# swimming at an angle



## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

My tern is swimming at a 45 degree angle. His head is up, and tail down. None of the other are like this. Is this normal? Water conditions are good, and he seems to like the power head. He is constantly swimming. Anyone heard of something like this?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

maknwar said:


> My tern is swimming at a 45 degree angle. His head is up, and tail down. None of the other are like this. Is this normal? Water conditions are good, and he seems to like the power head. He is constantly swimming. Anyone heard of something like this?


Either one of two things are going on, you're pH is either slowly crashing or your fish have a parasite infection going on in the gills. Post up your params, not after a water change though.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

OH good lord, what has happened?

My water params are:

ph 6.0 or lower (normally >7)
ammonia 8.0!!!!!!!!!
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

I cleaned my FX5 last week, but I only took out the old filter pad, and replaced it with a new one. DID NOT rinse any of the media. I use prime as a de-chlorinator, maybe I didnt add enough?

Not sure what happened, I usually do water changes once a week and never leave food in more than an half an hour. I have never had an ammonia spike like this. I just did about 40% water change. Will check params tomrrow.

Why would my ph crash? Why is my ammonia so high?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

maknwar said:


> OH good lord, what has happened?
> 
> My water params are:
> 
> ...


I don't know why you have zero nitrates. Your pH is decreasing because you don't have enough kH in your water for buffering. An ammonia reading of 8.0 and no nitrites tells me you are 2 weeks into a fresh cycle. What I would do is continue with 25% daily water changes, make sure you add enough dechlor, add some salt to the tank to be on the safe side for the next couple weeks maintain a tablespoon per every 10 gallons of water for the nitrite portion of the cycle. Just replace the salt removed with every water change that you removed. You'll need to do a little math to figure out the amount of salt to put back in. You do this until cycle is complete.
Once the cycle is complete, you need to note the kH of the water you use for replacement and the kH in the tank. We'll go from there once you post. 
Your pH did not crash yet because if it did the fish would be dead. For a quick fix add a tablespoon of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for every 50 gallons of water once a day and test your pH till you are at your desired level.
A special note sometimes during big storms municipalities increase the amount of ammonia and chlorine to the water supply to battle bacteria outbreaks. During these times double dosage of dechlor is recommended. 
Another note remeber in the aquarium a pH of 5.5 and below the nitrifyfing bacteria begin to die off. This explains the ammonia outbreak. Zero nitrites makes sense now but be prepared for that outbreak shortly. No explanation for the zero nitrates. This may be the reason why your fish is swimming on an angle. His gills are irritated big time. Not only is he going through ammonia burn but also acid burn due to the pH decrease of large proportions.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Thank you Dr. Giggles.

I tested my water today and this is what I have:

Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
Ammonia - 4
PH - 6.4 - 6.6

used a test strip to get these:
GH - 150
KH - 0

This is before I do my water change today. I think I might have done the nitrate test wrong yesterday (no way it could jump like that?). I am going to add some baking soda to it to see if I can get my PH to rise. All my params in my 55g with my gold spilo are perfect. I am worried that this could happen again because I have no idea why it happened in the first place. I have never had a problem with my PH, in fact it has always been a little high. How can I get the KH and PH to be ok with out me constantly adding stuff to my water?

PS: the water change helped them. They seem to be swimming a little bit better.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

I would get rid of those test strips because if you had a kH of zero your pH would crash and your fish would be dead.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0 
Nitrate 40
pH 7.2
kh 90 ppm
gh 200 ppm

Got everything under control, thanks Dr. Giggles. The baking soda really helped. I bought a liquid API kh and gh test kit and the kh was almost non existent. Once the kh was up my ph got higher, and ammonia went down. Nitrites never appeared, which I am surprised and glad.
I will just monitor the kh and hopefully this wont happen again.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

maknwar said:


> Ammonia 0
> Nitrite 0
> Nitrate 40
> pH 7.2
> ...


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Wow... what an impressive thread!
I think this thread should get an award or something.

Makn posted a problem, and the Giggler was on it.
Excellent display of information given on the Giggler's part and immediate, precise action taken on Makn's part.

Way to go!


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