How can I keep my fish tank clean?

Question

I've constantly cleaned the tank and it keeps getting dirty really fast.

I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 fish and one algea eater. It was wash[water changed, filters cleaned every other day or so] less than a week ago and its really foggy, almost to where if theres no light you can barely see the fish.

its has a double filter, filter system. ie:4 filters.
18 inch air bar.
one castle, a bridge a tiny seahorse statue, a plant thing... and a rocks at the bottom.

Answer 1

Do you have a filter, and that might meen you are putting too much food in and the fish don't finish it and then it makes your tank dirty, try getting an algae feedind fish suck as catfish plecostomas, not sure on that spelling.

Answer 2

The people saying to get an algae eater have no idea what they are talking about. What is causing your murkiness is fish wastes and probably the beginnings of a bacterial bloom. Has nothing to do with algae. It is mainly because there is just not enough water to dilute the waste and allow a normal bacteria cycle to occur w/o likely killing the fish. Like some others say you really need a larger tank and to separate these fish. They are not very compatible, as the dragon fish (violet goby?) needs brackish water. Edit: As far as keeping it clean in the mean time- I do have an idea, but it isn't too eye-pleasing. You will need 2 buckets, and 2 (equal) lengths of air line tubing to creat a trickle-down siphon system. Fill a bucket with (dechlorinated) water and using a shelf/stack of books/whatever you have, place it a set distance above the tank. Place your other bucket (the larger, the better for the bottom) an equal distance below the tank. Take 1 length of tubing and secure it in your tank- be sure that you keep it in the top inch or two so that it can't overdrain your tank and leave your fish to dry. This will siphon water from the tank to the empty bucket Take your other length of tubing and secure one end (rubberband+rock works) at the bottom of your upper bucket and the other end at the bottom of your tank. The siphon should start automically as the water flows with gravity, but if not a steep slope you may have to full the tubing by fully submerging it. The tubing is small enough that it will take quite a long while and should not shock your fish as the water turnover occurs. This will allow 1 total water turnover of fresh water to slowly occur throughout the day and will dilute wastes and pollutants as a larger tank would. Just dupm out the bottom bucket of waste water and fill the top one whenever needed.

Answer 3

5 fish total in a 55 gallong tank are not over-populating the tank. You probably are going thru the "new tank syndrome". This means that the beneficial bacteria are not there yet in great numbers. Give it time, and they will grow in numbers.
Do weekly 25% (1/4 of the water volume in tank) water changes.
Don't overfeed, so uneaten food will not collect on the bottom of the tank and rot.
Don't add any more new fish to the tank until all is clear and running smoothly.
While washing/rinsing out the filter floss, use some of the aquarium water instead of fresh water from the tap. You don't want to rinse away beneficial bacteria.
Good luck.

Answer 4

LET IT ALONE you are killing the benifical bacteria the cloudy water is caused by a bacterial bloom it will clear up on its own in about a week the bacteria are a good thing they help get rid of fish waste & left over food u can get bacterial booster at pet shops to help establish the needed bacteria faster only change 20% of the water about once every 2 wks. watch your ph, hardness & nitrate level & you should'nt have to break the tank down more than 1 time a yr. then save about a cup of that nasty filter goop to put back in the clean tank for the needed bacteria

Answer 5

You will get more helpful answers if you add some detail.

How fast is really fast? Home aquariums generally need water maintenance weekly. What size tank is it and how many and what types of fish do you have in it? Overstocking makes it very hard to keep your water clean. What kind of filtration and light does your tank get? Filtering too little and lighting too much both contribute to cloudy water and algae.

Answer 6

Stop cleaning your tank!!!! You're only prolonging the problem.

As odd as this may sound, you're cleaning your tank too well, and that is causing it to stay cloudy. The cloudiness is the result of excess food and fish wastes (poop). These are normally broken down by bacteria, but in new (and overly cleaned) tanks, there are no bacteria, there fore the tank stays cloudy. This is referred to as "New Tank Syndrome". Here's a more detailed explanation:

http://www.totallyfish.com/tips/newtank.html

ADDITION: Here's another site I found for you:

http://www.fishlore.com/CloudyWater.htm

Answer 7

Is your tank over populated? The general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. Otherwise do you have any "cleaner" fish? Plecostamus, algae eaters...??? What do you mean by cleaning? You chould do a 25% water change ever other week AT LEAST-most say more but it can be a lot of work. Also certain fish (goldfish esp.) are very dirty.

Answer 8

i think the problem is you are constantly sweating it -- just get some stress zyme or cycle and dump it in the tank. it will help grow beneficial bacteria that will eat the bacteria that make your water cloudy.

you might want to try different food too -- food makes a big difference. any leftover food is a feast for bacteria. i like pellets but they are hard in a community tank. its a lot easier to count out pellets than feed flakes of random sizes though. its too easy to overfeed with flakes. if you think your fish would share pellets try hikari -- they make little tiny pellets for community tanks -- i think they call them "micro" -- the betta sized ones are "baby" and the goldfish sized ones are "mini". i don't want to know what eats large.

just do a gravel vacuum and change about 20 - 25 % of the water every week and dump in stress zyme or cycle and get some melafix and dump that in too for good measure. when i put melafix in with my bettas they love it.

i think you just need to get the bad bacteria out and the good bacteria in -- bad bacteria clouds the water and smells. and if you keep changing ithe water the good bacteria doesn't have a chance to grow.

Answer 9

I would only clean the filter once a month and weekly 10 percent water changes. Is there any think inthere thats not ment for aquariums? you could use bottled water for water changes if your tap water is bad.

Answer 10

Try and get a Filter or a bottom feeder fish for algae on the wall try and get an algae magnet there pretty cool to use u could find them at your local pet store i bet :|