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09-30-2014, 12:58 PM | #1 |
Rose Trellis
i love life!
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Akron/Canton, OH
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why is my fish tank icky?
The boys each won a really cheap goldfish at the fair in July, so we got a 10 gallon fish tank. It's been just fine EXCEPT it's impossible for me to keep clean. I watch the amount of food (I actually end up feeding them half the time, you know) so I know it's not over-feeding... we have a good filter - I thought it was supposed to last a month or so, but it's dirty within a week or two and I end up changing it anyway.
The water gets cloudy in an orange-y kind of way. It looks like dirt vs. just cloudy. We have a well and I use the two things to condition it for the fish that were recommended at the pet store - the slime coat stuff and another thing to clean the water. Obviously something isn't working! Any guesses or suggestions to keep the tank cleaner? I did nearly a 100% clean 15 days ago and wouldn't expect it to look this gross already.
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Jen 54, Dan 59 Alex 18 Nathan 17 |
09-30-2014, 01:10 PM | #2 |
Rose Garden
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 10,115
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
I would actually resist the urge to "clean 100%" and definitely don't change your filter too often. Work instead on cycling the tank: http://www.oscarfishlover.com/how-to...-your-aquarium
You'll still be cleaning it, maybe even more often in the beginning, but in the long run the tank will help to clean itself
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emily |
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09-30-2014, 01:21 PM | #3 |
Rose Garden
The Gospel is for Christians, too :).
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Posts: 6,911
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Could you post a picture? And what are the specs for your filter? And how deep is your gravel? And are there any live plants in the tank?
(Dh doesn't recommend cycling the tank - he says it's hard on the fish. His first guess is that it's too many goldfish for the size tank - that goldfish need 10 gallons *each* (they are really dirty fish ) - but you could probably get by with a bigger filter. But seeing the tank and knowing exactly what sort of filter and such will help pinpoint the issue.)
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~ forty-two ~
Possessor of The Answer to Everything and Solver of (Somebody Else's) Problems INTJ: introverted iNtuition with extraverted Thinking DYT 4/2: connecting intellectually and emotionally Enneagram 5w4: a need to perceive and to feel special Wife to my pastor dh (INTP) since 2003 Mother to: dd13, 'R' dd10.5, 'A' ds8, 'J' and two in heaven: miscarried 10/29/04 and 01/01/05 Blog: Lutherama What we want is just one thing, not the thing. |
09-30-2014, 01:32 PM | #4 |
Rose Trellis
i love life!
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Akron/Canton, OH
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
The filter mechanism is the one that came with the tank - it was a package deal. When I say I cleaned it that well, I didn't rinse off the plastic plants (no live ones) and didn't rinse the rocks but vacuumed under them pretty well. It was disgusting.
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Jen 54, Dan 59 Alex 18 Nathan 17 |
09-30-2014, 01:37 PM | #5 | |
Rose Garden
The Gospel is for Christians, too :).
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Quote:
---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ---------- And how much gravel do you have? It's pertinent because if there's not enough, the bacteria has nowhere to live and floats in the water, which can make it cloudy. Although the orange color suggests something else .
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~ forty-two ~
Possessor of The Answer to Everything and Solver of (Somebody Else's) Problems INTJ: introverted iNtuition with extraverted Thinking DYT 4/2: connecting intellectually and emotionally Enneagram 5w4: a need to perceive and to feel special Wife to my pastor dh (INTP) since 2003 Mother to: dd13, 'R' dd10.5, 'A' ds8, 'J' and two in heaven: miscarried 10/29/04 and 01/01/05 Blog: Lutherama What we want is just one thing, not the thing. |
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09-30-2014, 01:42 PM | #6 |
Rose Garden
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 10,115
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Figuring out the filtration and such is good I don't want to derail that part of the discussion, but...
