Could aging barrel have caused so much trouble?

[kaceyo]

I have been having trouble with my newest juvies since day one and had succesfuly treated for a couple of parasite probs. But throughout the treatments and after, even when "cured", they were very sensitive to light and would cower in the corner much of the time unless I turned off the lights over their tank. Also they were allways very jumpy and startled easiy. I tried blocking out most of the light with a barrier between bulb and tank. I tried conditioning them to it by only turning it on just before each feeding. I had only limited and temporary success. Well, things happened to work out so that I had to use water from a different aging barrel. A bigger barrel I use on my two other growout tanks. The next morning, after doing two wc's from the other barrel the day before, I turned on the light and they didn't even flinch. I thought it was just another temporary improvement but started doing all wc's from the other barrel and 3 days later they have improved 1000%. None of the jumpy light sensitive behavior since, and an overall look of health and vitality in general. This all happened overnight after mnths of trying to figure out what was wrong. I had used the "bad" barrel before without problems and cleaned it out with a light bleach solution before using it on the new arrivels. Has anyone else ever noticed such extreme effects on their fish from switching aging barrels? What could have gotten into the barrel to cause this? It is a food approved barrel that had a slight vinager smell before cleaning but, as I said, it was used before without problems. I'm open for suggestions as to the possible cause.

Kacey

[Carol_Roberts]

Could just be a coincidence - use that barrel for change water on a different tank and see if they act skittish.

[kaceyo]

Hi Carol,
I thought about going back to it to see if their old behavior returned but didn't. Good idea to try it on another tank.
Thanks,

Kacey

[satty]

As you said you cleaned it with a Bleach solution what if you hadnt cleaned that well and that gettin into the tank????? a possibility?

[kaceyo]

Hey Satty,
I've been using this barrel for a few months now so thats not it. If it were just cleaned then that might fit.

Kacey

[jim_shedden]

This is a stretch but it did happen to me.
Do you have a seperate pump to that "bad" barrel?
If you do check it out. I had one barrel that caused a lot of grief for me. When everything was discounted I beleive it was the pump. The particular pump that I was using had a couple of metal bolts exposed. I came to the conclusion that there was some rust getting into the barrel. The other pump was to encapsulated in plastic so it did not have the same problem.
Just a thought.

Jim

[kaceyo]

Jim,
It does have it's own pump. It's a ViaAqua submersable. Is that what you meant by encapsulated (submersable)? It's also used to circulate the water in the barrel while aging. The only idea that I can think of is some kind of bacteria in the barrel.