Fish tank problems – need some advice please!?
by Aquaboy on Friday, March 26th, 2010 | 9 Comments
I’ve tried unsuccessfully to keep a fish tank. The tank gets algae buildup very quickly and is dirty despite my having two filters (under the gravel and on top). Also, the tank is never in the sun. The fish never live long, either. What am I doing wrong?
I’ve met people who have beautiful aquariums, but claim they don’t do any maintenance. Could my city’s water be a factor? What am I missing?
Do some research- your water should be at a certain PH level and temperature. Make sure that your water meets the requirements. Also, to keep to water clean you’ll need to do frequent water changes, every few weeks, take about a quarter of the water out and replace it with fresh water. If you need to keep the algae out, keep a few cat fish and bottom feeders, or tank snails, to clean the algae out.
first thing you need to do is buy this special liquid/gel from the pet store that makes it safe for you to use tap water in your aquarium. Its cheap and requires a small amount per galloon of water.
Clean out the rocks and everything in the tank everytime you switch new fish in there after the old ones die.
keep the light off half of the day, the longer its on the better the chance you’ll have of it growing algae.
buy an algae eater to clean your tank
and make sure you dont over feed your fish. give them enough food that that can eat in 2-3 minutes and nothing more.
Good luck
OK, first:
Stocking levels make a big difference. You can have 8 filters on the tank, but if you’ve stuffed too many fish in the tank, or fish too big for the tank, then no amount of filtration will keep the tank from degrading.
Filters are not instead of maintenance, they are as well as maintenance. You will hear that with more filtration you can keep more fish, but this is only partly true. More filtration holds more bacteria, but also leads to faster nitrate production, meaning as well as more filtration we need to do more tank maintenance. Understocked tanks keep cleaner and healthier no matter how you look at it.
Feeding is a big thing too. Some people a) make the mistake of thinking the fish need to be stuffed to the gills with food every day, but they don’t – they should be feed lightly, and b) make the mistake of feeding the tank and not the fish. Uneaten food pollutes water very quickly, so feed gradually, let the fish eat all of it, yet not overeat. Feeding causes a lot of issues for those who don’t know how to do it.
Lighting. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking a tank needs “12 hours” or so of tank light a day. Unless the tank is planted with live plants, a tank doesn’t need any specific time, and the less you keep it on, the more controlled algae will be. Just keep it on when you are around to enjoy the tank – the rest of the time ambient room or non-direct window light is enough for the fish to use. Less light, less algae. Think of the tank is dim like an overcast day.
Also, in new tanks you need to make sure you cycle properly by doing a fishless cycle or adding fish very gradually and starting with a very small number. Getting a tank and then buying a whack of fish to put into it at once will kill the fish as surely as anything. The tank needs to run and aerate for 12-24 hours before adding any fish at all. If you did not take cycling into consideration, this would be on the top of my list of reasons for your troubles.
Once treated with conditioner, there are very, very few people who’s tap water is the problem, although it can, technically happen. If you are concerned, take a sample to a good fish shop (not just any big pet store though) and they can let you know. Whatever the fish shop tries to sell you to add to the water, don’t do it – conditioner is all you need and more just complicates things, which only increases the variables for problems.
I don’t care what anybody says – to not do maintenance on the tank means the fish are living in stale old water. They won’t thrive, won’t grow properly, won’t live as long – even though they can “live” a surprising amount of time in poor water because it happens so gradually. Anyone who says they don’t do any maintenance are not good fish owners or are lying. Any tank should get weekly or bi-weekly partial water changes and vacuuming. Algae is a healthy by-product of any tank, and we can only minimize it, and by scrubbing it each week before it becomes a problem is the best way to deal with it. Water changes do help with algae because they lower nitrates and nutrients that algae thrives off of.
The filter media should be rinsed in discarded aquarium water to preserve bacteria, and if it really does need to be replaced, do so in portions and not all at once. For an average tank, monthly filter maintenance keeps it running smoothly.
With an undergravel filter it’s especially important to vacuum well because it really does a good job of collecting waste under the plates and causing long term water quality issues. These days there are much better alternatives like power filters, canister filters, and sponge filters. This is not why your fish are dying or why you are having issues, it’s just a heads-up.
“Algae eaters” might eat some algae, but they contribute waste to the tank, which leads to more algae. They do need to be fed alternative foods or they will slowly starve (and they eat a lot and poop a lot), and many fish sold as algae eaters are really scavengers and only eat algae as babies. Buying livestock to fix tank problems is always, always a bad idea.
Do not worry about such things as ph – fish are highly tolerant of this, and the fish we buy have been bred in captivity anyway, and you have other issues to deal with.
That covers all the basics, so maybe I hit on something for you. Good luck
i thik u have guessed it all right there… i am definetely sure that the water contains chlorine there…
the water treatment facilities treat their water with chlorine/chloramine both of which is extremely dangerous to fish.
it wud be nice if u test ur water….
the other possible reason could be temperature…. if u r fish wants to hang out at/arnd surface then the dissolved oxygen in the water is less (at higher temperature water contains less oxygens).
sill wondering abt the algae though ?
the best method to control algae is o
1. add an algae eater, pleco ( they get very large), or chinese algae eaters.
2 have a heavily planted tanks, the plants out compete algae for nutrients, plz ensure tht u treat ur plants before introducing them to the tank as they may carry snail eggs.
there are different types of algae, brown algae, hair algae n blah blah blah… so identifyin them might also help u diagnise the real problm..
