Emergency water change- what happened?

aunt kymmie

As I type this my 75gl is draining, as I'm in the middle of doing an emergency water change. Did my routine water change yesterday, tonight I see my fish breathing incredibly rapidly, test the water parameters and have a .25 ppm nitrite reading, 0 ammonia and 10 ppm nitrate reading.
This is a cycled tank! What happened?? The only change was a brand new nozzle on the water change hose. I just checked my tap water- no nitrites in the tap. I'm really panicking as one species of dwarf cichlid in this tank can't be replaced easily as they are almost never available in the industry. I'm going to be gutted if I lose them.
Would there be something about a new nozzle that could cause this? Other than the huge water change I'm doing can anyone think of anything else I should be doing??

aunt kymmie

Crisis abated, for now. After a 60% water change all fish breathing normally, water tests show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte and 10 ppm nitrAte. What the heck happened?? I will not sleep easy tonight knowing there's the possibilty of another spike. I'll sleep six hours, instead of my usual eight, the sooner I can check on them in the am the better.
The ONLY thing different was a new nozzle. Is it possible some sort of metal was released from this nozzle that caused a nitrIte reading?? I don't get it.

jeaninel

Hey Kymmie, glad to hear the crisis is over. How frustrating to not know what caused it though. I don't know if a new nozzle would have caused that or not. May just be a coincidence. Hope you're able to get to the bottom of this. Keep us posted.

1077

I do not think the nozzle was/is cause of nitrite spike.It might be possible that recent die off of cyno, may have caused a small ammonia spike followed by nitrite spike.
Have you by chance cleaned the filter recently? Could dead organics from recent bout with Cyno have collected in the filter and perhaps had effect on biological filter in low oxygen area as compared to HOB filters? Low oxygen in filter such as might happen during power outage,,could starve bacteria and dissolved Organics that may get drawn into the filter in this instance(s) , along with dissolved solids ,might present problem.
Same thing could happen if filter media was perhaps cleaned a little too well. Sometimes we clean too much media at one time,vacccum the substrate,,clean the glass,srub decor. Is easy to lose beneficial bacteria and as a result see brief ammonia and or nitrites spikes as a result.
Also helps sometimes to think backwards,(I do this frequently according to girlfriend).
Proper amount of dechlorinator used at water change, no dead fish ,snails,etc. No dying plant matter,No chemicals introduced to the tank, No Cats, dogs, peeing in the tank, no well meaning nose picker's ,or significant other's helping to feed the fish.
I believe something temporarily, may have compromised the biological filter and might use double dose of Prime for next few water changes while adding some bacteria borrowed from another tank or sponge filter from another tank to maybe enhance the biological filter in the Discus tank.
Hope some of this helps. Lee.

aunt kymmie

If wasn't a moderator I'd be typing the worse curse words you've ever seen. Woke up to gasping fish (gasping hard enough to wake this sleeping old tired woman) and am doing another emergency water change. I've lost one Dension Barb and perhaps the last known female Dicrossus filamentosus I'll ever see again. 1077- this is not my discus tank, it's my 75gl community in my bedroom. I'm freaking out.

aunt kymmie

Water draining out now, getting ready to fill it with fresh, clean water. I woke up Wade and he started panicking too, screaming at me to get the fish out of the tank. I removed the fish I could catch to buckets, but now that they are "fine" they are all flipping out at being jammed into buckets together. (You don't think well at 2am) Should I put everyone back on the tank?

Water change was 8pm, nitrite spike at 2am?? Really? That fast? Six hours later?? Why????? Arrghh

aunt kymmie

Water change completed, two casualties so far.
I put the fish back into the tank from the buckets. It has to be better to be in the tank than 20 fish crammed into a bucket?? Trying to figure out what could have happened....I'm coming up blank but will keep trying to figure out what's going on. I'm still on the verge of tears over losing the female Dicrossus filamentosus. *insert the worst strings of cuss words here*

1077

Did you happen to note another nitrite spike before you changed the water? (this A.M.)
Fish gasping sounds like oxygen depletion but I am at a loss to explain the nitrite spike other than what I already mentioned.(organics collecting in filter )
I might consider lowering water level to allow more surface agitation from spray bar on filter, or return from HOB filter.Plant's won't appreciate it long term ,but oxygen level's could be increased this way.
Could also purchase a small to medium size powerhead to create a ripple across the surface to aid in oxygen exchange but not allow CO2 albeit low levels,,to escape so easily. This might offer relief if oxygen depletion is contributing.
Sorry,wish I could offer more.

Romad

Oh no Kym. I'm so sorry to hear about your tank troubles.

The worst is not knowing what is causing it so you can get to the bottom of it. Hopefully putting more oxygen into the tank will help in the meantime.

Sending good fishy wishes your way. Hang in there and keep us posted. Hug ( )

iamgray

Aw, kymmie... this made me go teary eyed. I wish I could offer some advice/ideas... instead all I can say is that I hope you find a solution soon. :(