Fish stress after a water change?

[muzikalmatt]

I did a 5 gallon water change last night on my 40g Innovative Marine tank and it appeared that the firefish goby was a little stressed afterwards, swimming somewhat erratically. The temperature and salinity of the new water matched my tank water, but I'm curious if other parameters being different could cause stress on the fish, such as alkalinity or pH? I'm using Reef Crystals salt which I know typically has a high alk content (~10 dkh) but I've never measured the pH of the mixed salt. Is there anything else that might cause stress from a water change or am I just overthinking it?

 

[ianryd]

I did a 5 gallon water change last night on my 40g Innovative Marine tank and it appeared that the firefish goby was a little stressed afterwards, swimming somewhat erratically. The temperature and salinity of the new water matched my tank water, but I'm curious if other parameters being different could cause stress on the fish, such as alkalinity or pH? I'm using Reef Crystals salt which I know typically has a high alk content (~10 dkh) but I've never measured the pH of the mixed salt. Is there anything else that might cause stress from a water change or am I just overthinking it?

For fish I always try to match salinity, temp, and ph, and keep an eye on nitrates and ammonia. Are you using RO water for your water changes?

 

[muzikalmatt]

For fish I always try to match salinity, temp, and ph, and keep an eye on nitrates and ammonia. Are you using RO water for your water changes?

Yes, I'm using RODI water with zero TDS. I'll check the pH on the next batch I mix to see if there's a big difference from my tank's water. The previous water change I did I measured the nitrates on the fresh saltwater and measured at zero but I didn't check ammonia.

 

[LiveWire]

Is this a new fish that has just been added?

 

[muzikalmatt]

Is this a new fish that has just been added?

Yes, I added the firefish goby last Friday 6/21. However, I've done three 5 gallon water changes since I got her: one on Saturday 6/22, one on Sunday 6/23 and this most recent one last night 6/25. I've been doing these frequent small water changes (~15%) to try and reduce my nitrates as they were hovering around 25 ppm. The previous two water changes I did (Saturday and Sunday) did not seem to bother the firefish (or at least I didn't notice any adverse reaction), so I'm wondering if there was something with this batch of saltwater that may have bothered her.

Just to give you some background information, I mix the Reef Crystals salt in a 5 gallon bucket of zero TDS RODI water to a salinity of 1.025 and then match the temperature to tank at ~77 degrees. I siphon out 5 gallons from the tank and refill it using a Maxijet 1200 pump in the 5 gallon bucket which is also used for mixing. I have noticed a little bit of residue inside the bucket and on the pump. Could that potentially cause any issues? Again, the salinity is measuring at 1.025 and I measure it multiple times with my Milwaukee digital refractometer to make sure before adding it to the tank.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Hopefully it's nothing, as it seemed like she calmed down and went to sleep with no issues after I did the water change before lights out. I'll follow up when I get home this evening and report on how she's doing. Fingers crossed she's alright and there aren't any issues, but I wanted to ask the question to make sure I'm not doing something wrong with my water changes. I'm only about 6 months in and this is my first reef tank, so I'd hate to lose a fish due to human error.

 

[LuizW13]

Just to give you some background information, I mix the Reef Crystals salt in a 5 gallon bucket of zero TDS RODI water to a salinity of 1.025 and then match the temperature to tank at ~77 degrees. I siphon out 5 gallons from the tank and refill it using a Maxijet 1200 pump in the 5 gallon bucket which is also used for mixing. I have noticed a little bit of residue inside the bucket and on the pump. Could that potentially cause any issues? Again, the salinity is measuring at 1.025 and I measure it multiple times with my Milwaukee digital refractometer to make sure before adding it to the tank.

I have the 25g lagoon and also do 5g water changes, but I don't even bother to match the temperatures...I figured that small water volume isn't going to change the temperature in the display..at least my heater never picks up the change.

The residue is common with Instant Ocean. Some people don't mind it, some do. BRS has videos about different salts that go pretty deep in details.

You probably have nothing to worry about.

 

[muzikalmatt]

I'm happy to report that I got home last night and all was well with the tank. The firefish goby was swimming around just fine and ate like a champ. I guess I was worried over nothing (which I tend to do in this hobby), but just wanted to check to make sure I wasn't doing anything incorrectly. Thanks for the feedback everyone!