why does my fish tank get so dirty so quickly?

Question

i clean my fish tank out really good, but the next day it turns a yellowish brown color! i have 2 decorations, a silk plant and a plasticy barell thing. when i wash the bowl I take the gravel out and put it in a bowl of close to boiling water and let it sit untill it cools down a little then i do the same thing with the toys (w/e there called). so it looks really nice when it's all done....after that i feed the fish a pinch of the food stuff and then in the morning it's that nasty gross color!! idk what 2 do!! it's really gross and i think it's making my goldiey sick! uhhmm it's a 2 gallon tank and i clean it once a week, i have a filter in the tank, and it's not in the sun.......my sister and i got fish from the same place and she had 3 fish and i had 2! 2 of hers died (her tank was doing the same thing) and 1 of mine just passed a week ago! so yeah i don't know waht to do! i think its the fish but idk what to do if it is?? k well thanks for the help!

thanks soooooo much!! ♥

i don't have any tank lights! but thanks!

yeah the plant isn't real so i don't think it's doing any thing!thanx!♥

Answer 1

First, goldfish produce huge quantities of waste. As such, they can foul water very, very quickly. Bad water creates a toxic environment. A toxic environment kills fish. That is why the rule for keeping goldfish is 10 gallons of water PER fish. Not even one goldfish should be kept in a 2 gallon aquarium, let alone five. Next, you should not boil the gravel or any of the items in the tank and clean it that well. It may look nice to us humans, but it is the worst thing you can do for the health of goldfish. There are a lot of very important beneficial bacteria that live in the gravel and on the "toys" which the goldfish need to survive and be healthy. Boiling the gravel kills that bacteria. You should never do anything to the gravel but siphon out the detritus. Don't disturb the gravel anymore than absolutely necessary. Also, never thoroughly clean the filter or toys. All you need to do is to rinse it out in the old water that you remove from the tank. Never rinse it in new, clean tap water. Beneficial bacteria live in the filter too. The water turns bad so fast because it has nothing in it to keep it healthy. If the "toys" get algae, you can scrub that off with a dedicated toothbrush with some of the old water. Dedicated cleaning tools mean that your sponge, your toothbrush, your scrubber, your scraper are only used for the aquarium and that you never use them for any other thing. You also need to remove all uneaten food that remains after five minutes. These are some of the reasons that your goldfish are dying. They will all die if you do not get them a larger aquarium. For the remaining 2 fish, you need a 20 gallon aquarium and you need to get one as soon as possible. If you cannot afford one, one of those 20 gallon plastic storage containers will work until you can afford to get a proper size aquarium. Until you learn how to cycle water and do proper water changes, you cannot use tap water. There is too much involved in getting that water cycled so that it is in proper condition for the goldfish. You must use spring water, not distilled water, but spring water, to put in your aquarium. You also need to get some Stress-Coat and some Bio-Spora. Stress-Coat just helps relieve some of the stress the fish will get with the water changes and the Bio-Spora is some of that beneficial bacteria that I was talking about. It has to be kept in refrigerators, so it won't be on the shelves at pet stores. You have to ask for it. You have to keep it in your refrigerator at home too. As you will read, water changes for a proper size tank should be done once a week only removing about 25% of the old water. But, for now, for a 2 gallon aquarium, half (50%) of the water needs to be changed EVERY day and remove the detritus from the bottom of the gravel. You can use a turkey baster to do this. Do not clean the gravel other than this. Please do some research on goldfish keeping so that you can keep your goldies happy and healthy. Good luck!

Answer 2

It is possible to keep a tank to clean. The reason your water is getting cloudy and has a color is a bacterial bloom. DO NOT WORRY THIS IS ACTUALLY A GOOD THING.

