death after water change
- Thread starter exhumed07
- Start date
well i think i found the problem. and the bubbles may have truely been the issue. or well shown the signs of the issue. supersaturation of gasses in the water. I believe this is the issue due to the fact that there were areas of the tank that showed nucliation. not sure i spelled that right but it's like when you get a beer in a mug or glass with an etched bottom. gas bubbles form on the etched portion of the glass and you can see a constant stream of bubbles rising from it. i seen the same thing on some of my plants, and decor. a continuous stream of small bubbles.
This super saturation of gas caused the bubbles to form within the fish. from my understanding it does do as what was mentioned earlier, it is like the benz with humans. gas bubbles form within the blood and can kill within minutes. it can also rupture vessels inside the gills of the fish and cause brain damage as well. I think from now on i am going to fill the tank MUCH more slowly to avoid this saturation of air. since i use well water my guess is under pressure the gasses remain dissolved in the water but when brought to the surface and pressure is released it's much like cracking a beer or soda and the gasses are able to escape.
Thanks for the help and the suggestion of google. i really don't know why i never think of google lol.
oh and it is known as Gas Bubble Disease if you are interested in researching it yourselves.
This super saturation of gas caused the bubbles to form within the fish. from my understanding it does do as what was mentioned earlier, it is like the benz with humans. gas bubbles form within the blood and can kill within minutes. it can also rupture vessels inside the gills of the fish and cause brain damage as well. I think from now on i am going to fill the tank MUCH more slowly to avoid this saturation of air. since i use well water my guess is under pressure the gasses remain dissolved in the water but when brought to the surface and pressure is released it's much like cracking a beer or soda and the gasses are able to escape.
Thanks for the help and the suggestion of google. i really don't know why i never think of google lol.
oh and it is known as Gas Bubble Disease if you are interested in researching it yourselves.
yes it has to do with Nitrogen in general, causing the bubbles. differences in Nitrogen concentration - which does induce the bend phenomenon in divers. me and OC were talking about it a bit. its was OC's idea about the nitrogen concentration differences. not as much to do with pressure as I initially thought.
GH/KH is related to this whole thing, basically we see this happen in highly planted tanks where water was not changed for a long time. but i imagine only months w/o water change will cause it. Not a little over a week like exhumed said. so i am still puzzled.
GH/KH is related to this whole thing, basically we see this happen in highly planted tanks where water was not changed for a long time. but i imagine only months w/o water change will cause it. Not a little over a week like exhumed said. so i am still puzzled.
This can also happen when you have very high nitrates (or ammonia or nitrite) , and do a fast large water change. The sudden change in water chemistry can cause the bubbles in the flesh of the skin. If you did a dissection, you would see the bubbles throughout the fish's body. They body (fish or ours) can only move elements and molecules across the cells at a certain rate, but the natural desire is to equalize the concentrations from inside to outside the body. If the water chemistry is changed too quickly too drastically, the body can't cope.
so then why do we recommend people to quickly change out large amounts of water when their cycling tanks get high ammonia, nitrites or nitrates? if that would kill all of their fish. we want their fish to survive by detoxifying the water, but if that's just going to kill them from Nitrogen issues then what's the point?
I would never recommend that anyone do water changes QUICKLY.
I've always used airline tubing to return treated water to a tank, with the output of the airline tubing being next to the heater (to slowly equalize temperature).
Differences in GH/KH/pH is much more stressful.
I've raised softwater fish, and its a delicate balance to mix RO with tap to get just the right hardness. You need to test the existing tank water, the tap water, and the RO water occasionally (to double-check the filters are working correctly). Then figure out by testing nitrates how much water you want to pull out of the tank to replace with RO/tap combo. Once you know the volume you need to add back, figure out what RO/tap ratio you need to use to keep the GH/KH the same.
If you need to make it harder or softer, adjust your RO/tap mixture a bit up or down, so that the overall water will be where you want it to be.
Plants growing well can deplete the tank's water of minerals quickly if a few water changes are missed, making the existing tank's water closer to RO in chemistry. If a large water change is done, it could raise the GH/KH and pH too quickly for the fish to cope.
I've always used airline tubing to return treated water to a tank, with the output of the airline tubing being next to the heater (to slowly equalize temperature).
Differences in GH/KH/pH is much more stressful.
I've raised softwater fish, and its a delicate balance to mix RO with tap to get just the right hardness. You need to test the existing tank water, the tap water, and the RO water occasionally (to double-check the filters are working correctly). Then figure out by testing nitrates how much water you want to pull out of the tank to replace with RO/tap combo. Once you know the volume you need to add back, figure out what RO/tap ratio you need to use to keep the GH/KH the same.
If you need to make it harder or softer, adjust your RO/tap mixture a bit up or down, so that the overall water will be where you want it to be.
Plants growing well can deplete the tank's water of minerals quickly if a few water changes are missed, making the existing tank's water closer to RO in chemistry. If a large water change is done, it could raise the GH/KH and pH too quickly for the fish to cope.
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Just takes a stack of 3 'Homer' buckets (5 gallons each) from Home Depot with the lids, with the 4th one filled with my fill water. I'm ok now, but when I started doing water changes this way, I had been in a pretty serious car accident and couldn't lift much (weight or height) due to lack of range of motion. I'd stack the 3 buckets with lids up to make a tower, put the empty 4th on top, and fill it one gallon at a time. Dechlor the bucket of water, start the syphon, and go sit down to rest LOL! Every 15 or 20 minutes, I'd make and dehlor another gallon and pour it in the top bucket. Rinse/repeat.
Once water changes were done, the 4 buckets nested together, with my tubing and bottle of Prime inside the top one, put the 3 lids on top to keep dust out, and stacked them easily under one of the wood stands.
Back then, had 8 tanks, ranging from 10 to 29 gallons. Water changes took alllllllllllll day
Once water changes were done, the 4 buckets nested together, with my tubing and bottle of Prime inside the top one, put the 3 lids on top to keep dust out, and stacked them easily under one of the wood stands.
Back then, had 8 tanks, ranging from 10 to 29 gallons. Water changes took alllllllllllll day
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Hope you're much better now. I usually just take out 5 gals at a time and then pour in the new water with a measuring cup and then the whole bucket. i do water changes twice a week now since i tend to feed a lot and i have a lot of fish. I would consider my WCs quick but i do them often and little water is changed out. my tank is 40gals total.
Never had the problem of fish dying after a water change except when lots of fry were involved (long time ago, in heavily planted tanks, livebearer fry. i would go a long time w/o water changes so now i know what happened there.)
Never had the problem of fish dying after a water change except when lots of fry were involved (long time ago, in heavily planted tanks, livebearer fry. i would go a long time w/o water changes so now i know what happened there.)