Help

[etr63]

I have a young discus about 4 inches in a 55 gal with 7 others of about the same size all bought at the same time and from the same breeder. I have had them since May 8th. Today one started to get dark from time to time and his belly is bloated. So I treated with epson salt at 1 table spoon per 10 gal. This was done about an hour ago after a 60% WC. Now one of the others is getting dark from time to time and rubbing on the heater ( seen him rub 4 times in the last 50 min or so ). He is not bloated. I just stoped to watch them for a minute and the second one only seems to get dark when he goes by the one that is bloated. The one that is bloated has pooped twiced since I added the epson salt the second time seem to be painful for him ( I could see it in his face, if that doesnt sound crazy ). I dont have enough water in the barrel to do more than a 15% to WC at this point. I will not add more water to the barrel until I hear from someone here. All of my water peramiters are good. NitrIte 0 ppm, ammonia 0 ppm, PH 7.0, NitrAte 6 mg/l GH 7dh, KH 2dh. I only have aquarium salt and epson salt on hand and the lfs dont open until noon tomarrow. What shoul I do?

Earl

[etr63]

Well I wrong on the water peramiters. Those were the readings from the tank before the WC. I just tested the water in the barrel and had a reading for nitrItes of 2.0 ppm. Now the water in the tank nitrItes .5 ppm out of the tap nitrItes .5 ppm. I just drained the barrel and will have to wait for the nitrItes to leave the tap water.

[etr63]

Well running the tap long enough for the python to drain the remaining water out of the barrel + a load of laundry has seemed to have move enough water through the main to get rid of the nitrItes. I have an RO unit but dont know much about them. My kh is only 2dh and I need to do 50% WCs daily to maintain a PH of 7.0. I am afraid that RO will make my PH even more unstable. Every time it rains for the better part of the day I get nitrItes in the tap water. I test the tap every time I refill the barrel and there were no readings for nitrIte when I refilled yedsterday. I guess I will have to run the washer a couple of times before I refill on rainy days.

[Carol_Roberts]

Add one or two tablespoon regular salt (not epsom salt) to the tank to combat nitrIte poisoning.

[heckelcrazy]

Carol...i dont know how that works but you are right it seems to.


aran

[etr63]

This morning all readings were back to the norm. Last time this happened it took 4 hrs for the bio filter to bring the readings from .5 to 0 ppm. Both of them have there normal color back and the bloated one seems 100% better. I had thought about adding salt for nitrIte poisoning but since I just added the epson salt I was not sure about adding even more salt. With the bio filter getting rid of the nitrIte in 4 or less hrs do I need to be concerned about nitrIte poisoning for that time?

[Carol_Roberts]

Epsom salt (Magnesium chloride) and regular salt (sodium chloride) can always be added together. Your fish will most likely be fine, but I would test water after every rain for nitrite and add salt immediately if needed. NitrIte poisoning robs the fish of oxygen. It binds to the red blood cells.

[etr63]

Hi Carol

I just want to say thanks for all the help you have given and thanks in advance for the help Im sure you will provide in the future. I cleaned the barrel last night and even tho I did not have nitrIte readings from the tap when I refilled ladt night, I had readings of .5 in the barrel today. I added aquarium salt with the WC. I add Prime when I refill the barrel and was wondering if since I have chloramine in the tap water if this was causing a problem by removing the chlorine and still having ammonia in the barrel to create bacteria and then nitrIte. I am going to try waiting until an hour or so before the WC tomarrow to see if the chlorine will kill the bacteria in the barrel. Any thoughts?

[Carol_Roberts]

I just don't know. You are going to have to experiment to see what's causing it and how to handle it.

[kaceyo]

It might be helpful to have a cycled boifilter in the aging barrel.If you added dechlorinater right away so bacteria wouldn't be affected.wouldn't that work?Get more advice on this from someone with more experience before doing this Good luck,Kaceyo