Hair algae is light green in color. It grows in strings and can attach to almost every surface. While its growth rate varies, it is mostly very rapid.
This algae usually returns within hours after manually removing it from the aquarium. One benefit of hair algae is that it is a good food source for plant eating fish. Its rapid growth rate however make it extremely difficult to control. As a result, plant and fish life are threatened by its negative impact.
Hair algae thrives on nitrates in excess of 10 ppm.
brown slime is an important algae especially for reef set-ups. It’s a symbiotic algae, which provides nutrients for invertebrates. Corals, clams, anemones and sponges harbor this algae for the same purpose – exchange of nutrients – while the brown slime algae enjoys protection from predators.
Dinoflagellates has two flagella with which it can propel through the water. If uncontrolled, dinoflagellates build a brown slimy film covering most of the surface, in both salt and freshwater. Controlling nutrients can effectively prevent this algae type from blooming.
Cyano = blue, also called blue green algae, but most species found in the aquarium are pinkish-red. Another common name for this nuisance algae is red-slime, because the algae cells form a carpet like mat with a slimy appearance. The mats come off easily by using a vacuum.
Cyanobacteria is a single celled algae and actually more a bacteria. This algae usually starts out on one spot (dark with low water flow) then vastly spreading throughout the tank. As all single celled algae can grow fast, this one is the fastest. In an optimal environment, this algae can double every 20 minutes.
The cause: high nutrients (nitrates) and bad lighting as well as a high organic content in the water.
Diatoms are single celled algae, brownish in color. It starts out as a dusting on the substrate that rapidly turns into a mat that can cover the tank over in just 5 days, provided that they have a surplus on nutrients available.
The cause: excess nutrients, silicate and silicic acid are the ingredients for a diatom bloom. Silicic acid enters the aquarium by using tap water; substrate can contain silicates that leach out over time. RO/DI units can filter silicic acid out, but only for a limited time. Eliminating silicates can control diatoms.
Green water is often referred to as “pea soup”. Free floating single celled algae, grows at such a rapid rate that it turns the water green.
Water changes are not very helpful, as the algae spores can be found in almost every water source. The only other ingredients needed for a green water outbreak are high nutrient levels (nitrate) and intense lighting.
As with most nuisance algae, this single celled planctonic algae is capable of photosynthesis (light is used to create energy). During lighting periods oxygen is being produced during this process.
At night, the algae uses up oxygen from the tank, this can, if serious enough, suffocate the fish. Tanks with green water should therefore be very well oxygenated.
Howbig is the tank? Do you have an actual filter or an air pump?
You also need a heater and not only sun but the built in light can cause algai. Start by cleaning out the whole thing and replacing the cartridges in the filters. Add water conditioning and get a bubbler. Leave the tank plugged in overnight, and in the morning go buy some (5-10) small feeder fish. Cycle the tank by leaving the feeder fish in for a week, and test your waters PH and Carbon levels, if you dont have a reader take a sample of your water to the pet store and ask if they can test it for you. You need to research the fish you want and set up a tank for their needs. Guppies and swordtails do well in the set up I directed above
Those people who say they are not doing any maintenance are lying to you…. You cannot maintain a beautiful tank without doing partial water changes every week to ten days and siphoning the gravel monthly.
Those are the two most important things to do to have a nice looking, healthy aquarium.
Do not overfeed the fish, this contributes to algae growth and excess debris in the gravel that decays into ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. These are all toxic to fish and continually build up in the tank if you do not do at least 30-40% water changes weekly.
I only feed my fish once a day (although fry tanks get fed 3 times a day) and skip a day every week. Only feed the adults as much as they will eat in 3-4 minutes. Anything left floating after that length of time is too much and should be netted out and discarded.
When you first set up the tank, it must go through what is called the nitrogen cycle. This is when the beneficial bacteria are building up in the tank. This takes from 2 to 4 weeks. You should be doing 20% water changes every third day during this period so the fish do not die from the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate spiking.
You should not have too many fish in the tank during the cycling process, depending on the size of the tank maybe only 2 small fish in a 10g tank, up to 10-15 small fish in a 55g tank.
Good luck on your next try. Email me if you have problems again, I will be glad to help you if I can.
8
Check the aeration and lightings are not too strong. Reduce them if possible.
ok first off dont just put water in the tank and add fish
1.—-empty tank out of every thing and scrub it good
2.—– clean rock or sand what ever u using for substrate(bottom)
3.—– fill back with water preferabbly reverse osmosis treated water u can get a walmarts or most pet stores that sell fish if not tap is ok but make sure to get some start right or u can wait the old fashioned way for about 3-4 weeks for your tank to go through nitrogen cycle (freshwater) saltwater takes months maybe even yrs depends ont eh tank and size
google nitrogen cycle
4.—– make sure you are researching your fish stick with a hardy beginner fish and move up the chain slowly i own a 29 gallon sw tank and its fun but time consuming
5–get test strips for water testing and monitor your levels especially nitrites and nitrated and ph levels
u can test once a week or often as u want
after that u should be able to add fish and keep em alive just dont over feed that is another soure of algae
BUT FOR ONE SURE THING THE REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER WILL BE THE BEST THING FOR YOU ALSO CALLED RO WATER
i know this is off topic but i need help with my oscar. he has perfectly healthy and then i noticed o hole in his gills. its starting to get worse and his hole gill is almost gone im not sure what to do.