Hi,
I've made a ton of changes to my 55g over the last six months and I've been lucky to have had no losses, disease, etc. Now, I have some worrying signs while trying to learn the ropes of a planted tank. My largest fish - an austrailian rainbow- is constantly gulping/breathing rapidly, and my catfish no longer comes out at feeding time. There's no gulping at the surface, just gulping! The remaining 10 fish appear normal.
All my water parameters are perfect (for non-planted tank): no ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. ph 6.8, GH 120 ppm, temp 78.
I had pretty much simultaneously reduced airstone to just 6hrs at night and removed tons of floating hornwort, so I thought a lack of o2 may be the problem, but I've since increased flow and turned on the airstone at various times during the day to no apparent improvement.
I had read that co2 can build up, but it's not clear to me how. My 2l diy co2 does remain on at night with the airstone. I've been adding co2 this way for about 2 months and it usually tests between 10-20ppm. Could this be the problem? If so, how to turn it off at night? Or...if it is a lack of o2, does it take more than a few days to build up? Do fish acclimate to higher levels of o2 then stress when dropped to what would otherwise be adequate levels? I had tons of floating hornwort which I think was providing lots of o2 because it was pearling like crazy! Now it's all gone.
I've usually done really well with the health of my fish and since my water testing was o.k., my guess is it's a co2/02 issue. Any thoughts/ideas?
My catfish is a beautiful angelicus, and I'd be willing to change whatever is needed
Thanks!
Trivr
I've made a ton of changes to my 55g over the last six months and I've been lucky to have had no losses, disease, etc. Now, I have some worrying signs while trying to learn the ropes of a planted tank. My largest fish - an austrailian rainbow- is constantly gulping/breathing rapidly, and my catfish no longer comes out at feeding time. There's no gulping at the surface, just gulping! The remaining 10 fish appear normal.
All my water parameters are perfect (for non-planted tank): no ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. ph 6.8, GH 120 ppm, temp 78.
I had pretty much simultaneously reduced airstone to just 6hrs at night and removed tons of floating hornwort, so I thought a lack of o2 may be the problem, but I've since increased flow and turned on the airstone at various times during the day to no apparent improvement.
I had read that co2 can build up, but it's not clear to me how. My 2l diy co2 does remain on at night with the airstone. I've been adding co2 this way for about 2 months and it usually tests between 10-20ppm. Could this be the problem? If so, how to turn it off at night? Or...if it is a lack of o2, does it take more than a few days to build up? Do fish acclimate to higher levels of o2 then stress when dropped to what would otherwise be adequate levels? I had tons of floating hornwort which I think was providing lots of o2 because it was pearling like crazy! Now it's all gone.
I've usually done really well with the health of my fish and since my water testing was o.k., my guess is it's a co2/02 issue. Any thoughts/ideas?
My catfish is a beautiful angelicus, and I'd be willing to change whatever is needed
Thanks!
Trivr