oxygen level

[weizer896]

I was just wondering "How do you know when your tank is not getting enough oxygen". This may be a stupid question,but I had to ask. I put a black and white clown in my 24gal Aqua Pod and it seems to be breathing really fast. This happened to another fish I had and I ended up taking it out and putting it in my husbands tank.I am also running a powerhead and I can't seem to figure out why it is breathing so fast? Please, any suggestions. All water peremiters are good.

Anita

[GaryP]

Anita,

There may be two issues here. There are test kits for oxygen. I think Salifert makes one. Because a clown is breathing hard does not mean the oxygen is low. It could be its response to stress or disease as well. A new fish in a tank is going to be stressed and as a result more like to develop a disease. Remember that fish that you just brought home from the LFS may have been in the ocean a few days ago and was moved several times before it got to you. I have noticed the same thing in newly introduced clowns in the past. Its not usually a good sign. I'm sorry I don't bring better news.

I would also test your water parameters. Especially Ammonia, nitrite and pH. Thay all could cause the type of problem you are seeing. Do you have a skimmer on the tank? If not how is it being oxygenated?

[weizer896]

Well, my fish died :cry My tank is being oxygenated from the pump built into the Aqua Pod and powerheads. I have a skimmer to go on it but it is difficult because the lid wont close all the way with it on. So I'm taking it off and putting up the LA3 pendent with 250w 10k xm bulb that I got from JimD. All my perims are good and so are my corals,I just can't seem to keep a fish alive in it. :( Any suggestions?

[GaryP]

Oxyenation could be a problem if all you are getting is gas exchange from the trickle filter. It depends on the organic load. The bacteria in the wet/dry actually consume oxygen as they digest the organics in the water. Whether there is enough additional oxygen being added to meet the demand of the bacteria, lus re-oxygenate the tank is hard to know without testing. If there is algae bloom taking place that makes it even more difficult to figure out because the algae produces oxygen during the day, but uses it up at night when the lights are off. The extra power head will probably help by helping to move the water around and get some additional gas exchange at the water surface. If all your parameters are OK, my best guess is that you just had a stressed out or sick fish and it wasn't an oxygen problem.

What are you doing for water changes? Without a skimmer you need to be doing regular weekly water changes of at least 10-20% on a nano. There are a lot of things that can be in the water that we don't test for. Does your aquapod have a carbon filter? If so, how often do you change it? Those small filters don't hold a lot and can be depleted pretty quickly.