Major Changes in fish behavior.

[JeffinMS]

After changing the filter, I cut the old sponge as someone suggested and
pushed it down inside the new bio filter, Ill leave it for a few days. But I
noticed the fish are very very active now. At first I thought it might have
had something to do with going from a 20 gal filter to a 40 gal filter (160
gpm). I decided to test the water. Water clarity is increasing, after the
loss of the other filter I had some serious cloudiness. But these are
current readings.

Temp: 83 f.
Nitrate: 20 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Total Hardness: 425 PPM (Something wrong here)
Alkalinity/Buffering Capacity: 180-240 PPM
Ph: Between 7.2 and 7.6

The fish are swimming around like crazy. They used to slowly swim around the
tank, now its all over and very fast. What do I need to do to correct any of
the above?

Thanks
J

[Köi-Lö]

"JeffinMS" > wrote in message
...
> After changing the filter, I cut the old sponge as someone suggested and
> pushed it down inside the new bio filter, Ill leave it for a few days. But
> I noticed the fish are very very active now. At first I thought it might
> have had something to do with going from a 20 gal filter to a 40 gal
> filter (160 gpm). I decided to test the water. Water clarity is
> increasing, after the loss of the other filter I had some serious
> cloudiness. But these are current readings.
>
> Temp: 83 f.
> Nitrate: 20 PPM
> Nitrite: 0 PPM
> Total Hardness: 425 PPM (Something wrong here)
> Alkalinity/Buffering Capacity: 180-240 PPM
> Ph: Between 7.2 and 7.6
>
> The fish are swimming around like crazy. They used to slowly swim around
> the tank, now its all over and very fast. What do I need to do to correct
> any of the above?
=========================
They sound hyper for some reason. That is unless they there was a problem
before, and the new filter corrected it and now they're acting normal. You
have hard water, that's for sure! :-) If you suspect something with the
water you can start with partial water changes of perhaps 20% over several
days. Is this the same reading you get from your tap? If so you may want
to stick with fish that originate in such water.

Also, I can't see why adding the sponge would have changed the water
parameters, other than to remove ammonia or nitrites. Could they have been
why your fish were not as active before?
--
KL....
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }<((((*> ~~~ }<{{{{(ö> ~~~~ }<((((({*>

[Nikki Casali]

JeffinMS wrote:

> After changing the filter, I cut the old sponge as someone suggested and
> pushed it down inside the new bio filter, Ill leave it for a few days. But I
> noticed the fish are very very active now. At first I thought it might have
> had something to do with going from a 20 gal filter to a 40 gal filter (160
> gpm). I decided to test the water. Water clarity is increasing, after the
> loss of the other filter I had some serious cloudiness. But these are
> current readings.
>
> Temp: 83 f.
> Nitrate: 20 PPM
> Nitrite: 0 PPM
> Total Hardness: 425 PPM (Something wrong here)
> Alkalinity/Buffering Capacity: 180-240 PPM
> Ph: Between 7.2 and 7.6
>
> The fish are swimming around like crazy. They used to slowly swim around the
> tank, now its all over and very fast. What do I need to do to correct any of
> the above?

I think your fish are trying to escape. You don't say what your ammonia
reading is. This is the first test you should do, asap. By the time
nitrite registers anything all your fish could be dead. If your filter
stopped for many hours then the tank will go through another cycling. If
the tank is heavily stock then that may not happen without many
casualties. You need to get some used filter media from someone you know
that has a tank, or from your LFS. Cloudiness is a bad sign, and also
related to damage of your biological filter. Your pH reading doesn't
look right. I'd expect a pH of at least 8.1 at the GH and KH given.

Nikki