Fresh Water Aquariums

[juan ruiz]

About 3 months ago I got a 16 Gallon Aquarium for one of my boys, so far all the fish seem to be doing fine, however I can keep the water clear for more than 3-4 days. I have made numerous visits to the store to get advice but so far nothing, I have purchase everything they have requested but nothing seems to help, I enjoy the aquarium but this dirty water is driving me nuts.

any experts on how to keep this damn water clean for more than a few days?

[cstreit]

Can you describe the water?

Green algae, brown algae, white cloudiness?

What type of fish, how many, and what size are they?

How often are you changing the water and how much?

What lighting do you have? Is the aquarium by the window?

What type and size of filter?


that should help narrow down the problem.

[masraum]

Yeah, lots of stuff goes into maintaining a freshwater aquarium. It's a balancing act, and is easy to get off balance. What food and how much are the fish getting fed? When I was younger, we had 3 ten gallon tanks.

Got a picture of the setup?

[juan ruiz]

OK I will try my best

Can you describe the water?

Best way to describe is" cloudy" or "Haze

Green algae, brown algae, white cloudiness?

I see brown spots on the rocks and plants even after I wash them very good within a week they are back I also see this White cloudiness you mention

What type of fish, how many, and what size are they?

I have no idea of the names as they were giving to my boy, I will have to take a picture and post that, size wise almost all of them are smaller that my Pinsky,one a large about 3" all I know about him is that we have to feed him "Blood Warms" I think total they're 10

How often are you changing the water and how much?

Seems like I'm changing the water every Sunday, I buy the drinking water bottles, I have try half and half, 3/4, all of it when I did half and half the water was nice for about 3 days after that the cloudiness appears

What lighting do you have? Is the aquarium by the window?

I have the light that came with the tank which is located on the top, the tank is not by the window.

What type and size of filter?

The filter is what came with the unit, here is a link to the same tank I have

Aqueon 16 Gallon Deluxe Bow Front Aquarium Kit - Aquarium Kits - Aquariums - PetSmart

[cstreit]

10 3" fish is too much load on a 16 gallon tank for starters. So your phosphate and ammonia levels are probably high. You can buy a test kit from the pet store. I have a total of 14" of fish in a 35 gallon, wouldn't go much higher. You have 30" of fish in a 16 gallon.

Additionally most store-bought tanks and lights do not contain enough light. Brown algae is a sign of not enough light in the tank. Fortunately it is easier to clean than green alage which comes with too much light (like sunlight in tanks near windows). What type of light/bulb is it?

What sort of filter is in your filter? Go a picture?

You should be doing about a 25% water change once per week. Are you vacuuming the gravel with every water change?

Basically cloudy water and algae are signs of poor water quality which I suspect is a combination of too many fish, not enough proper light, and possibly poor or substandard filtration. I'd take the time to resolve because otherwise you'll fight this forever.

[masraum]

You do realize that you have to test the water, and you may need to put various chemicals/conditioners in the water afterwards, right? That stuff helps keep the water clean longer. And, as stated, you need an adequate pump filter.

[juan ruiz]

Just to clarify theres one 1 big "3" fish the rest are fairly small, I do realize that you have to check the water which I do with the sticks, the main problem is that no matter how much chemical I use I still have the problem, usually I clean the filter every day, maybe too much food? we do it twice a day?

[masraum]

Some fish are fine with a bunch of tap water in a bowl, like gold fish or betas, but most fish, or if you have a larger aquarium, you have to keep the water chemistry balanced, pH, chlorine, temperature, etc....

[vash]

basic rule to follow. roughly one inch of fish per gallon. you can bump it up depending on your filter system.

if you are getting a cloudy water condition, i would say it is an 80% chance that you guys are overfeeding. kids LOVE to feed fish. feed just enough so that they can gobble it all up in a minute. basically, you are overloading your filter system. been awhile, so i cannot explain the nitrogen cycle anymore. i feed my fish when i remember...sometimes every 3 days.

i have a 20 gallon tank. i have two fish in it, and mostly live plants.

[vash]

from my experience..tap water is (sometimes) ok. the danger comes when the chlorine in the water kills the benificial bacteria in your biological filter system, and the waste builds up fast.

do small water changes often, rather than huge changes everyonce in a long while. reading some more...algae is a PITA. you can get an algea eating fish, which would help. NO SNAILS! the best way to control algae is to use live plants. you will need to buy a bulb with a spectrum made for plants. then leave the light on for at least 8 hours a day. i like hardy plants like NUBIUS and JAVA fern. both plants grow better if you jam them into a crack on some driftwood...they both grow very slow, so they are mildly expensive in stores. amazon swords, and other cheap plants dont do that well, not in my experience. plants pull valuable nutrients out of the water and starve the algea. one of my 2 fish is an albino plecotomus. i have so little algea, i have to supplement his diet with a commercial food, and sliced zuchini.

[juan ruiz]

OK I will start with the amount of food to see if we see some improvement

[Nathans_Dad]

I have a 29 gallon freshwater setup.