Gold Fish are notorious for being Dirty Fish, but you DO NOT want to clean decorations and gravel to a sterle state because the bacteria growing on them actually helps keep the water clean

Try the following for a Month an I am sure your problem will stop

1. Change half of the water 2 times every week (make sure to treat the new water so there is no chlorine in it)

2.Only change the filter media when it needs it - cartridges = read the package to find the recommended change times. Box Filters = change the filter floss when it is dirty and change the carbon once a month or when there is an obvious Oder.

3. vacuum the gravel - DO NOT TAKE IT OUT OF THE TANK!!!!
DO NOT BOIL IT!!! You can get a gravel vac at the pet store for under 10 dollars.

4. make sure you are not overfeeding. no more food than your fish can eat in 3 minutes, twice a day.

Answer 3

gold fish are nasty by nature . i dont know why , but ive had several kinds of fish and its my opinion that it could just be the fact that you have gold fish . maybe the type of food is your problem too . i only use tetramin flakes ,and omega sinking shrimp pillets for my bottom dwellers , some fish foods will cloud your water no matter how offten you fed them . have you just set your tank up ? if so it takes a little while for your filters to build up the right amount of good bateria to kill the bad .you can buy live bacteria to speed this process . bad water quality will make the tank appear dirty to. how big is your tank , and how many fish do you have in it ? a 30 gallon tank should have no more than 3 to 4 gold fish . theres simpley not enouph room for them to stay healthy , and the waste they produes is to much for the size of the tank . you can buy a test kit to be sure your water is good , some times it just appears dirty , because of minerals and sediment but usually your filters will clean it up in a day after thier astablished with thier bacteria . partial water changes once a month is also helpful . i think if i where you id star small , change the food and se if that helps . ive had this problem myself , and thats why im a firm believer in TetraMin . my water never clouds , my fish are bright and healthy . good luck figureing it out , i hoped i helped .

Answer 4

First, a two gallon tank is only big enough for one baby fish, maybe an inch long including the tail, like a guppy or a baby beta. Petco's 10 gallon tanks are 10 bucks. You need to be thinking about creating a little self sustaining biotope here.The source of your problem is way too many fish for that tiny tank.

Venice Girl is right about the gravel. Your tank has to go through a cycle to develop nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. She knows what she's talking about, but I think it is distilled water you are supposed to get, so you need to find out the right answer.
You can also buy reverse osmosis / deionized water from grocery stores like krogers- in bulk, and its a lot cheaper.
Do not put methylene blue in your tank- That is an extreme medication, and it will kill the bacteria in your tank, and maybe the fish too, It's a medicine you use only if you have to because its worse than the disease. Oh.. and most of the time, the people they hire at the pet stores only clean the tanks. They don't know much.
Tom4bucks said to leave the tap water out and uncapped for 24 hours and thats right, the chlorine leaves the water, but you may have phosphates in the water which will cause an algal bloom.
You can take a sample of water in a clean container to your fish store and have them test for phosphates to see if you can just use the tap water. They can also test for ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Petco or petsmart probably isn't going to do this. You'll have to find a saltwater fish store probably.

There is nothing in the filter that adds oxygen except that it breaks the surface of the water as it falls. If the filter gets too dirty it puts nitrates back in the tank, so rinse it out with non chlorinated water if you cant change it.

The brown stuff is call dinoflagellates and/or diatoms, and every tank has a "bloom" of brown algae before the good bacteria can colonize.
Fish poop and uneaten food turn to ammonia, then bacteria process it and turn it into Nitrites, and then the another type of bacteria turn it into Nitrates.
These types of bacteria need oxygen, but another type, denitrifying bacteria - convert nitrates into nitrogen gas and return it to the air. This type needs dark and cant have oxygen. Thats why you should only vacuum the top of gravel. The bacteria will grow naturally, but the packages in the store will boost it a little.

