Problems after water change

[vinz]

Just want to check if anybody else is having problems after direct from tap water changes.

Whenever I change my 6ft tanks water, the water will turn cloudy the next day and then clear after 2 or 3 days by itself. The fishes will also be stressed out. The more sensitive ones will go straight to the surface to gasp. The less sensitive ones like the sparkling gouramis and otos will be hanging around near the surface, taking occasional gulps of air at the surface.

This weekend was really wierd. I changed 50% of the water on Saturday. On Sunday the water was cloudy. On Monday morning it was brown and cloudy. By Monday night it was clear. Fishes were stressed out throughout Sunday, I did not get to observe them on Monday day, but they were all ok on Monday night.

I've noticed this for some time so I've been speaking to some LFS and friends:
- One farm told me PUB sent letters and officials to inform them that additional chemicals will be added to the water supply, especially in May and June. It was not clear from our conversation whether new types of chemicals are added or more of the usual stuff is being added.
- One newly setup LFS suffered massive fish lost or fish gasping immediately after water change. Incidently, the existing co-tenant, another LFS which has been using the premises for much longer, uses the same water source and did not suffer the same problems. On one hand, the co-tenant has large fishes only (and assumed to be less sensitive). I have not checked how much water was changed by either parties. (The LFS has control of the situation now and his fishes are fine).
- One friend noted that recently a lot of his small fishes dies after water change.
- Another aquaintance told me his guppies all get sick/diseased after a water change. During the medication and treatment period, he does not change water. His fishes get well, he does a water change and all the fishes get sick again.
- Another LFS said certain plants in his display tank turns yellow after a water change. Now he only changes water with aged water (1 to 2 days) and his plants are fine. Previously he had no such problems with direct from tap water change.
- My sisters fishes has been dying from direct from tap water change too. Only when she uses her pond water to do water change that her fishes are ok.

Other then my sister, all the above people are not newbies who are ignorant about proper fishcare. My sister knows enough to do proper water change.

Anybody else got wierd problems after tap direct water changes?

[neon]

I am staying in Bt Batok area.

I have a 6'x2'x2' planted tank. The fishes stressed only if do 80% water change , not because of water quality but the drop in water level and lack of swimming areas. A film of mulm/dirt will also float on the water surface after water change, which normally let the surface skimmer to suck them clean. Cloudy water is the norm after WC, and takes 1 day to clear.

Fishes did not gusp on the surface after each water change.

Right now, I am using 2 tap water filters , 1st one with 5 micron filter , 2nd one with 1 micron with active carbon . How effective , don't really know. I also squeeze 20 times of Nutrafin before I turn on the tap in full blast. The water will go into my tank thru my rainbar .

Cheers

[PeterGwee]

No issues with my tap water source. The critters were pretty lively at feeding time as usual. Perharps higher dosage of de-chlorinator will help with that issue or do you have something dying in the water tanks? (Most new flats have enclosed ones I guess...).

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Goondoo]

No issues with my tap water source. The critters were pretty lively at feeding time as usual. Perharps higher dosage of de-chlorinator will help with that issue or do you have something dying in the water tanks? (Most new flats have enclosed ones I guess...).

Regards
Peter Gwee

No problems with me, I always drinks direct from tap water.... too lazy to wash a glass....

[vinz]

Tried triple dose of anti-chlorine/chloramine... no effect.

My water direct from utilities, not from tanks. That could make a difference. Flats that get their water from storage tanks are getting partially aged water... depending on rate of use by the block residents.

Hmmm....

[|squee|]

Maybe you can give a email to PUB? Asking for any recent changes to the water. Worse comes to worse, you need to RO your water from now on.

[Naquatics]

My personal opinion and observation and deduction ... I too experience this.

When there is a water change, the biofilter is somehow disrupted. My deduction is when there is water change, it damages the biofilter. The filter takes 1-2 days or longer depending on how badly its been damaged by the water. Thus filtering capability gets screwd and thus the cloudy water.

This water change also changes the water condition thus the change in the behaviour of the fishes and ebis. As we are all lazy most of the time, we do not stablize the water before adding it into the tank. I don't too .. just lazy. So I try not to do drastic change of water.

Solution .. change frequently but in less quantity .... well thats what I do.

bicents worth ...

[vinz]

No need to RO... just let the water stand for 2 to 3 days... The problem for me is I have to age about 300 litres of water. Imagine a container about 3'x2'x2' in your house just to store water.

[anttz]

no problem. I do 20% water change weekly. Top up 1.5 litre daily (due to evaporation caused by the fan)

[feizhai]

i agree with vinz - something in the water? stay in a condo along serangoon ave 3, and for the past few months, i've been adding nutrafin h2o dechlorinator/conditioner to tap water, mixing it well and doing water changes after only an hour or less (at least half an hour minimum) - until recently, i changed only 10-15% of a tank with 50+ Aphyocharax rathbuni, one loach, one loricadae, one sailfin platy and one swordtail platy - turn to the next tank to do wc, within 10-15 mins, most of the tetras were floaters, the plec had turned almost white and the loach was skimming around on its back, gasping heavily. the platys were fine though.

only 12 tetras survived, the rest of the fish made it as well...
did ask around, either there's something new in the water or i had better let the water sit for a day at least in the future...

