HELP!! Rapid Breathing Discus

[B-rad]

I was visiting some local pet shops in an attempt to figure out how to lower my pH without chemicals... I found that two different places said when I do water changes I should use RO water.......When I came back however, I found my discus hiding in the back of the tank, with their eyes a dark color signifying stress, and it looks like they are breathing way too fast!!

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!

[kalebjarrod]

did you use ro water only, this can be very bad as it has nothing in it other than pure H2O

you still need a proportion of natural water added as it helps the fish in many different ways

[Merrilyn]

Don't panic just yet Brad. There could be lots of reasons. First things first, do all your water tests and post the results here. What temp are you running at. How long ago did you do a water change, and what percentage.

After you've done that, drop another airstone in the tank.

[B-rad]

I woke up to one dead discus this morning :evil:


did you use ro water only, this can be very bad as it has nothing in it other than pure H2O

you still need a proportion of natural water added as it helps the fish in many different ways

No, I still am running pure tap water...

my tests came up as

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
pH is still pretty high around 8.5
nitrate is between 5 and 10
temp is about 85 deg F

I did a water change about 3 days ago, about 15 %

the rest of my discus look stressed and are hiding in the back of the tank

[kalebjarrod]

brad

it's a good thing you haven't used pure RO water

try a larger water change (50%)and add some salt at 1 tablespoon per 40lt

if you don't age your water, double dose with primer and heat the water till it is at about the same temp as your tank water (slightly cooler is better than slighty warmer)

do a 50% water change every day / second day for a week and see how they start to look :wink:

[Merrilyn]

Have you added anything new to your tank recently? New fish or new plants - maybe water conditioner or plant fertilizer?

[flukes]

Sorry too hear Brad, always bad news too hear of a discus death.

As the others said, find out what happened by process of elimination..

[B-rad]

well good news everyone.... I went and purchased about 10 gal. of RO water and did a water change...the next day my discus were back to their old selves. I'm still stumped on what could have caused my two other discus to die...I'll keep you guys posted on what happens...

Thanks again

[Merrilyn]

Brad, in a previous post, you mention that the water straight out of your tap is 7, but after it is in the tank for some time it reads 8.5. It shouldn't be doing that.

Did you ever take out those rocks or test the gravel.

I''d like you to try something. Take out a couple of cups of your gravel, and put it in a clean container with just some tap water. Test the water. It should still read about 7. Now after 3 days, test the water again. If the reading has gone above 7 then the problem is your gravel, and you will have to remove all of it. Some gravels are just not suited to a discus tank.

Glad to hear your other discus have recovered, but the RO water will only help the problem for a short while. The gravel will turn your water hard again, and pH will rise, so we will be back to square one.

It's really important to find out just what the problem is. Your tap water is perfect for discus, so it must be either the gravel or the rocks in your tank. Removing them will solve the problem.

Hope that helps. Keep us posted.

[B-rad]

good idea ladyred, I will test the water one last time before I add it to the gravel....and the rocks (not gravel) are red slate... thanks for all of your help I never would have thought that gravel could do that... but I'll check it out and repost tomorrow after I get the results...

Thanks

[B-rad]

Well, I set up a water experiment. I took three buckets that I usually age my water in, I put hot tap water in one, cold tap water in another, and cold tap water with my gravel in another... I tested the pH today and results are as follows:

1st (hot tap)-around 7.5
2nd (cold tap)- around 8.4
3rd(with gravel) around 7.5 again

when I did my first 3 water changes I used cold tap water, let it age in these buckets for about 24 hrs.

now I am buying RO water from my grocery store and changed out about 9 gallons so far....

I don't understand....

edit: I will re test tomorrow and hopefully get some results that make sense

[B-rad]

well, I've decided to go with straight RO water and add a powder called RO right..just to be safe...my fish are fine although I lost my stringray since last time...A Professional aquuarium person is coming to my house friday...maybe he can figure it out...I'll keep you guys posted!!

[Merrilyn]

Please keep in touch Brad. Hope the aquarium guy has some answers.

[B-rad]

Well the "aquarium guy" was terrible..he charged me $ 65 to tell me that he doesn't remember how to care for discus, and give me a few websites. But, my pH is finally down a little and staying down around 7.5... which i know isn't too great, but its better than a 9.0 or whatever it was. (BTW these guys are trying to tell me that drift wood raises pH!!!)

Anyways everything is ok, just my algae is growing out of control, I scrub it almost every day and it keeps growing back very quickly too. I have two phosphate pads in my filter, and i don't know what else to do...any ideas??

[DiscusMan]

B-rad

Mate it is really hard to give you any advice that is to accurate as i am in Australia and your in US and i have no idea how your local guys chlorinate the water.

But i will ask soem questions.

1. How old are your discus and where are they from. Is there any chance that they were hormone fed as youngster. badly hormoned fish have a tendency to die without warning due to the hormone playing games on there insides.

2. If your councils use chloromines then you need to be aging your water or usign a double dose of dechlorinator on the tap water as normal strength dechlorinator uses dosages for chlorine only and not chlorimines.

3. Fast breathing may be damaged gills from answer2 but also many other gill damaging diseases that you would hope the fish expert you paid would have done a scraping and worked out an answer for you. Lack of oxygen in teh water by not having enough surface agitation may be a prob to but again you would hope a expert would have measured the dissovled oxygen content. Anyways make sure there is ample surface movement.

4. High PH is not an issue at all and my fish are happily breeding at 7.5. My tap water come out between 8 and 9 and i dont treat it with anything but dechlorintor and bubble it for min 24hours with an air stone before use. I dont even heat it in most cases as the temp drop is really not an issue ifs its a degree or 2 over half an hour.

5. you need to pay close attention to the fact that the stingray died and maybe there is a disease that is hard to spot. like velvet which is a wierd one from what i have read on this forum from other members.

Good luck with it all

Wayne