The only way to export waste from the tank is by changing the water, or by putting live plants in the water. They will absorb some of the ammonia. As the plants grow, you can give them to friends or sell them.
You should pick up a light - even it its only 9 -20 watts, but the color of the light needs to have at least 5100 - 6400 kelvin rating. (the color of light at sea level) Usually lights for your house don't have that rating - they just tell you its warm or cool.. Those type of lights - even the ones that say natural light only go up to about 4000 kelvin.
Anyway, they whole point of this diatribe is to get you to buy a light and put a bunch of plants in your tank. Underwater plants love ammonia, like land plants love carbon dioxide.
if you cant afford a light, put your tank where it can get some sun in the day, the plants need it. - only after you get some plants..Planted tanks are really much prettier anyway. Do a search, some are awesome!

Oxygen will help with the ugly bloom,and help your fish breath easier- so you can run a bubbler if you have one.

The brown algae (diatoms) wont hurt your fish if it doesn't get too bad. Red algae or blue green algae (cyano bacteria), or algae with bubbles (looks like snotty stuff) will hurt them, as will ammonia and nitrites, but nitrates are not dangerous but they are a good for measuring how clean your tank is or whats going on with it.

Running your water through carbon will make your water white and clear, and I believe they make a freshwater mixture with some white clay particles that absorbs some ammonia, but remember, you need to cultivate your own bacteria, so don't clean it all out. The bacteria need something to eat to grow, and at the same time, not kill the fish.

A good ammonia test is a must, and a nitrate test next. Don't get the dip sticks or the little plastic tank hanger with the color changer. Go to the site below and find out how many inches of fish per gallon you should have in your tank. I have a saltwater tank and in a 40 gallons of water, I only have 3 fish, 5 inches in total. anyway, it takes a few months but will get better and better.

Answer 5

Even though you have a filter, that only does a "SMALL" part of the job. Goldfishes easily dirty their fish tanks. In addition, you have a plant in your fish tank. What I would suggest is to clean your fish tank once in 3 days. You don't need to put all the things in boiling water. Don't change "ALL" of the water, change only half of the water, since fishes can't adapt that fast. Wipe the screen of the fish tank, cause algae might stick sometimes. You don't need an aquatic plant since a filter usually comes with oxygen inducers. Lastly, you can put some methylene blue on the water in case your fishes are sick, it helps them recover.

Answer 6

That is ammonia in the water. It is toxic to the fish, that is why most died already. Goldfish need 10-20 gallons per fish because of all the toxins they release. No amount of live plants is going to help in this tank. You need to get a test kit for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Then look online for articles aboout cycling a tank. Cleaning everything is just going to make it worse also because you kill all the beneficial bacteria. Get a bigger tank and a test kit as soon as you can. Its situations like this that make me wish the poor fish would die sooner. Each time you see ammonia built up in the water I can guarentee the fish is being chemically burned inside and out.

Answer 7

try preparing your tap water - get a couple or three plastic gallon jugs - get all the soap out of them if they are old milk containers

and put your water in them for at least 24 hours before putting it in your aquarium - that should let the contents settle down - and do not not cap the bottles - that will allow the chlorine to 'breathe' out

are you using the correct filter for the tank? is it working properly?

have you asked the sales person who sells the fish in your area - they may know a trick about your water

tank lights? - only turn them on the same number of hours the sun is out - never let them stay on 24/7

water temperature - is the water too warm - do you have a heater?

the barrel should not be a problem - you may want to try taking the silk plant out - I am assuming that it is not a living plant

best of luck

Answer 8

A fish's stomach is the size of it's eye (one) over feeding is usually the problem, feed only enough for them to eat in a couple minutes!
If you have an under gravel filter you shouldn't be removing the gravel, as it needs to build up a beneficial bacteria that helps to brake down organic waste.

Answer 9

plant more original plants.
if you are able put a sucker fish in it.
don't clean ur tank once a week or every day it is not good for fish.
clean it once a month.
if u keep it in a place without sunlightit will not become so dirty.
don't put excess food also.
i think this will help u.

Answer 10

goldfish are messy. you don't have to go throught he whole boiling thing -- just try changing the wate more often. i have 2 in 5 gallons and clean them every 4 or 5 days. if you are feeding flake food i suggest switching to pellets. they are less messy.