the tank up, the only source of aeration was the water coming from the filter. I think as my tank began to cycle and and I started to get some growth in my filter it decreased my flow rate...thus the amount of top to bottom exchange. I added a bubble wall and they are super happy! My parrot is playing in the bubbles swimming against them, same thing he did when the water flow from the filter was stronger.Thanks to everyone who put thought into this, I appreciate it!

Marley

 

[@ombomb]

Brown gunk in your filter lines is actually a good thing. A lot of it is beneficial bacteria although it does need keeping in check to a certain extent. This is not the cause of your fish's behaviour. As mentioned above, need to know a bit more than you've told us. How long has the tank been set up for? How long since you added fish? How did you cycle it before adding fish? What volume is the tank?

Hmmm think you're a little confused...

The bacteria relied on to deal with ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate is microscopic...

Brown gunk is waste matter from the tank which will just break down and put more load on the bacteria and will clog the filter. Neither are advisable. You need to keep the filter clean and unclogged to enable it work efficiently. Regular cleaning out using tank water will keep the flow rate up, prolong the life of the filter and will not harm the bacterial colony.

 

[Marley]

So, things are going well since the addition of air stone. Now, this may sound silly but...I have a tetra dw96 air pump for a 29gal tank. It produces ALOT of bubbles. Can this cause any problems? The fish seem to like it, several spend alot of time playing in them. I will search and read about filter maintenance, I see there are several schools of thought on the subject.

Thanks again!
Marley

 

[rabbut]

The air pump will be fine, so long as it's output does not blast the fish arround due to the flow.

Stocking my need attention though, as ATM I'm guessing the issue is down to lack of oxygen in the water, caursed by overstocking. As your fish grow I would expect the issue to come back

1 blood parrot grows to 6-8 inches. Semi-agressive to be kept with larger and equally agressive fish only. May eat the tiger barbs later.

6 cichlids, what type? Cichlids are the largest group of fish about, and max sizes and temperaments vary dramatically from fish to fish.

2 tiger barbs need a larger group, 4 minimum to keep them happy, with 8 recomended. Semi-agressive generally, but very agressive fin nippers of long-finned species. May become chichlid food later... Get to 3 inches.

2 silver dollars 8 inch diameter each, needing a 18" tall tank to keep them. Anything under 50g is too small IMO, and they need a minimum group of 4, so I'd advise you re-home these fish

1 bristle nose pleco are well behaved plecs, growing to about 5 inches max

1 electric blue lobster. Make shure this is deffinately an electric blue. This is the only type that is legal for import in the UK and other types are regularly passed of as these. Will eat any fish that gets close enough to grab. 6-8 inch adult length I believe, but you want a second opinion in that

1 unknown could you post a photo please so it can be id'd.

We recomend about one inch of fish per gallon of water for "new" tanks (under 6 months old). Larger fish though need more room, so you are overstocked IMO Look to shed some fish back to the LFS or a friend if possible

All the best
Rabbut

 

[OldMan47]

The improvement you are seeing is likely to be temporary as Rabbut pointed out. The mix of fish needs attention before it comes back to bite you. In the mean time you ned to clean your filter and get the flow back up. It should not be necessary to stir the water with bubbles if the filter is moving the water properly.

 

[Marley]

Okay I am going to get brushes and clean the filter tomorrow, thanks Old man

Rabbut I attached a pic of the unkonwn fish. Well I'm trying to attach a pic..ut it won't let me. I click on insert image...but nothing.

Thanks everyone!
Marley

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with rabbut and oldman47. You are overstocked and it is showing up initially in the borderline oxygen situation, but it may tax your filter in the future. The problem may be exacerbated by the tank shape if it is the common 29 gallon tall. That shape will have less surface area per gallon than many other shapes of tank.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waterdrop]

Brown gunk in your filter lines is actually a good thing. A lot of it is beneficial bacteria although it does need keeping in check to a certain extent. This is not the cause of your fish's behaviour. As mentioned above, need to know a bit more than you've told us. How long has the tank been set up for? How long since you added fish? How did you cycle it before adding fish? What volume is the tank?

Hmmm think you're a little confused...

The bacteria relied on to deal with ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate is microscopic...

Brown gunk is waste matter from the tank which will just break down and put more load on the bacteria and will clog the filter. Neither are advisable. You need to keep the filter clean and unclogged to enable it work efficiently. Regular cleaning out using tank water will keep the flow rate up, prolong the life of the filter and will not harm the bacterial colony.

I think you and jonseyUK are both right, just each coming at it from different angles! I had the same reaction as jonsey - to reassure Marley that brown patches in the filter tubing were not the problem (overstocking is probably the problem.) While individual bacterial cells are indeed microscopic, the colonies formed are large enough to appear as a brown or black stain on a given substrate. As we know, the cells grow in a sticky biofilm and it is this biofilm matrix that will attach to every surface, including the inside walls of the tubes, where debris will stick to it. I think anywhere we see debris, we are seeing a mix of debris and biofilm and the ratios would be very hard to measure, although I would agree with you that most of what you are seeing is probably debris.

In the "New to the Hobby" forum, where it is often the case that the colonies of a newly cycling filter are still very small and unstable, we sometimes get a beginner who decides to do a very thorough cleaning out of the tubes and other surfaces and they get a mini-cycle. In an immature tank, the non-media surfaces, such as tubing, filter box, decorations and gravel, make up a relatively larger percentage of the total system colony size than the relative percentage they will constitute later. A tank with a mature filter won't be like this because the filter media colonies will be so much more robust and we'll find that the bacterial colonies on the media itself will be the overwhelming majority of total system bacteria. This is why it is often recommended that the entire filtration system be only minimally disturbed (minor sponge squeezes only if necessary) during fishless or fish-in cycling I think.

Hey! Speaking of biofilms, did you happen to see the science news recently that there is now speculation that the human appendix, that little sack attached to the large intestine, has the function of storing large amounts of bacterial biofilm, which had the evolutionary function of providing a large counterattack reserve during major infections of the gut. Wow! Biofilms in the news!

~~waterdrop~~