Keeping tank clean and clear?

Question

Black Moor goldfish in a 10 gll tank. I am having to do water changes once a week because the water keeps turning green and cloudy on me. It last about 3-4 days clear and then overnight it seem, it turns green and cloudy with an foul smell. I have tried changing filter, cleaning gravel, cleaning tank, starting from scratch, and just simple doing water changes. This tank is fairly new, since easter this yr. It was doing pretty well until 2 wks ago there was a lot of slime, water turned reall y green and my fish began to bleed underneath their mouth and got ick. I since then treated them and was able to save one, the female. Unfortunately, the male died. I want to do all that I can to avoid the same thing happening to the one who survived. I need help because I am so lost. I have used the tank buddies for algea but it's not working...any suggestions???

The tank is not indirect sunlight. I only NOW have 1 black moor as the other one died. I do 25% water changes after I restarted the cycling due to slime and infected tank. I have cleaned out the plants and I dont have gravel I have smooth water rocks at the bottom as these fish is a bottom feeder and likes to rub on the decor. I guess the only thing I have not done is the uv that I am being told about. Where do I get that at and how do I use it? is it safe? Someone else suggested adding daphnia to my tank to help me out with algae, what is that? One last thing, how do I know when my tank stopped cycling and I now have a healthy tank??Or do I forever have to do 25% water changes once a week? I use store bought bottle water because dont want use tap water, is this wrong?

Answer 1

This is due to algae in the water. A few things can cause excess algae. The first thing is direct sunlight on the tank. Make sure your aquarium is positioned where this can’t occur.The next thing is excess nutrients. I suggest you have 1” of fish per 1 gallon of water. For example, a 10-gallon tank should only have 10 fish that are 1” each. More than this will elevate ammonia and nitrite levels. As a result, the algae will have plenty to feed on.To solve the problem of green water, do a 50% water change. Scrub down the insides of the glass (but please…no soap!). Remove any artificial plants and ornaments, and pour boiling water over them. Wait one whole day, then do a 25% water change. Cut back on your feeding. Your fish should eat all the food in 2 minutes or less.This should help get your tank in good shape. You may also buy a uv-clarifier; this will take care of the algae in no time.

Answer 2

Depending on what you used to treat your fish, specifically if any of the medications was an antibiotic, you may have destroyed the beneficial bacteria in the tank. That, and cleaning the gravel will account for the smell and cloudiness. You're getting ammonia buildup, which is causing the smell, and your tank is begining to cycle again, which is the reason for the cloudiness of the water. If you continue to try and clean the gravel and filter, the cloudiness will only continue.

When you clean, use a gravel vacuum and siphon up anything on the surface, but only clean about 1/4-1/3 of the gravel very deeply at any time. Rotate the sections each cleaning. This will let the bacteria in the rest of the tank reproduce and repopulate the gravel you just cleaned. Remove about 25% of the water each week (and cleaning should be done at least weekly) and replace it with new water that's about the same temperature with something added to take out any chlorine/chloramine.

As far as the green - if an algicide isn't working, it may be cyanobacteria if it's something covering the gravel, glass, ornaments, etc - see photo: http://www.aquamax.de/Shop/Artikelbilder/Zusatzbilder/Algen%20im%20Aquarium_Blaualgen%20-%20Cyanobacteria_STUG_cyano1.jpg . If it's the water that's green, it's a free-floating algae. You can control both to some degree by turning off the lights (it makes it's own food using photosynthesis) and doing more frequent water changes to remove the nutrients from the water it feeds on. See the linnks below for more information on these.

Answer 3

When you say you have used the tank buddies for algae - are you talking about plescostimus (algae eaters). Look you started the new tank up a few weeks ago. And, when it is a new tank, a lot of biological changes fight to reach a equilibrium. Get a bottle of algae killer appropriate for fish tanks. Follow the instructions to the letter. At the same time, it would help to pour some biological starter into the tank to get the nitrates and nitrites out of the water. After a while the starter (full of good little bacteria) will clear the water up. You won't have to clean the whole tank every week that way. Just vacuum once a week, remove about 10 to 20 percent of the water, replace with fresh water which has been given a chlorine remover solution. Change of the filter once a month. If you are finding it needs cleaning every week - it is too small. And, last of all, don't overload the tank with lots of fish. The smaller the tank the smaller the load. One inch of fish for one gallon of water is a good load to go with, after the first month is over. There are great pet stores who should be able to help you a lot about starting up an aquariam. Find a good book on how to keep fish too. Hope you have better luck soon.

Answer 4

Is just the water turning green? Or is there like a black slime? Sounds like from what you've described so far, it may be cyanobacteria-not really algae. Stay away from those algae removal products, they never work lol. Plus, if this is what you have, you'll need an antibiotic to get rid of it. Here's a link that describes it more for you to compare to what you have, and also treatments for it:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/algae/p/algaesmear.htm

You don't ever want to completely break down the tank and start from scratch. There's beneficial bacteria growing in the tank, and doing that will kill it all off causing the tank to cycle over again=stressed or dead fish. Don't add anymore fish to your tank, that's the bare minimum tank size for a goldfish, really should be larger like a 20 gallon. Keep up with the water changes, and you'll get through this! Good luck!

Answer 5

oh great if you broke down your tank youll going to have to start the new tank syndrome all over again its when you set up a new tank alawys the water will always get clouwdy and nasty but you must leave it alone no water changes for the first 6 weeks and only cheep fish because this is hard on them it stresses them out never do more than a 25 percent change and vaccume about every two weeks or so i use the sinking pellets every 2 or 3 days before i feedmy fish and there fine also hopefull its not next to a window its starting to get hot can cause the algey or have you just had the light on too much since its getting hot i barrly use mine much any more

Answer 6

What you need to do is go to Petsmart and get a Nitrate kit with test stripes. You need to condition your water. You need to check the nitrate levels in your tank. With an aquarium it's like an ecoystem, you to need to balance the ecosystem by keeping the nitrate levels down. (Get Easy Balance tetra Aqua w/ Nitraban reduction granules.) Check the cholorine levels. You can use Aqua safe water conditioner that keeps tap water safe for fish, but there are to many chemicals in tap water, it is better to only fill your tank up with water from a hose outside. Also, get an Algae eater fish ("Bottom dweller"), it will drastically reduce algae by eating up all the algae. Also, get a filter that filters out your water (hangs on back of tank-about $24.00 at petsmart.) Introduce new fish slowly. No more than two of each. For 10 galloon no more than 4-5 fish. Also, when you clean out tank, always keep some of the old water in the tank as you add fresh water, this will help to keep the ecosystem balanced. :)

Answer 7

Do you know how to properly start a fish tank? There is a process called "cycling a tank" that takes weeks. It takes a tank a few weeks to finally stabilize its bacterial colony. If you just search "cycling fish tank" you'll find tons of links. Here's one:
http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/article2.php?PHPSESSID=1697c45e935ab9312a2797bda87e9e78

You need to do this first before starting any successful tank.

Anyway, here is an article on cloudy fish tanks:
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cloudywater.php

The key to having a successful fish community is to do lots of research on your fish and general tank care! Good luck!

Remember the golden rule too... 1 inch of fish = 1 gallon of water. So your goldfish's adult size is 4 inches. He'll need 4 gallons of water AT LEAST all to himself! Having a 10 gallon tank, you also need to consider the gravel and plants and decorations... that takes up space.

Answer 8

do you overfeed your fish if yes, i think this is the problem..
also i think 10 gal tank is very small for 2 gold fish,
do you put the tank near the window, sometimes when there is very much light the alleges grows fast..