Fish difficulty breathing after adding UV sterilizer

[bouttreepriddy]

I added a uv sterilizer last night to help with ich management as one of my tangs was showing signs. This morning I noticed that all of my fish are having difficulty breathing. I definitely made a mistake but I'm not clear on where I messed up. What's my best course of action?

Things that might have contributed:
- The plumbing for the uv stirred up some of the residue in the bottom of my sump
- Maybe the uv sterilizer or new tubing is leaching into the water?
- Are there reactions from uv sterilization that I didn't consider? I am also on my first week of h2o2 dosing from humblefish's protocol
- I was fighting an active ich infection but only saw spots on one fish and a healthy appetite and behavior from all fish until today

- I have added airstones to give me more time while I figure out the issue. I am planning on a water change. It's logistically difficult to do more than 30 gallons at a time and I have a system volume of 300 gallons. Is a larger water change necessary?
- I stopped running carbon recently but I'm going to add some more as a next step

I have a 20 gallon quarantine tank set up currently. Maybe it makes sense to get the smaller fish into that?
Do I need to set up a larger quarantine at this point?

 

[mmorrison55]

I don’t think your uv would be the cause of the labored breathing.

New Plumbing should not leach anything into your water. Did you give adequate time for the pvc glue to dry?

unless you reused some old plumbing you had laying around and maybe had not been cleaned from prior use? Otherwise I wouldn’t think it’s the plumbing or the uv.

The fish having hard time breathing… do they show signs of ich? It could just be the affects of the ich itself.

If youdid stir up and old sandbed and thats the cause, then I woul think about doing a sizeable water change.

Maybe stop the hydrogen peroxide dosing as well? How much are yiu dosing and how often?

Let get @Randy Holmes-Farley for h2o2 recommendations and the #fishmedics for your labored breathing and see what they suggest.

 

[bouttreepriddy]

H2O2 is 30 mL 3x per day (1 mL/ 8 gallons). Today is day 7 of dosing that.
All I have for testing ammonia and nitrates are test strips and ammonia badges I use for quarantine but they're both currently reading 0.
The plumbing is new and I let the pvc glue dry for 6 hours before running water. Glued a barbed converter to the uv sterilizer and then used flexible tubing to connect to return pump and return to sump.
I see no signs of ich (other than the heavy breathing, there are no spots/scratching) on any fish other than the white tail tang who initially showed spots. That tang died in response to whatever changed (I'm assuming the extra stress was too much).
The fish that appear most affected are the smallest ones. 6 blue chromis, 1 six line, 1 clownfish, and 2 firefish. They are all laying down with labored breathing. The tangs and angelfish are less active and breathing heavily.
Salinity has not changed.
I have been performing nightly water changes for the past week to siphon the sandbed.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

H2O2 is 30 mL 3x per day (1 mL/ 8 gallons). Today is day 7 of dosing that.
All I have for testing ammonia and nitrates are test strips and ammonia badges I use for quarantine but they're both currently reading 0.
The plumbing is new and I let the pvc glue dry for 6 hours before running water. Glued a barbed converter to the uv sterilizer and then used flexible tubing to connect to return pump and return to sump.
I see no signs of ich (other than the heavy breathing, there are no spots/scratching) on any fish other than the white tail tang who initially showed spots. That tang died in response to whatever changed (I'm assuming the extra stress was too much).
The fish that appear most affected are the smallest ones. 6 blue chromis, 1 six line, 1 clownfish, and 2 firefish. They are all laying down with labored breathing. The tangs and angelfish are less active and breathing heavily.
Salinity has not changed.
I have been performing nightly water changes for the past week to siphon the sandbed.

First thing - add aeration! It can't hurt and often helps.

Second - PVC cement is very toxic if not fully cured. Internal joints (not vented to the room) are very bad. So are PVC glued joints that are curing at low temperatures or high humidity. If you made the joint, and it was open at both ends for six hours at normal room temperature and humidity, it probably isn't that.

Third - H2O2 dosing is a LOT trickier than people make it out to be. The dose is a sliding scale, as you keep adding it, there is less and less organics in the water for it to react with, leaving more free peroxide to harm the fish. I won't dose peroxide without using test strips to monitor the free peroxides, and adjust my dose accordingly. One simple test is: does your tank have any shrimp in it? Are they fine? If so, this is unlikely to be a peroxide issue as they will be harmed before the fish would be.

Fourth, if all of the above isn't the issue, then I suspect this is Amyloodinium, velvet. That causes rapid breathing with few other symptoms. Smaller fish are affected first due to their gill/body mass ratio being different. That will require a coppersafe treatment in a hospital tank. The good thing about that is that it will also take care of the ich issue.

 

[winxp_man]

I have tried many things, and for the sake of saying I tried, I even did H2O2. All I did was almost kill corals. I don’t see ich in the video per se that you posted. But if you have seen it for sure, than QT is your best bet. Copper power at 2.25ppm to 2.5ppm max. Copper safe 2.25pm. 30 days. Tank fallow for 60 days.

