Stressful tanks?

Question

My tank is fairly new, but lately I have had it! I mean, the ammonia is high, the water is cloudy, etc etc. I do partial water changes nearly everyday, I added Clear Water formula stuff, I've vacuumed my gravel, I'm doing it all right but it isn't working! I love my tank, but it drives me nuts!

Can you share your stories about when you had times like this (and hopefully had good endings) =)

Answer 1

Alright your tank is cycling, you have to be patient you may lose some fish. This is the symptoms of New Tank Syndrom,

tank is cloudy (Bacteria bloom trying to handle the ammonia)
tank smells (fish poop gives odor not enough bacteria to kill that)
ammonia is high (not enough bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrites, then into nitrates)

Don't do daily water changes you're only slowing down the process, just wait until the ammonia settles down and then do a 25% water change, and it should be easy from then on.

http://www.fishlesscycling.com/articles.html

Read up on fishlesscycling, which will save you some fishes. Remember the first 2 months are always a pain keep patient. Don't use chemicals theyw ill further stress your fish and may crash your tank again.

Answer 2

I'm having the same problem right now and I was almost ready to drain the whole tank three days ago and move my fish to a different tank. At first I was changing about 20% of the water every three days, but I got really frustrated because it wasn't making a deference at all, you could cut the water with a knife. For the past three days (every day) I've changed 50% of the water, it is looking sooooo much better already. Hopefully I will only have to do the for a few more days.
Good luck.

Answer 3

I had this happen to me once. I tried everything and nothing worked, so i just emptied my tank and started over. You didn't mention the size of your tank. I have a 30 gallon, so it wasn't that big of a deal to just empty it out. if you have a pet store nearby, call them to see if they do free water checks. You just take a little bit of water to them, and they can tell you exactly what the problem is, and what to use to try to clear up the problem. Most of the time that works, just not for me :-) The good news is that i've had fish tanks for 25 years, and have only had this happen once! A good balance of fish is very important too. A pet store can tell you which fish are beneficial to have in your tank. Good luck to you. You'll get it right, takes a little practice :-)

Answer 4

It's possible that you are doing water changes too often and not allowing the beneficial bacteria to establish itself so it can convert the ammonia into nitrites for you. This cultivating of good bacteria is known as cycling your tank. Once enough bacteria has been established to convert all the ammonia produced by your fish into nitrites, a second type of bacteria will grow to convert nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates are only harmful to your fish in large amounts like 30 ppm, so you will have to clean much less.