Oxygen deficiency .

[MichaelJ]

Has to be….So I lost 2 fish, have 1 clown left over who wasn’t looking good, barely hanging on, but survived a week longer than his buddies…..I thought it was brook cuz you could see whitish stuff on his head.
So last night I threw in a air stone and now this clown is looking good and moving like a healthy fish….I don’t think my small skimmer was enough. Btw it’s a 12 gallon, Plus I lost my cleaner shrimp cuz I did a 40% water change apparently right after he molted….just an fyi to check for exoskeletons before you do a water change and hold off for a little. Gotta love the lessons learned.

 

[Chris A.]

Surface agitation works well for gas exchange in salt water.

 

[MichaelJ]

Surface agitation works well for gas exchange in salt water.

Definitely….air stone for now on…

 

[JohnK]

Or a power head agitating the surface may be more effective.

 

[MichaelJ]

Or a power head agitating the surface may be more effective.

Already enough flow….I’ll stick withe the stone,,,,no biggie.

 

[Cpage101]

Already enough flow….I’ll stick withe the stone,,,,no biggie.

any bacterial bloom?

 

[MichaelJ]

any bacterial bloom?

No. I had one fish that was hovering at the top till it died, another fish which had no brook markings died…..all good parameters

 

[dz6t]

How long did you have the fish?
It is unlikely fish dies during to lack of oxygen if there is any water pump running in the tank.

 

[MichaelJ]

2 fish for roughly 3 weeks….before they died….I can’t explain it, my clown has more life to him and the only thing I did is put the air stone in…

 

[dz6t]

That sounds more like they were sick than oxygen issue.

 

[Cpage101]

No. I had one fish that was hovering at the top till it died, another fish which had no brook markings died…..all good parameters

how old is the tank?

 

[MichaelJ]

how old is the tank?

Probably bad fis…clowns were good then at a later date I added another fish and things went down hill….I bought the tank established already so no cycling issue

 

[MikeG]

I would also say very unlikely oxygen. Any type of skimmer on the tank no matter how bad should be imparting more oxygen into the water than an air stone and I would think plenty for the fish you listed

 

[Cpage101]

Parameters including ammonia?

 

[MichaelJ]

I would also say very unlikely oxygen. Any type of skimmer on the tank no matter how bad should be imparting more oxygen into the water than an air stone and I would think plenty for the fish you listed

We’ll he’s still active so your probably right …..I think it was I just got a bd fish….I’m gonna start a quarantine tank…just got the stuff

 

[Joker]

It's a misconception that Skimmers and airstones actually add O2 to the water. The Skimmer basically scrubs the co2 out of the water along with other nasties and a airstone just moves water while agitating the water surface which allowes gas exchange. You will be better off pointing a powerhead at the surface of the water as you will get way better gas exchange in return. What this sounds to me is the fish where sick or because you bought it as a established system already you might have stirred the sand by mistake, left the sand/ rocks out of water to long and caused a major die off in the micro bioload(pods, bacteria). Which in turn caused a recycle or a ammonia spike. This will kill fish and inverts very rapidly.

 

[MichaelJ]

I did move the ph towards surface, When I bought it we left sand in with 2” of water in it so to not disturb the sand to much…..as of this morning the clown is still alive so crossing fingers. I run the air stone every other day….changing it up to here and there to monitor how the clown is doing. It’s color is coming back ..

 

[DylanCameron]

It's a misconception that Skimmers and airstones actually add O2 to the water. The Skimmer basically scrubs the co2 out of the water along with other nasties and a airstone just moves water while agitating the water surface which allowes gas exchange. You will be better off pointing a powerhead at the surface of the water as you will get way better gas exchange in return. What this sounds to me is the fish where sick or because you bought it as a established system already you might have stirred the sand by mistake, left the sand/ rocks out of water to long and caused a major die off in the micro bioload(pods, bacteria). Which in turn caused a recycle or a ammonia spike. This will kill fish and inverts very rapidly.

While it’s true that skimmer don’t necessarily “add” oxygen to the water, they’re definitely the best way to aerate the water due to the incredible amounts of surface area. It’s not selecting for O2 or CO2, it’s reaching an equilibrium with the source air, which is why people have such great success hooking up outside air lines / CO2 scrubbers to skimmer intakes. I agree that surface agitation with a power head is good for aeration, but it’s not as efficiently as a skimmer.

Here is some actually data on O2 saturation in reef aquariums with various aeration methods, found this with a quick search and just wanted to provide a source