# Confused, gassed fish without altering the reg



## Garuf (20 Nov 2007)

Hello, this afternoon I got home from college to see that all my fish are at the surface gasping I haven't altered any setting nor has anyone else all I've done is clean the diffuser in bleach and to do a trim/replant and altered the filter spray bar so that it was spraying bubbles about the tank more. would this have affected the co2 levels enough to have gassed my fish like  I did?
I don't want to lower the co2 until I know what I'm dealing with so I've turned the solinoid off for the time being.


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (20 Nov 2007)

how much biomass have you removed? if youve taken out alot, there'll be alot less co2 used.

or..

youve changed the amount of surface agitation

or..

the cylinder is about empty and its dumping the last of its charge into the tank (as can happen on some of the cheap regulators)


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## ceg4048 (20 Nov 2007)

Guys,
         Another possibility is that all the changes that you made worked. I mean, the reason you did all that reconfiguration is to get better distribution of CO2 right? So it's possible that you don't need to inject as much gas now that you have better distribution, efficiency and saturation. That's the good news it seems to me. 8) 

Was the drop checker more yellow than before the reconfig, or, does it arrive at green more quickly? If so then you have validated your changes. Turn the needle valve down, or turn the gas off earlier, or have it turn on later (I'm assuming you turn it on a few hours or an hour before lights on?). It's no fun gassing the fish but in a weird sort of way it might be an indication of success.

Cheers,


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## James Flexton (20 Nov 2007)

cleaned diffuser = more co2 per second entering the tank raising the co2 level and lowering PH

Improved co2 mist circulation = more of the mist dissolved in the water per second raising co2 and lowering PH

Removed biomass = less co2 being used per second by the plants.

i think you know the answer already my friend. do all those at once and you will inevitably raise co2 levels and lower PH in theory it should return to normal in a few days but for now just lower your bubble rate to compensate.

Or indeed matt could be spot on and it's a bottle dump into the tank. Has the pressure dropped at all?

Edit: ahh great minds think alike..how funny. sorry clive your post wasn't there when i clicked reply.


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## ceg4048 (20 Nov 2007)

jimbooo said:
			
		

> Edit: ahh great minds think alike..how funny. sorry clive your post wasn't there when i clicked reply.



We might be long lost twins separated at birth like Danny DeVito and Arnold...


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## James Flexton (20 Nov 2007)

possibly, stranger things have happened.. lol


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## Garuf (22 Nov 2007)

Ahhh. 
I think it could be an amalgamation of all the mentioned ideas. Although one thing that does shock me is that the reg is now reading 25psi and when I opened this thread it was 49!
this is bad news, the reg is german and I haven't a clue where to get a refill...


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (22 Nov 2007)

Garuf said:
			
		

> Ahhh.
> I think it could be an amalgamation of all the mentioned ideas. Although one thing that does shock me is that the reg is now reading 25psi and when I opened this thread it was 49!
> this is bad news, the reg is german and I haven't a clue where to get a refill...



id say that was it.. it was dumping its final gas as it ran out.

any fire extinguisher guy can refil a co2 cylinder.. just avoid poeple like BOC who only fill their own tanks and want a small fortune in the process


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