PlanetCatfish.com

Last night when I fed my fish, my panda cory was doing great. I've had him for about a month, maybe longer. I get home tonight and hes doing barrel rolls through the tank. Did a water test and the nitrates are higher than I would like @ 80ppm, nitrites-0ppm, ammonia-0ppm, ph-7.0, water temp.-78-80F. Did a partial water change of about 10 gallons. Replaced the water with distilled water that I heated up before I put it into the tank (verified with a thermometer). This is the 3rd or 4th panda to die and another cory that was similar to a julii died. Whats the deal? I've never had problems keeping corys before. The tank has been setup for almost 2 months. I do water tests every week and nothing has been out of the ordinary except for tonight. I also added amquel, novaqua and quick cure (my L081 is getting over ich).

Yeah, 80ppm seems like a ton to me. I don't know if this could have caused it but it definitely could have contributed. You really need to try to keep those water changes going and the nitrates at least less than 40. I'm sure others will have advice on specific diseases this could be.

Another note, do you always use distilled water for water changes as this probably has a much different hardness level than most tap water...

I'd do a big water change - 40-50%, to reduce the nitrate level drastically. You really should aim for less than 25 ppm. Higher than that stresses the fish. Reduce feeding to make the nitrate not rise so quickly.

What's your regular water changes like?

Also, what size tank is it, and what fish (and how many of each) do you have in the tank?

--
Mats

How is the aeration in the tank?

Whenever I have used Amquel in the past I noticed that the fish gills start to move alot more rapidly and the corys that I have go up for air alot more frequently than they normally do. I lost a couple of Red Line Torpedo barbs after dosing the tank.

I would add an extra filter if you have one to create as much surface agitation as you can - this will increase the amount of oxygen diffusing into your water. Since then, touch wood, whenever on the odd occasion I have used Amquel there has been no problems.

I would still carry out a 20-30% water change as recommended above. Amquel shouldn't be used as a substitute for water changes just as a last resort to quickly bring down levels of Ammonia and Nitrate.

Hope this helps

By the way, I would always try and increasing the aeration of the water when I add any medication, not just Amquel.

Its a 55 gallon tank. I have 1 orange seam pleco(L106), 1 gold nugget pleco(L081), 1 clown pleco(L104) and 2 kribensis. Water changes are done every 2 weeks and 1/3 of the water is changed. I've just recently started using distilled water. I have a magnum 350, emperor 400, undergravel filter with 1 801 powerhead and 1 301 powerhead. Plenty of aeration in the tank. Could one of the plecos be beating up the corys at night?

Did you figure out what caused the Nitrate spike? I get the impression, with your weekly tests, that it came on quite quickly?

It did get out of hand very fast. I believe I was overfeeding. Did a 50% water change and the nitrates dropped to 10ppm in a day. Everybody is happy. The funny thing is, after all the corys died my kribensis still had a successful breeding and now I have babies. The 11 new plecos I bought yesterday are giving the parents a heart attack. I have to buy a new aquarium, TODAY! Thanks for all of the responses.

I'd still watch your Levels. You obviously know if your feeding regime altered recently. You do regular testing, but if you're not really sure of the cause, you don't want it leaping out at you again.

Congratulations on the Kribs.

With all the new fish I have, I will be keeping a close eye on the levels. I don't want ANYTHING happening to my fish.