Help...

[jlennon]

I came home friday because my roommate called me and said my oscar was on the floor. I do not know how long she was on the floor or how exactly she got there but he put her back in the tank for me till I got home. When I got home I found she was pretty beat up. There will be pictures later tonight for you to see. The temp is about 82 degrees. I need the check my water perimeters again but the last time I did so it was;
ammonia 0ppm
pH 7.6ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 20ppm
I thought about what I may have done to stress my fish out. I decreased the amount of salt I put in the tank, and I switched out my HOT magnum filter with a Biowheel 350. There is now two biowheel 350 on her tank now. The filter I put on the tank came off my other 55gallon tank and there was not an extreme cleaning on the filter mainly cause I did not think it was needed.
So at this point here tank is covered up with a blanket, the new filter is off, and I turned her heat down in the tank. Still around 80 degrees. I put in a tbs of salt and a cap of malfix. There is also weight on the lid so she does not excape anymore. I will have new water perimeters and some pics soon but I would love to get some feedback from someone. Anything works.

[Dave66]

The Oscar most likely bailed out of the tank when she was startled by sudden lights off. No need for the salt and Melefix, as healthy Oscars heal quite well by themselves. All you're doing with the salt and medication is stressing the fish further after her dash on the floor. Just observe the fish over the next few days and feed and do maintenance as per usual.

Dave

[jlennon]

Thanx Dave. I did some test on the water and found that my Nitrate spiked @80ppm. I am thinking this was caused by the filter I swapped out. Other test results are;
Nitrite-0ppm
Ammonia-0ppm
pH-7ppm
So my attack plan is as fallows. I have a stand by 20 gallon tank that I am going to start to cycle. Doing this so I can keep a constint supply of water I can cycle for fresh water changes daily untill my water perimeters are where they need to be. I have a enough water cycled from last night to do a 10% water change and with the water I remove I will clean up the filter and get it back in service. I hate relying on one filter for my oscar tank. Two makes it easier on all of us.