I would agree about the food. It is very easy to overfeed fish. If you do the food will just sit on the bottom and foul the water, which is what it sounds like is happening. Feed only enough food so that the fish eat it all within a minute or two. Remember that fish have to scrounge for food in the wild so it is ok for them to not be stuffed with food all the time.

A rule of thumb is one inch of fish per gallon of water. So a 16 gallon tank should have no more than 16 inches of fish. If you have 10 fish and one of them is 3 inches long, I would bet you are bumping up against the max load for your tank.

Water changes should be about 20% or so of the total volume every week. Sometimes I will do a 30% change but not more than that or you risk stressing the fish.

Always overfilter your tank. I have a 29 gallon setup but the filter I have is rated for a 50 gallon tank. This will allow you to slightly overstock the tank while not overloading your filter.

I would advise cutting the food down, do several 20% water changes over the course of a week or so and maybe pick a few fish to get rid of. If you don't have any catfish in there, I would consider swapping out for a couple catfish, they will help eat any extra food that makes it to the gravel.

Good luck!

[jcunning]

To help with water quality I use a product called algone. I've been using it for years and it helps keep water quality high even when slightly overstocked.
Algone.com - The Aquarium Water Clarifier & Nitrate Remover

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by cstreit

What sort of filter is in your filter? Go a picture?

I looked at the companie's website. The filter is one that sits at the top/rear of the tank. We were never able to get one of those to keep the water clear. I haven't had fish for 30 years, but we always had our best results with the underground filter systems.

I definitely think you are putting too much food into the water. Read the container and only put in what they need.

[slodave]

I think one thing that is missing here, is that the tank needs to cycle properly. I had a white/cloudy issue years ago, I would panic and change the water, only to have it cloud up again. Turns out the good bacteria had not proliferated, hence the white/cloudy water. I went easy in the food, stopped with the constant water changes and the water cleared up on its own.

[red-beard]

Here are the type

[Hugh R]

I have a 50 gallon tank with an 8" leopard Pleco and about 30 tetras of various and red platys. I get a little green algae on the plexiglas, the fish lights are on about 16 hours per day, no direct sunlight. It says you have a power filter. Fill the biobag completely with activated charcoal not just one of those little bags of charcoal they give you. Rinse the bag with the charcoal thoroughly before use. Rinse weekly, change every two weeks for such a small tank. I also have an under gravel system with two power heads that pull water through the gravel up a tube to the powerheads and also pulls air into the water in the powerhead. Depending on how hard your water is, tap water is fine but not downstream of a softener. Use the nitrogen/chlorine knockout chemical before adding the water. Make sure the water is room temperature. Change at least 20% of the water per month. Buy and use a gravel vacuum, it's a siphon and you use it when changing the water.

[slodave]

Bacterial Blossom - Often cloudy water doesn't appear the instant an aquarium is set up. Instead it appears days, weeks, or even months later. In these cases the cause is usually due to bacterial bloom. As the new aquarium goes through the initial break in cycle, it is not unusual for the water to become cloudy, or at least a little hazy. It will take several weeks to several months to establish bacterial colonies that are able to clear wastes from the water. Over time that cloudiness will resolve itself.

Decaying plants or excess food that remains uneaten can also cause the milky water seen in bacterial bloom. Regardless of the cause, don't panic over bacterial blooms. Keeping the aquarium very clean by removing debris such as decaying plants and uneaten food, vacuuming the gravel regularly, and performing partial water changes, will quickly resolve most cases of bacterial bloom. Cut back feeding to every second or third day, which will cut down on excess food decay.

Taken from about.com...

[elwood-914]

Originally Posted by slodave

I think one thing that is missing here, is that the tank needs to cycle properly. I had a white/cloudy issue years ago, I would panic and change the water, only to have it cloud up again. Turns out the good bacteria had not proliferated, hence the white/cloudy water. I went easy in the food, stopped with the constant water changes and the water cleared up on its own.

I used to have about 7 tanks in my house........yeah what he said......you have to have bacteria to start a cycle. Changing too much water and cleaning the filter will put you at square one again. I used to clean the filter every other water change. Sometimes I would put gravel from an existing tank and put it in a nylon sack and introduce the bacteria to the new tank. Do not over load the new tank with fish, start slow.

[Rusty Heap]

1) cut back on feeding, you have too many nutrients in your water, sounds like your tank is established and the full nitrogen cycle is completed (only takes a couple weeks to a month)

2) Add more carbon (buy in bulk) to help absorb the excess nutriets and clarify your water.

3) change your filter floss more frequently, as it's a "boulder catcher" to get the bigger chunks out of the water.

4) count yourself LUCKY you are only dealing with a very small freshwater tank. My world is a 135 gallon salt reef tank with hard and soft corals,

5) I'm a sick sick man, as I'm now setting replacing the 135 gallon with a 180 gallon, 6 foot long by 2' x 2' all glass, tank alone weighs 600 pounds. Don't catch my sickness! he heh heh.



it's new big bad brother.