Having gill trouble during water changes, Advice?

So I've had my older axie for 4 months and my younger for 2 weeks. The larger (melanistic) is in a 20 gal and the younger (leucistic) is in a 10 gal. I do spot cleaning every other day with a narrow siphon hose and then top off the water. Once a week I do a larger water change (10-20%). I treat the water with aquasafe.

The problem I'm having is that my melanistic got gill burn early on because I didn't realize there were chloramines in our water so I just let it sit for 24 hours. I had seen improvement in his gills but now it looks like he's regressing. My little leucistic has the biggest fluffiest gills ever but I've noticed that even when I top off the water in small amounts they look a little shriveled for a couple of hours. Could there be something weird in my water? Am I changing it too much? My thought process was that if I did more smaller changes while cleaning they would be better acclimated, is that wrong?

This is my big tank after thorough siphon cleaning but before I filled it back up, he also has fans so there is evaporation everyday.

What's a melanistic?

As far as water goes, just use Seachem Prime before or during water changes. All city tap water needs conditioner, there is more than just chlorine in tap water that you need prime to take care of. Seachem Prime is not that expensive and you only need to use a tiny bit at a time.

Jonjey said:

What's a melanistic?

As far as water goes, just use Seachem Prime before or during water changes. All city tap water needs conditioner, there is more than just chlorine in tap water that you need prime to take care of. Seachem Prime is not that expensive and you only need to use a tiny bit at a time.

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I use AquaSafe, I thought they were similar? (I couldn't find any seachem at my LFS)

ShadowRancher said:

I use AquaSafe, I thought they were similar? (I couldn't find any seachem at my LFS)

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I've heard that prime is strictly better and that other brands aren't on par. I've seen people say that shrimp (which are more sensitive to harsh metals) will not do well unless you use prime.
But idk, I've only ever used prime because I read it was the best stuff so I just got it since it's like $1 more lol.

ShadowRancher said:

I use AquaSafe, I thought they were similar?

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Jonjey said:

I've heard that prime is strictly better and that other brands aren't on par.

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All dechlorinators contain the same chemical - sodium thiosulfate which is instant acting on chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals. So it doesn't really matter which brand you use, it's the extra additives such as aloe vera, ammonia detoxifier, vitamins and minerals that make up the different formulations. No one brand is better than the other. You just need to follow the instructions on the bottle.

@ShadowRancher - if your axies' gills are affected by water changes it may well be the flow of the water changes or a differences in temperature rather than water quality, or even the disruption caused by the changes. Make sure you reduce current by aiming incomin water into a wall, or adding it slowly using a small jug.

auntiejude said:

All dechlorinators contain the same chemical - sodium thiosulfate which is instant acting on chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals. So it doesn't really matter which brand you use, it's the extra additives such as aloe vera, ammonia detoxifier, vitamins and minerals that make up the different formulations. No one brand is better than the other. You just need to follow the instructions on the bottle.

@ShadowRancher - if your axies' gills are affected by water changes it may well be the flow of the water changes or a differences in temperature rather than water quality, or even the disruption caused by the changes. Make sure you reduce current by aiming incomin water into a wall, or adding it slowly using a small jug.

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Thanks, I thought they were all similar. I try to pour slowly and my larger tank has a baffle that I pour through but I'll try to be more careful this week and see if anything changes. I'll try to fridge some water too, to get the temperatures closer, I live in SC so my cold water out of the tap isn't super cold during the summer. Thanks for the input! I may just be being overly cautious with my new babies.