You can put your fish in directly at these amounts. Have done it many times and have seen no ramp up being needed.

 

[winxp_man]

First thing - add aeration! It can't hurt and often helps.

Second - PVC cement is very toxic if not fully cured. Internal joints (not vented to the room) are very bad. So are PVC glued joints that are curing at low temperatures or high humidity. If you made the joint, and it was open at both ends for six hours at normal room temperature and humidity, it probably isn't that.

Third - H2O2 dosing is a LOT trickier than people make it out to be. The dose is a sliding scale, as you keep adding it, there is less and less organics in the water for it to react with, leaving more free peroxide to harm the fish. I won't dose peroxide without using test strips to monitor the free peroxides, and adjust my dose accordingly. One simple test is: does your tank have any shrimp in it? Are they fine? If so, this is unlikely to be a peroxide issue as they will be harmed before the fish would be.

Fourth, if all of the above isn't the issue, then I suspect this is Amyloodinium, velvet. That causes rapid breathing with few other symptoms. Smaller fish are affected first due to their gill/body mass ratio being different. That will require a coppersafe treatment in a hospital tank. The good thing about that is that it will also take care of the ich issue.

Jay it’s why I only use Red Hot by Christy’s. It sets fast, and no leeching issues I have ever seen. I have used this on homes with 50+ psi and in 30min the glue is holding pressure no issues. Most recent was my brothers house. He has 65psi. And holding no problem. It creates a hard shell really fast. Traditional pvc glue is with issues, that is for sure. And takes more time to get a proper hard shell so it doesn’t leech out chemicals.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I added a uv sterilizer last night to help with ich management as one of my tangs was showing signs. This morning I noticed that all of my fish are having difficulty breathing. I definitely made a mistake but I'm not clear on where I messed up. What's my best course of action?

Things that might have contributed:
- The plumbing for the uv stirred up some of the residue in the bottom of my sump
- Maybe the uv sterilizer or new tubing is leaching into the water?
- Are there reactions from uv sterilization that I didn't consider? I am also on my first week of h2o2 dosing from humblefish's protocol
- I was fighting an active ich infection but only saw spots on one fish and a healthy appetite and behavior from all fish until today

- I have added airstones to give me more time while I figure out the issue. I am planning on a water change. It's logistically difficult to do more than 30 gallons at a time and I have a system volume of 300 gallons. Is a larger water change necessary?
- I stopped running carbon recently but I'm going to add some more as a next step

I have a 20 gallon quarantine tank set up currently. Maybe it makes sense to get the smaller fish into that?
Do I need to set up a larger quarantine at this point?

pEROXIDE TREATMENT RARELY IF EVER WORK and UV is not an eraser

 

[bouttreepriddy]

No shrimp but I just noticed a mass die off of microbrittle stars. There are dozens of them on my sandbed. Asterinas and long spine urchins appear unaffected. I'm having trouble finding my cerith snails and hermit crabs so they may be affected as well.

Does this point to peroxide as a likely cause or rule it out? Would stopping that and performing a water change be a good idea?

 

[winxp_man]

No shrimp but I just noticed a mass die off of microbrittle stars. There are dozens of them on my sandbed. Asterinas and long spine urchins appear unaffected. I'm having trouble finding my cerith snails and hermit crabs so they may be affected as well.

Does this point to peroxide as a likely cause or rule it out? Would stopping that and performing a water change be a good idea?

I would WC asap.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Jay it’s why I only use Red Hot by Christy’s. It sets fast, and no leeching issues I have ever seen. I have used this on homes with 50+ psi and in 30min the glue is holding pressure no issues. Most recent was my brothers house. He has 65psi. And holding no problem. It creates a hard shell really fast. Traditional pvc glue is with issues, that is for sure. And takes more time to get a proper hard shell so it doesn’t leech out chemicals.

Jay it’s why I only use Red Hot by Christy’s. It sets fast, and no leeching issues I have ever seen. I have used this on homes with 50+ psi and in 30min the glue is holding pressure no issues. Most recent was my brothers house. He has 65psi. And holding no problem. It creates a hard shell really fast. Traditional pvc glue is with issues, that is for sure. And takes more time to get a proper hard shell so it doesn’t leech out chemicals.

I also don’t trust the blue rainproof cement - it seems to cure really slowly. However, I think you need to used that when gluing flex PVC.

 

[winxp_man]

I also don’t trust the blue rainproof cement - it seems to cure really slowly. However, I think you need to used that when gluing flex PVC.

Yes, for flex it’s needed. Most of the glues are just fine for new builds. But when in a pinch red hot works for me. I told a LFS near me about it. They never completely shut down a frag or fish tank since, when pipes sprung leaks. And they never had issues with toxins since using it.

My advice with Christy’s Red Hot, is give it thirty to an hour to really be sure and you’re good.