Gasping Damsals

[grazzit]

Hola everyone, I'm a bit worried about my damsals. This is what I did yesterday. I just received my remora with a mj1200 and an additional mj1200 for added circulation in my tank. I rinsed out the remora and installed it with the mj1200. I moved my hagen 301 powerhead and added my other new mj1200 to the tank. I turned off my emperor 400 and pulled the filters from it (and left it off). My fish (tomato clown and 3 4stripe humbugs I can't catch!) really didn't seem to like the added current in the tank and went into hiding, I figured I'd give them a day and see if they had adjusted. Well my tomato clown seems to have adjusted fine even if he doesn't like to swim in the path of the current alot but the humbugs are still hiding and now they're gasping..... I'm reallya t a loss here, I turned off the mj1200 I just added and thinking about running carbon, gonna test my nitrares in just a sec as well. Could this be caused by just having too much current? I was thinking that all the waste that had built up on the sand bed and rocks might have been stirred up by the added current and is causing the problem. Anyway, off to try and catch those damsals again and test my nitrates.

Just checked nitrate level and it's at 25 ppm, temperature has gone up 1 degree up to 79.... I'm at a loss. The remora is dumping tons of microbubbles into the tank, don't think that would cause the problem though.

update #2 Gonna do my 5 gallon weekly/biweekly water change tomorrow and run some carbon tonight. Somebody post a reply you all are making me nervous.

[Mickadee]

what is your ammonia level. when you pulled the 400 off did you use the pads in it if so then the bacteria that grew on it isnt there anymore and the rest of the tank would have to adjust to take care of the new level of the ammonia. also when in combination of adding the extra current it stirred up stuff from the sand bed could also cause a spike in ammonia that could be cause of the stress tpo the fish.
Mike

[grazzit]

I used the pads in the emperor 400 but I'd only had them in for less then a month. It might be missing the microbes from the bio wheels but that's just a guess. Bio wheels are about 2 months old as well......... ahhh hell I dunno, just hope this doesn't take out everything in the tank.

[Mickadee]

forgot to say I would do a water change if it is ammonia it will dilute it some.
removing the biowheels and pads will have that effect though becasue they are both covered in bacteria that eat the ammonia.
Mike

[Geoff]

i was hoping to find your tank specs, but could not. IME 2 months seems to be the point where the tank is starting to get going. i think you removed a fair amount of the bacteria when you removed the filter. how much LR do you have. what kind of substrate? i think at this point it is a test and do water changes when needed.

with that many fish, i agree with mike. i would test for ammonia. if you have enough LR then the bacteria should build up pretty quickly to match the new levels.

G~

[Geoff]

sorry, another thought. what is your ph? what kind of aeration do you have in the tank now without the biowheel running? your CO2 levels may be climbing if you do not have any surface agitation(sp?). you might want to point one of the PH up at the water surface.

HTH,

G~

[grazzit]

Hehe I still need to fill out my tank specs but since every week I'm adding something I haven't bothered yet. Ok here's the rundown on what the tank is and what all's in it.

55 gallon 48" long tank, emperor 400 (currently running just carbon), 4"-5" DSB (haven't added LS to it because I've read it's not really needed if you add good LR, but it's still on the list), 44 lbs of LR, 1 mj1200 powerhead, 1 hagen 301 powerhead, 1 remora with the mj1200 upgrade (added yesterday so it's just making bubbles in my tank now). Lights are just the crappy NO lights that came with the tank (next thing on the list to upgrade). Salinity is about 1.22-1.25 and temp is 79 degrees.

As for livestock, 5 turbo snails, 6 bumblebee snails, 5 hermit crabs, 3 impossible to catch and mean as hell blacktail damsals aka, 4 stripe humbugs, 1 tomato clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, and tons of misc lil creatures living all around.

I just had my water tested last week and all perimeters were good according to the LFS (I should have asked for the #'s but of course I didn't foresee any immediate problems)

The surface of my tank is nice and wavy since I added the mj1200. The biggest source of confusion for me is that my tomato clown is exhibiting no signs of stress... well except he doesn't like swimming in front of the mj1200, but all 3 of my damsals are panting like there is a major problem. I'm gonna take a sample of my water down to the LFS tomorrow and have'em test it to see if they can see what the problem is and I'm going to do a 5 gallon waterchange (kinda skimpy but I don't wanna do a major change till after the test). Oh well that's the plan for now =).

[grazzit]

Added the signature just for you Geoff

[Geoff]

thanks!!

it sounds like you are doing what needs to be done. it is a little strange that one fish happy and the others are panting. are they at least swimming and eating fine? if they are i would not worry to much until you get the #'s about your water.

keep us posted.

G~

[grazzit]

Bit of new info, did my 5 gallon water change, and added another 2 gallons of RO water to top off the tank. Took in a sample of my water for testing to aquarium world and *drum roll* water perimeters are all good amonia and nitrites are at minimal detectable levels for the tests, nitrates were at 8 ppm, ph is all good as well. I talked with Doug (I think he manages the place) and he's at a loss as to what's going on as well. My tomato clown is still doing fine and the humbugs are still panting like crazy only now they're resting on the LR (still upright and panting just not swimming in place). Still can't catch'em otherwise I'd give'em a freshwater bath, oh well, only suggestion I've got to work with right now is to lower salinity down a bit to a bout 1.19 to increase the oxygen levels in the water. I dunno, I think they're bad karma is just catching up with'em =P

[Mickadee]

if you have minimal nitrites then you probably had a small ammonia spike. nitrite is from the ammonia being broken down and it hasnt been broke down to nitrate yet.
some fish handle ammonia better than others so they may just need a coule of days to regain there bearings.
Mike

[grazzit]

the test read the lowest it coud read on nitrites and ammonia, still not sure what's going on, fish are still alive and still in the same condition. all 5 hermit crabs are MIA, they might be dead or just hiding who knows, found 1 dead turbo snail (smelled like rotten eggs so I assumed he's dead) ARGHH!