[Goondoo]

i agree with vinz - something in the water? stay in a condo along serangoon ave 3, and for the past few months, i've been adding nutrafin h2o dechlorinator/conditioner to tap water, mixing it well and doing water changes after only an hour or less (at least half an hour minimum) - until recently, i changed only 10-15% of a tank with 50+ Aphyocharax rathbuni, one loach, one loricadae, one sailfin platy and one swordtail platy - turn to the next tank to do wc, within 10-15 mins, most of the tetras were floaters, the plec had turned almost white and the loach was skimming around on its back, gasping heavily. the platys were fine though.

only 12 tetras survived, the rest of the fish made it as well...
did ask around, either there's something new in the water or i had better let the water sit for a day at least in the future...

hmmm.... sounds like only rich people got the trouble

[D!Concept]

i believe people staying in different area have different water parameters. my brother is staying just one street away and his water ph value was way lower mine(thats why his goldfish always die). im doing the EI method and WC 80% weekly w/o fail with no problems. IMHO, maybe can try measuring the ph of your tap water. mine is about 6.5 - 7 and i started WC at 50% then slowly to 80%. FYI, i do WC 80% becos too much shit to siphon

[pat]

My personal opinion and observation and deduction ... I too experience this.

When there is a water change, the biofilter is somehow disrupted. My deduction is when there is water change, it damages the biofilter. The filter takes 1-2 days or longer depending on how badly its been damaged by the water. Thus filtering capability gets screwd and thus the cloudy water.

This water change also changes the water condition thus the change in the behaviour of the fishes and ebis. As we are all lazy most of the time, we do not stablize the water before adding it into the tank. I don't too .. just lazy. So I try not to do drastic change of water.

Solution .. change frequently but in less quantity .... well thats what I do.

bicents worth ...

I agree with Naquatics.

On my observation and experience of this...

I used a Atman 3338 to run my 3x2x2. Cloudy water will show 2-3 days after WC(50% with Anti-chlorine/chloramine 1hr before added into tank) , and will clear after that. And show a slide NO2 spike during the cloudy. At that time my plants in the tank was not fully glow. The cloudyness get shorter period when all my plants are full glow, only took 1-2 days.

Now I ran with Eheim 2260. I can do WC 80% weekly(tap water and anti-chlorine/chloramine added into tank directly) with no problem even I do a new scape

IMO...

Anti-chlorine/chloramine will take some time for the dechlorine to take effect and chloramine may take longer, so this go to how bad you are disrupted the BB in your filter when you do WC.

The cloudyness of the water is depend on how much of remaining BB in your biofilter after the WC. And how good the plants can consume the extra NH3/NH4 and NO2(if you have heavy or med live stock) since the biofilter had degraded during WC. Of couse your fish may change in their behaviour at this time.

My suggest...

Most of the people doing large WC with the medium or under capability bio water handling filter will have this problem. So you may do your next WC in less quantity with longer schedule. This will help the biofilter build back the BB to their water handling capability.

For new setup try get a filter with a larger biofiltering column.

Cheers

Patrick

[feizhai]

that makes sense!
ya i think small regular wc are better than large massive ones infrequently. sigh, my poor tetras...

oh i not rich at all boy... my parents might be la but not me.

[vinz]

The thing is, this never happened before. I use to do 50% water changes with no problems. I did noticed though that mature tanks usually have less problems with this.

I agree the large water changes have something to do with it. Anti-chlorine/chloramine are suppose to work instantaneously, from what I've read. So I don't think it's chlorine/chloramine problems. Probably something new in the water.

I also suspect it's the biofilter being wiped out.

Well, whatever it is, looks like using aged water or smaller water changes is the way to go.

[barmby]

I think turn on the UV for 12 hours a day will help to clear the water cloudiness.

Btw, I think it is flouride. It can also be found in our toothpaste.

From my discus-keeping friend, the frys don't grow fast and slowly die bit by bit.

However, it may not affect us because tropical fishes are less demanding.

[mad]

my Fren parrot fishes all suffer from stress after water change and also leaving in bb area..
He told me this is strange as he never change his style of water changing..
Now his fish still with some white spot and i think on recovery moment liao .....

[FC]

Hi Vinz,

This happen to me too and it would last for 2 weeks before it become crystal clear* again. To quicken the clarity, I added KSO4. It would then clear up in a week. I just tried this method recently, I hope this is the cure.


*Not just clear but really crystal clear water because I change water only when doing major plant trimming.

[PeterGwee]

Why not you folks try running a carbon filter inline with the water changing hose when topping water to the tank? I just did a large 80% plus water change 2 days ago and had no issues though. My water source should be direct from the main pipe yet I don't get that issue. Maybe I'm just lucky... . You guys can consider writing in through PUB One if you want some answers.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[vinz]

The problem seems to be less obvious with mature tanks. I used to notice minor wierd behaviour after water change in the my mature tanks (before I revamped them).

Peter, are you running a carbon filter with the hose? I just read a post today by Tom Barr suggesting that. I'm considering trying it out, but have no idea what gadget I'm looking for.