Marcus Fox
August 14th 03, 01:59 AM
"Brian" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have a lot of light green algae growing from my gravel and a bunch of my
> fish just started dying. I have a twenty gallon fresh water aquarium with
> mostly guppies that I have had for a while. I just moved and I had to do a
> pretty drastic water change which I think has something to do with this. I
> put in about 45% new (drinking water). Let me know if you need further
> information.
Number of problems here.
1: - Your fish were used to the conditions in your tank, as it slowly grew
scummy with algae and other stuff, they acclimatised. When you gave them a
whole load of new water, they got stressed.
2: - Your fish were used to the water conditions in your old area. Same
problem.
3: - You added water straight out of the tap. Fish don't like chlorine,
which water companies add to kill bacteria.
4: - By adding water from the tap, you didn't let the chlorine outgas* and
it killed your biological filter. Bacteria don't like chlorine. That's why
water companies add it. Fish produce ammonia, bacteria degrade ammonia, if
no bacteria, ammonia builds up, fish don't like ammonia.
*Some water companies add chloramine, which doesn't outgas like chlorine
does. It's still nasty though.
What you need to do.
1: - Should change 20-25% of the water each week. Also vacuum your gravel,
which I imagine has gotten pretty scummy if it hasn't been cleaned for a
while. If it is really filthy, you may want to remove the fish and filter to
a rubbermaid (with water prepared as below) for a while. It is likely you
will disturb pockets of hydrogen sulphide, produced by anaerobic bacteria
decomposing fish poo in the gravel, which, apart from being very, very, very
smelly, will make your tank water very, very, very nasty.
2: - Make sure there is no chlorine/chloramine (check with water company) in
the water you add to the tank. You can either leave it for a while, for a
shorter while with air bubbles, or add the relevant conditioner.
3: - You could use something like ammo-lock to sequester ammonia until your
biofilter builds back up. If you use ammo-lock, some ammonia test kits (fun
with mercuric iodide, no less) will give you a false reading.
Well, that's all for now, I'm sure if i've forgotten anything, some kind
soul will add it.
Marcus
.. .
> I have a lot of light green algae growing from my gravel and a bunch of my
> fish just started dying. I have a twenty gallon fresh water aquarium with
> mostly guppies that I have had for a while. I just moved and I had to do a
> pretty drastic water change which I think has something to do with this. I
> put in about 45% new (drinking water). Let me know if you need further
> information.
Number of problems here.
1: - Your fish were used to the conditions in your tank, as it slowly grew
scummy with algae and other stuff, they acclimatised. When you gave them a
whole load of new water, they got stressed.
2: - Your fish were used to the water conditions in your old area. Same
problem.
3: - You added water straight out of the tap. Fish don't like chlorine,
which water companies add to kill bacteria.
4: - By adding water from the tap, you didn't let the chlorine outgas* and
it killed your biological filter. Bacteria don't like chlorine. That's why
water companies add it. Fish produce ammonia, bacteria degrade ammonia, if
no bacteria, ammonia builds up, fish don't like ammonia.
*Some water companies add chloramine, which doesn't outgas like chlorine
does. It's still nasty though.
What you need to do.
1: - Should change 20-25% of the water each week. Also vacuum your gravel,
which I imagine has gotten pretty scummy if it hasn't been cleaned for a
while. If it is really filthy, you may want to remove the fish and filter to
a rubbermaid (with water prepared as below) for a while. It is likely you
will disturb pockets of hydrogen sulphide, produced by anaerobic bacteria
decomposing fish poo in the gravel, which, apart from being very, very, very
smelly, will make your tank water very, very, very nasty.
2: - Make sure there is no chlorine/chloramine (check with water company) in
the water you add to the tank. You can either leave it for a while, for a
shorter while with air bubbles, or add the relevant conditioner.
3: - You could use something like ammo-lock to sequester ammonia until your
biofilter builds back up. If you use ammo-lock, some ammonia test kits (fun
with mercuric iodide, no less) will give you a false reading.
Well, that's all for now, I'm sure if i've forgotten anything, some kind
soul will add it.
Marcus