Do you have a tank light? Is the tank exposed to direct sunlight? Because there is such a thing as orange algae, and it tends to bloom when A) fish are being overfed, and B) the tank is lit for extended amounts of time Just a thought.
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emily |
09-30-2014, 01:47 PM | #7 |
Rose Garden
The Gospel is for Christians, too :).
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,911
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Another thought - is there a high iron content in your water? Because that might account for the orange-y dirt .
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~ forty-two ~
Possessor of The Answer to Everything and Solver of (Somebody Else's) Problems INTJ: introverted iNtuition with extraverted Thinking DYT 4/2: connecting intellectually and emotionally Enneagram 5w4: a need to perceive and to feel special Wife to my pastor dh (INTP) since 2003 Mother to: dd13, 'R' dd10.5, 'A' ds8, 'J' and two in heaven: miscarried 10/29/04 and 01/01/05 Blog: Lutherama What we want is just one thing, not the thing. |
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09-30-2014, 02:04 PM | #8 |
Rose Trellis
i love life!
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Akron/Canton, OH
Posts: 2,028
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Forgot to mention that we have about an inch of rocks - not too many.
Images: https://flic.kr/p/pthC2g https://flic.kr/p/prfyYE ---------- Post added at 05:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:56 PM ---------- I think the first picture is most indicative of what it looks like. We have a lot of plastic plants and an inch or so of rocks, so that would give the good bacteria places to thrive. As far as iron-rich, we're not too bad. We do not have any iron spots in the toilets or sinks in the house. We have a tank light, but it is LED if that makes any difference. It's in a spot of the counter between windows so we keep the lights on - otherwise, it almost looks like nighttime in there.
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Jen 54, Dan 59 Alex 18 Nathan 17 |
09-30-2014, 02:12 PM | #9 | |
Rose Garden
The Gospel is for Christians, too :).
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,911
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
Quote:
Let me see if I'm understanding you right: 15 days ago you cleaned the tank by vacuuming around, including under the gravel, and added new water to top off the tank. And that took care of the problem? But now, two weeks later, it looks icky again? If that's accurate, the cheapest solution is to vacuum the tank every week. Goldfish produce a lot of waste and are hard on a filter - it's sounds pretty typical to need to vacuum a 10 gal tank with two goldfish every week. ---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 PM ---------- From the pictures it looked pretty cloudy (as opposed to something growing on the sides) - getting a bigger filter would also help, but more frequent cleaning (removing no more than 10% of the water, because more than that is hard on the fish) is cheaper and effective.
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~ forty-two ~
Possessor of The Answer to Everything and Solver of (Somebody Else's) Problems INTJ: introverted iNtuition with extraverted Thinking DYT 4/2: connecting intellectually and emotionally Enneagram 5w4: a need to perceive and to feel special Wife to my pastor dh (INTP) since 2003 Mother to: dd13, 'R' dd10.5, 'A' ds8, 'J' and two in heaven: miscarried 10/29/04 and 01/01/05 Blog: Lutherama What we want is just one thing, not the thing. |
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09-30-2014, 10:50 PM | #10 |
Rose Bouquet
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Imladris
Posts: 591
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
I agree with getting a more powerful filter. Goldfish are really messy fish. We have two aquariums and the one that has the goldfish is a 30 gallon with a 65 gallon filter and crayfish to keep the bottom clean. You don't have to go that over the top (maybe a 25 gallon filter? )
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10-12-2014, 11:05 AM | #11 |
Rose Garden
Wish I was there!
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: NW OH
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Re: why is my fish tank icky?
My guess is the well water has high iron content. That's how our well water is, and I've resorted to using purchased gallons of water for the 2 gallon tank we have...
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Tanya InTJ
Wife to Randy Mom to: Brownie-18, RockSalt-16, LuLu-going on 14 and Avery, with the Lord September 2010 In essentials, Unity In non-essentials, Liberty In all things, Charity My Blogs: Living Healthy in the Modern World and Wordy Musings |
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