BH in the water column

[kaceyo]

I've been having what I consider to be more than my fair share of health problems in general and wonder if at least some of it might be due to my feeding BH hours before the wc's are done. I do 50% or greater WC's daily with very few exceptions, keep BN in every tank to keep walls clean, feed a varied high quality diet etc, etc, but still have too many problems with my fish. Not big problems usualy, but things like recuring gill issues that end in flared gills, fish not eating well for awhile or acting sluggish and shy, mostly what I think are minor external parasite problems.
Lately I've been thinking it could be related to my feeding BH in the AM or mid-day when WC's 5 or 10 hours away. I don't leave pieces laying uneaten on the bottom, but alot of crud sloughs off the BH during the feeding.
I know the rule is to feed BH only before a WC but over time I slipped into the habit of feeding BH more frequently. I'm trying to pin these problems down and thought this might be a good place to start. Water quality being the first thing we think of in these cases.
If you,ve had experience with any of these issues please let me know what you did and if it helped.
Thanks,

Kacey

[Greg Richardson]

I do BH mix early in morning and stop around 4:00 to 7:00 depending on how late my wc is and start feeding other food. I think it is something else.

I've seen how you take care of your fish and it has me baffled as well why you've had these problems.

[ShinShin]

When Dick Au was in Seattle and Portland speaking a few years ago, he said this: If you feed CBW's, its not if but when will disease problems occur. I just thought I'd pass that tid bit along if CBW's are being fed.

Mat

[kaceyo]

Mat,
I don't feed live foods usually tho I did pic up some CBW's a couple of days ago to get 2 fish to start eating again.
Greg,
It didn't seem to me that feeding BH in the AM and doing WC's in the evening could cause these problems either, at least not with the daily 50%WC's, but I'm running out of ideas on how to fix this. I do put alot of time into the care of my fish. Thats why it's so frustrating. And BH mix is such a good (and cheap) source of nutrition that don't like the idea of eliminating it from one meal a day.
I don't think it's a water source issue as many people in Seattle use unaltered tap water succesfully. I don't know what I expected from this thread except that it might help me get my thoughts on this together with some feedback from the more experienced members here.

Kacey

[annieb]

Mat,
I don't feed live foods usually tho I did pic up some CBW's a couple of days ago to get 2 fish to start eating again.
Greg,
It didn't seem to me that feeding BH in the AM and doing WC's in the evening could cause these problems either, at least not with the daily 50%WC's, but I'm running out of ideas on how to fix this. I do put alot of time into the care of my fish. Thats why it's so frustrating. And BH mix is such a good (and cheap) source of nutrition that don't like the idea of eliminating it from one meal a day.
I don't think it's a water source issue as many people in Seattle use unaltered tap water succesfully. I don't know what I expected from this thread except that it might help me get my thoughts on this together with some feedback from the more experienced members here.

Kacey

Kacey. If the beefheart mix was fouling your water, wouldn't your nitrate be quite high?

[pcsb23]

Kacey,

On the face of it I wouldn't think feeding beefheart would be the culprit here. Whilst I have never seen your tanks, from threads and correspondence I know you are dedicated in your care. With the level of water changes it just seems unlikely that b/h could be the cause.

There may well be something ub=nusual in your circumstances that is the root cause, maybe something environmental of something "silly".

Would it be worth detailing your normal routine, including such things as your water params from source, in the tank, routines and feeding routines. As well as cleaning methods etc, types of food as well as source of food. In other words a complete run down on how you keep them. A lot of hard work, but maybe one of us might spot something.