[APD] Fish breathing heavily after water change

[Erin Poythress <anang3 at yahoo_com>]

Hi all--

I am having trouble keeping my fish out of respiratory distress after a water change. They seem fine when it's happening, but later they breathe heavily. Often the next AM they still breathe heavily.  

The setup: 37G, Eheim Pro II, yeast CO2 that doesn't do tons, but helps. They're Tanganyikans, so I try to keep it rather hard for them. Today's levels measure a KH of 11 and a GH of 14. 

This was never a problem until we began siphoning and filling using a Python. Yesterday we siphoned out about 30% or so, which is about normal weekly. We fill it up super slow because the pipe from which our faucet gets cold water is close to ground level and it stays lukewarm when it's 100F outside, like it was yesterday. So filling took 45-60 minutes. In this time, I added a capful of Prime (which dechlorinates 50 gallons), and added the appropriate amount of Seachem Cichlid Salt and baking soda to keep the water from getting too soft on them. The tank temp stayed a steady 78F, the CO2 was on, but it's one of those Hagen ones with the bubble ladder, so really it's just cute. :) 

Though in recent weeks this has kept their shock to a minimum, this morning they were all breathing heavily, so I cranked the Eheim up to full blast and positioned the spraybar to blow bubbles in. Imagine an underwater wind tunnel. None were at the surface and are otherwise acting normally, but this isn't good for them every week, obviously. I checked our city's water report for 2006 (most recent) and didn't see anything that caught my eye, but I am no chemist. It is available here: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/BB2D817F-FC6A-4219-9397-D1D65FD5335A/0/2006CCRfinal.pdf

Does anyone know why this could be happening? If it matters, our reservoirs are very low right now and they have just imposed a water ban, but this has been happening way before that. The slow fill used to do the trick. I appreciate any help you could offer.

Thanks,
Erin
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