Oxygen Problems?! 911

[HaruSpring88]

I have a 36 gallon tank that I just upgraded to. I used the decor and rocks as well as most of the water from the 10 gallon I had before. I went ahead and added my old fish in as the water parameters were testing just fine the day of and the day after. I went and added new fish. Now They're all gasping very hard for air and I've had 7 die in a matter of hours. I've lowered the temperature of the tank and opened the lid to let more air hit the water. My filter is larger than the gallon of my tank and does a good job of keeping things moving. I'm just unsure of what the problem is. Please someone help. I've already lost some fish and I don't want to lose anymore, especially my Angelfish.

 

[gmc1]

What's the readings of your water.ph nitrite nitrate ammonia.

Did you use the filter media from your 10 gallon filter into your new filter.

I would do a large water change in the meantime till you find all this out for us.

 

[HaruSpring88]

My friend tested the water for me and everything tested within normal limits. I know that Ammonia was virtually zero and the nitrates was normal as well. I'm waiting for him to get out of class and I'll test it again. Until then, I have to wait for the store to open I'm going to try an airstone.

 

[gmc1]

Yeah will need exact readings to help.

Would do a water change.

An airstone won't give you oxygen as such.it's the movement of the water.surface agitation will help.

 

[HaruSpring88]

Yeah I know that. I have a temporary one set up where its moving the surface of the water a lot more than the filter alone. The store doesn't open for a bit.

 

[DoubleDutch]

If there weren't any fish in it's no wonder ammonia and nitrites were zero.
No pollution means none of those. When you add fish afterwards and the bacteriapopulation is too small to cope, there they go !

 

[Essjay]

You haven't said whether you moved the old filter, or at least the media, across to the new tank. If you didn't, you only have the bacteria which were on the decor you moved over, which won't be enough for the fish you moved let alone new fish.
 
How many fish did you have and how many did you add? Even if you moved the filter, you would still have lost the bacteria on the glass and substrate. And if you added a lot of new fish the bacteria that were moved won't have been nearly enough. I would never add more than a third of the amount of fish already there, and I'd wait at least 2 weeks after the transfer before getting more fish making sure both ammonia and nitrite stay at zero during that 2 weeks.
 

 

[StevenF]

 
 
My friend tested the water for me and everything tested within normal limits.

Some people have strange ideas as to what is normal and sometime "normal limites means sky high nitrite and ammonia.  No one here will trust the words normal, Ok, and sake.  Everyone here wants to see the numbers.  Also some people fixate on PH, or nitrates and ignore everything else.  You should at a minimum test your for  PH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH, KH.  Also how long has this tank been setup.  Did you cycle it with ammonia before adding fish? http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first

 

[mark4785]

I have a 36 gallon tank that I just upgraded to. I used the decor and rocks as well as most of the water from the 10 gallon I had before. I went ahead and added my old fish in as the water parameters were testing just fine the day of and the day after. I went and added new fish. Now They're all gasping very hard for air and I've had 7 die in a matter of hours. I've lowered the temperature of the tank and opened the lid to let more air hit the water. My filter is larger than the gallon of my tank and does a good job of keeping things moving. I'm just unsure of what the problem is. Please someone help. I've already lost some fish and I don't want to lose anymore, especially my Angelfish.

 
 
If your ammonia and nitrite reading is 0 ppm, you acclimatised your fish slowly from the old aquarium to the new one, and the conditions of the new aquarium are appropriate for your stock in terms of kH, gH and pH you are likely dealing with a heterotrophic bacterial bloom. This type of bloom can replicate very quickly as it consumes organic waste  and in doing so uses up all of the dissolved oxygen in the water column.
 
To rectify this issue you need to add an air stone and increase the water agitation at the surface in order to bring more oxygen into the water column. You will also need to add more filter bacteria from your old tank (if possible) since the hypoxic (lack of oxygen state) condition of the water will have killed off the beneficial filter bacteria that consumes ammonia and nitrite.