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***HELP ***! ! !...CO2 overdose???? from DYI???



Hi all,
I just found one of my fish dead floating on the
water...and I don't know what it might be from...

I am frantically assuming it could be from
anything...there are so many variables to consider.  I
run DYI co2 on the tank and everyone always says it is
impossible to overdose co2 from a DYI setup (specially
for a 55G tank...but I should mention I am running
THREE DYI bottles [2 lt each]).  Usually during the
day when I check the tank, everything is quite
healthy, the plants are bubbling (sometimes in
streams), the water is crystal clear and the fish
appear quite normal.  Tonight I had to stay late to
finish a paper...and when I got home, I found the fish
at the surface and they are breathing frantically. 
The dead fish has her gills quite open and around it
is somewhat purplish/bluish.  Although net-wisdom is
that DYI doesn't overdose co2, as a precaution I
always leave about half the top open and I purposely
have surface turbulence to allow excess co2 to escape.
 However, I do have very efficient reactor which
consists of a powerhead pushing out the water at 301
gallons per hour, and the water is in continuous
contact with the co2 (this is inside an approximately
6ft long 0.5" pvc pipe) for the length of the pipe. 
CAN ANYONE PLEASE MENTION THE SYMPTOMS OF CO2
POISONING???
I believe that even though the oxygen concentration
might have been sufficient (through surface area and
turbulence and plants), the co2 concentration might
have been too much so that the co2 wouldn't have been
able to leave the blood stream fast enough due to a
lower concentration difference, and this is what might
have caused the gasping (note: the gasping occursboth
at the surface and under the water...the fish come to
the surface for about 15-20 sec and then go under
where they are frantically breathing and open/close
their gills about 2 to 4 TIMES A SECOND!!! :-O
I took off the DYI tube and am instead putting air
through...this has been going on for about 50min, but
the fish are still gasping in the same way!

please advise!!!

PS>> the tank in nowhere near overstocked with only 5
fish (now 4 :-((  three of which are mollies and the
fourth is a 3" pleco.  the pleco also gasps but is
more difficult to tell because he hides.  The tank is
well planted (not too heavily though).  I should
mention that this tank is relatively established
(started in October) and I am not terribly new to this
hobby either (about two years now) and reading up on
things every single day.
I do use tap water right out, but the fish have had no
problems with this before (the last two years).  I
personally think it might be co2 overdose because I
upgraded from 2DYI bottles to 3 on Saturday...and this
was the last thing that I changed and before this
everything was fine.  Other than this terrible
gasping, the fish behave quite normally in terms of
eating and behavior.  If it IS co2 poisoning, please
advise what to do and if it isn't...then please
speculate as to what it might be!.  Oh also, the temp
is 74-77 and I do apologize about the disorganized
post, but I can't concentrate terribly well at this
point ( I hate to see them gasping so hard...and I
don't want to remove them from the tank because I
would have to chase them down since they hide in the
plants and at their level of breathing, I don't want
to exhaust them.

Thanks again,
samm in Los Angeles
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