# fish are dying during water changing



## ir0n_ma1den (Apr 27, 2007)

Recently I've been having a problem after I fill up my tank with water and add prime; my fish slow down and move to the surface of the water. Some fish even die  (I currently have 2 tiger barbs sitting at the bottom of the tank). I really would not like to loose fish every time I do a water change. What can I do to solve this problem?

thanks


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Do you at least use a finger to test the tap water to see if it is near the temperature of the tank water? Other than temperature and chlorine or chloramine, which the Prime should take care of, I don't know what would be in the water to kill the fish. I used to add just cold tap water for water changes of about 15% or so, and never did kill a fish doing it.


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## ir0n_ma1den (Apr 27, 2007)

Temperature is perftect, it may change only 1- 1.5 degrees but thats it. 

My water changes are 75%-80%, I don't know if that's a factor or not. Also, the only fish that are dying after water changes are my tiger barbs. All the other fish and shrimp are fine.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Do you add the prime during the refill, or after you've filled the tank with new water? If you wait until after, you are exposing your fish to chemicals in the tap water for how-ever long it takes you to fill up and then dose. The prime should be added to new water before or during re-fill of the tank.


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## ruger45 (Feb 28, 2007)

I would try to take out less water and see if that helps. I've always had trouble keeping Tiger Barbs for whatever reason. Good luck!


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## ir0n_ma1den (Apr 27, 2007)

I forgot to mention that I added prime after the tank was filled with new water. On TPT I was told to only change 30-50% of the water and add prime to the new water before adding it to the tank.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

ir0n_ma1den said:


> I forgot to mention that I added prime after the tank was filled with new water. On TPT I was told to only change 30-50% of the water and add prime to the new water before adding it to the tank.


Right, you should add the prime BEFORE putting the new water in the tank.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I agree, I would change less water more often. With that big a change, if something is different between what you're adding and what the tank water is, it's going to affect the fish.

That said, I have heard lots of reports of weak strains of TB's out there lately, so maybe yours just weren't the healthiest to start with.


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## isenblatter (Jul 25, 2008)

70-80% water changes at once is a traumatic experience for most fish. I've got a 125 and I do 10% water changes every 5 days, and that works pretty well for me. I do the every 5 days because of my work schedule.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

That is a big water change. As advised I would back off a bit.

The only experience I have had with massive WCs like that is a friend of mine who reared Angels had great sucess doing it, but most of us are too lazy to keep up with that kind of care. I do not know how his fish did later except for some I just took to raise my way, and they did fine.

Tiger Barbs do best if there is a bunch of them (a dozen or more) and are one of my favorites. I have not heard about weak ones though, but then again I am kind of out of the loop. My experience is it takes a hammer to kill them unless old age gets them in a few years.

All the comments make sense to me. Big WCs are not good and besides it is too much work.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

Coming from the old school, I rarely change more than 10 -20% of my aquarium water at one time. If for some reason I wanted to change more, I always let the water sit at least overnight before adding to my tank (even after using chlorine killers). I have a big 50 gal plastic garbage can for holding reserve water for my tank.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Lately I've been doing daily 10% water changes on my 125 gallon and I can't believe how much easier it is than doing the bigger ones once per week. It takes less than 10 minutes and the tank looks much better. 
I still do it once/week on the smaller tanks, but if I didn't have so many, I'd probably go the smaller daily route with all of them too.


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## chagovatoloco (Nov 17, 2007)

I am curious what is the ph of you tap water and tank water.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

ir0n_ma1den said:


> I forgot to mention that I added prime after the tank was filled with new water. On TPT I was told to only change 30-50% of the water and add prime to the new water before adding it to the tank.


I think you found your problem. Chlorine can kill fish quickly. With a water change that big it must take a few minutes to complete. Since you added the prime AFTER the tank was filled you had the fish in all that chlorine for quite a while. Prime should be added FIRST and then the new water. It immediately will lock up the chlorine and other chemicals and you fish will be fine. While I myself, do about a 40%-50% water change each week I have read in Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine of experts who did 85%-90% water changes and swore by them. I doubt it was the size of the w/c that killed yours fish. I'd bet on the chlorine.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

If the weather is hot the water company adds more crap to the water to make it safe.

Hot weather or not I've experiences unexplained fish deaths mainly when doing big water changes (more than 20%). The safest and easiest way is small but more frequent.

Also - forget the dechlorinators. Prime is the most economical and will take out Chloramines but if you look at the list of stuff that activated carbon removes you will think a regular dechlorinator is a joke. Get a drinking water filter housing, activated carbon cartridges and fittings from Home Depot and use the carbon instead of dechlorinators:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=big+blue+filter&gbv=2

--Nikolay


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

how warm is your water? I had an issue with Prime b/c my temp is rather high. Read the fine print on the label.


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## The old man (Apr 12, 2008)

I usually use API stress coat and have never lost a fish because of it. Add the prime to the water you adding or put it in the tank before doing it if you doing a large change with a python or something similar. Use the dosage for a full tank when adding it to the tank. I've done anywhere 10% to 50% and the fish seem to enjoy it and are more active afterwards.


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