Mistake and its consequences…

[Marie]

Hello everyone ! 
it’s been a while since I have been here but I had entered in some kind of routine with my fish tanks… everything was fine, fish were super healthy, I became a mom to some guppies. There was that one time where my cat managed to fish one of my bettas by putting its paw in the opening of the filter but Scar (the betta) survived and he is well… he is a survivor now !

Anyway I did a big mistake 3 days ago and I have managed through the crisis but now I’m reaching a point where my knowledge is not enough and I would like some help.

On my 35 gallons heavily planted tank (red eye tetras, serpae tetras, Pygmy corys, otocinclus) I have a canister filter with UV light that I didn’t clean since mid December. So 3 days ago I decided to clean it. So I do as I do usually, I use tank water i rinse the sponge and the different media. I don’t remove or add anything, just a squeeze/rinse, in my hope to not disturb too much the bacteria. I put everything back together, everything works great and I add some nitrifying bacteria to help if some got killed in the process.

Next morning all the fishes and snails are at the top of the aquarium trying to breathe. I take out my kit, and the ammonia test turns green. Quick action: I add some prime while I prepare to do a big water change. I change about 70% and then I go to reboot the filter and I see I had forgotten the day before to remove the UV filter so probably all the bacteria I added died. What a mistake ! So I turn it off and add new bacteria. (I still don’t understand how I killed so many bacteria with my filter cleaning).

Next morning … same thing ! All the fish are up and breathing fast. I text the water, no ammonia but some nitrites and some nitrate (low amount). So I do another water change and again treat the water with prime and add some bacteria. 

This morning, no one at the top but fishes are breathing really fast. The tank is stable again (no ammonia, no nitrite and a little bit of nitrate). I got afraid it was a ph issue but the ph is stable. Then perhaps oxygenation of the water so I adjusted the filter flow to make more water agitation and cut some plants because they were starting to invade everything.

They are still breathing quite fast, any idea what it can be ? Could it be stress after the last couple of days ?

thanks for the help.

[Colu]

It could be ammonia burn to the Gill's what I would do is add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 10 gallons that will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes add an extra air stone if you have some cycled media from another tank I would add that to your filter UV sterilisers only kill bacteria and viruses in the water column not on surfaces that highly unlikely to kill your benefial bacterial @Marie

[mynameisnobody]

I run a large uv sterilizer on my goldfish pond and only have positive things to say about it. I think it’s probably something else. 

[Marie]

Thanks, I haven’t thought of ammonia burn actually… that’s a very pertinent idea

Regarding the UV, I think it just killed the bacteria I had added to the water after the cleaning of the filter. I probably killed way too many bacteria when I did the change and the one I added where killed by the UV before settling in. It worked wonders until now, and I will continue to use it

[Marie]

Thanks, I haven’t thought of ammonia burn actually… that’s a very pertinent idea

Regarding the UV, I think it just killed the bacteria I had added to the water after the cleaning of the filter. I probably killed way too many bacteria when I did the change and the one I added where killed by the UV before settling in. It worked wonders until now, and I will continue to use it

[TOtrees]

I went to ammonia burn also. I've never used it for this purpose, but I understand methylene blue is a recommended therapeutic treatment for this (ie a treatment after harm or damage, as opposed to preventive or before damage). If I were going to administer it, I'd remove the affected fish to a hospital tank, to avoid damage to bacteria and staining of plastic, silicone seals, etc. Yes a hospital tank would be uncycled, you keep ammonia/nitrite low by doing water changes (or better yet don't feed for the 24hrs before the treatment and throughout the 72hr recommended treatment duration). 

[mynameisnobody]

When you say nitrifying bacteria, I’m assuming you’re talking about bacteria in a bottle? If so, do you add it every time you do a water change? In a heavily planted tank, I don’t understand the logic. 

[Lennie]

Hey Maria

 

If you overdosed prime, that mightve decreased the oxygen levels in the tank. Once by a mistake I overdosed a small tank of mine, and fish got heavy breathing and extra airstone wasn't helping so I made a water change again and it helped.

 

Previous ammonia burn also might have a bit of damage on the gills like Colu said. But if I were you, I would do a water change and make sure not to overdose prime and add an extra airstone just in case

 

Also you don't need to add bottled bacteria after filter cleaning and/or water changes really. Just make sure you clean the filter the correct way, like keep it wet during maintenance etc. and it is all good.

[NOLANANO]

It also could be the local water supply if you use tap water (conditioned of course). I use tap water and in New Orleans (my home) they sometimes increase the amount of chlorine (or something) in the tap water. I had the same exact issue as you with fish breathing heavy at the top of the tank despite doing my normal thing.  The solution was to add an airstone. More gas exchange seemed to rid the tank of whatever chlorine or whatever fairly quickly. I also tried to do smaller water changes more often as opposed to larger ones so that the "contaminated" tap water could be diluted as much as possible.  

The increase in cholrine (or whatever is added by the water department) could also explain the partial die off of your bacteria.

Edited April 22 by NOLANANO

[Galabar]

The UV light in the canister filter should not affect the nitrifying bacteria on your filter media.  The causes may have been some of the other things mentioned in this thread.

 

[Marie]

Hi thank you for you replies.

@TOtrees thankyou, I have never tried methylene blue yet, I might do some research on it before using it, but thank you. It’s difficult (near impossible) to catch these fish so I need to treat the whole tank (that’s also why I’m reluctant to use salt as I have many snails in there). For now I dosed seachem stress guard, I monitor the water parameters and I increased water flow. The fishes seem to be better but I will see tomorrow if things continue to improve. Truly grateful for all of the answers and ideas !

@Lennie now that you say this I wonder if I am not too liberal with prime after my water changes. Perhaps by trying to alleviate the pain of the ammonia poisoning I dosed more than I should and it hurt the fish. I will certainly be careful in the future !

@Lennie @mynameisnobody  I don’t add bacteria after water changes, only after « big » filter cleaning. For this tank it means every few months.

@NOLANANO I will do some research if this happened here in Atlanta, that may be the case. I have increased water agitation in the meantime. I think fish are ok now… but I want to check over several days.

@Galabar when I talk about the UV light affecting the bacteria I am referring at the bacteria I added to the water column not the ones on the media. I have clearly done something wrong to the existing bacteria population on the media when changing the filter (as @Lennie mentionned perhaps I didn’t leave the media in enough  water during the process) and they had no reinforcement since the UV killed the ones I added to the water after filter change.