My goldfish aquarium has become cloudy & smells bad. Can i add a water conditioner while the fish are in it?

Question

This is the 1st time I have own fish. I have 4 gold fish in a 10 gallon aqurium. The aqurium has been set up for 5 days & the fish have been in it for 4days. On the the 3rd day the water has become cloudy and smells bad. If add a chemical to the tank that would clear the water, can the fish be in the aquarium when I do this??? PLEASE HELP!!

Answer 1

Chemicals will not help you. Fixing what is causing the problem in the first place is the only right way to go about solving problems in a fish tank.

What you and your fish need most of all is research and knowledge.

Hop on Google. look at 'aquarium cycling', 'goldfish care' and anything else relating to aquariums. Here are some links that can help you along your journey toward properly keeping fish:

www.badmanstropicalfish.com
www.fishforums.net
www.thekrib.com

The help you need is too much to place in a simple yahoo post. You must take it upon yourself to learn!

In the mean time, do water changes. Every day change 20% of the water, in between reading and learning :-). This well help clear the cloudiness and keep toxins down in the water that are doubtlessly building up. Make sure you are de-chlorinating the new water, make sure you have filtration on the tank - carbon is optional, mechanical and biological filtration is mandatory.

good luck

Answer 2

My personal experience has proven that you need to clean the gravel with a siphon cleaner at least once a week with goldfish. Assuming you have a filter set up for a 10 gal. tank, I would recommend that you purchase a new filter that is for a 20 gal. tank since you have 4 goldies in a 10 gal. Goldfish are very messy, hence the bad smell and cloudiness. I also will use some additional filter fiber that you can purchase at the petstore to add as further mechanical filtration once you do at least a 50% water change with water conditioners added to remove the chlorine that may be present in your water. Goldfish need water changes more often then tropical fish do. I have a 20 gal. with 4 large (more then 6" long) goldfish and I find that this is the best management for them. I would get the cloudiness and smell all the time before hand. Just adding a chemical will not solve the problem, you just need better mechanical filtration of their water. Do it religiously and they will gain is size quickly and healthily! Mine are only 1 1/2 years old! Good Luck!!

Answer 3

First off you did not cycle your tank. Your tank cannot just be filled with water and dump fish in. Some, yes will survive but the bacteria has not yet established. 4 goldfish is pushing the limits of your tank depending on kind and size. Chances are you didn't clean the gravel well enough. NO CHEMICALS PLEASE! what you need to do is another water change. Since goldfish are pretty hearty, you may get away with it. Remve 25% of your tanks water. USING a gravel syphon. (Which you should have anyway) The primary cause of bad water in a new tank is bad initial cleaning. Most people think I bought a bag of gravel and dumped it in. These rocks are processed with machinery, large loaders dumping gravel into a hopper sorting into bags. There are oil and dust residues which will turn your tank funky as well as creat undesireable brown bubbles or foam. Too late for that now. What you need to do, use a spatula or at this point your hand and rinse the rocks off by shuffeling them around, mixing trying to get all the debris off of them. Keep your filter running. do a 25% water change for 3 days. If your filter is set up for your tank your water will clear. Your bacteria will be a while, but as I 've stated goldfish are hearty and should be ok.

The smell is from debris organic mostly (i.e. seeds, pollen mold etc at the plant that has mixed with the gravel decaying quickly in the tank) These plants also process fertalizer. just a note there.

Good luck.

Answer 4

They need a filter with charcoal, please put some water conditioner in a bucket of water and get the fish into it. The water should be the same temperature as the fish tank water. Next, siphon out all of the bad water, it is filled with ammonia and will kill the fish in short order. Next, you get an undergravel filter or a filter over the edge of the tank with charcoal. Follow the directions and you should be fine. It takes a while for the good bacteria to get in there to eat the waste of the fish, so once you have an established aquarium you only do partial water changes. Please go get a book from the library or read online, and learn how to properly care for your goldfish, and you will be rewarded by happy and healthy fish! Do not over feed, and siphon off any uneaten food after 30 minutes. You'll get the hang of how much they require if you care and pay attention to their needs. All fish need filters! Goldfish are great that they don't usually require heaters.

Answer 5

Your tank is cloudy and smells bad because your filter (if you even have one) isn't powerful to clean up after 4 goldfish. Your tank is also too small for 4 goldfish, as they can reach very large sizes. You need a better filter and a bigger tank, and in the meantime, do a partial water change, making sure to only add water that is the correct temperature and is dechlorinated.

Answer 6

When dealing with fish there are many different factors to consider when cleaning a tank. First off you should try and get some type of scavenger fish to help keep the tank clean , secondly all tanks have to cycle themselves and this means the water will get cloudy and smell, but will eventually go back clean when you get the scavenger fish in there to help keep it clean. You must make sure that the amonia doesn't get to high though because your fish will croak!! You can get test strips at your local pet store to check the water. If the amonia is too high you should consider getting rid of a few fish! I hope this helps.

Answer 7

Rather than adding chemicals please consider improving your filtration of the tank water. There are alot of pumps out there right now that come with charcoal filters that not only clean the water but take out the smell without hurting your fish. Also take it easy with the fish food. to much will cloud things up in a hurry.

Answer 8

you really should get a bigger tank.