Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Problems

2K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  ross1966 
#1 ·
Firstly apologies if this question is in the wrong place in the forum. I got frustrated trying to get this working.
I set up my tropical tank about 2 and a half weeks ago.
I transferred about 8 fish from an old tank, and lost some of them.
I bought 2 dwarf gouramies on Saturday, and they seemed to be getting on fine. Now they are at the top of the tank gasping for breath. The 3 cardinal tetras I bought have now died.
There is obviously something wrong with the water - the PH is fine.

Any ideas?

Ross
 
#5 ·
Sounds like the fish are dying of ammonia poisoning, the result of being placed in an uncycled tank.

Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle? It the most important thing to know about keeping fish.
 
#7 ·
There are very few applications where an air stone is really needed. Gouramis gasping at the surface is not one of them, as they breathe atmospheric oxygen - so its not a matter of oxygen content in the water.

If you already have a tank set up, then the best thing to do would be to move some of your media from the old ranks filter to the new tanks filter. That will give the new tank a jump start on the cycle, perhaps getting up to speed by the end of the week. Water changes are necessary in the mean time.
 
#9 ·
I know lots of people with African cichlid tanks that don't use air stones. Air stones don't actually add air to the water. The bursting of the bubbles on the surface breaks the surface tension of the water, allowing for the gas exchange to occur. If the filtration provides sufficient surface disturbance, as most do, then the air stone is not needed for that purpose.

Air stones are good for eliminating dead spots in Tanks too small for a power head or circulation pump. The rising bubbles create a vacuum that draws water up behind the bubbles.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top