Dirty water!!

[Phreaxer]

I have a tried doing 25 and 50% water changes for the last week, every day, and I am afraid to keep doing that because I dont want to hurt the fish. Last night, I went to petsmart and asked the guy there what he would suggest. He said he had the same problem and he just found the cure. He told me to get these tank buddie things that are to clear the water, and to turn off the filter/pump overnight. Well I did that, and this morning, my wife came in and said. "I think your shark is dead..." I got up and looked, and he was alive, but he was sticking his mouth out of the water gulping for air, so I transfered him into a bowl that was 40% tank water, and 60% treated tap water... He seemed to be much happier immeadiatly. The water in the tank is really dark yellow, can almost not see all the way through it... What can I do? Do I need to start over, adn just clean the entire tank from scratch? What do I do with the fish that are in there while I do that? I dont want to have to do that if it can be avoided... Thanks.

 

[dolphin]

Hi Phreaxer

Turning off your filter over-night is a very bad thing to do. The bacterial will have died.

As you have all ready done large water changes, to no affect. I think that a strip down is the only thing that will sort your problem out.

You will have to find a temp home for the fish.

Save some of the gravel, to seed the tank.

 

[Phreaxer]

Thanks Dolphin, not really what I wanted to hear, but I didnt ask to hear something good, I asked to hear the truth, so thank you very much.


Right now I am using an UGF and I dont think it is working too well... Should I go to a tank mounted pump/filter? The reason I went with the UGF is because the lid I have for the tank is a solid piece of screen (reptile cage lid) and the tank mounted wouldnt work too well... What do you guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[dolphin]

Hi Phreaxer

If you can fit one in, I would sugest that you get an internal filter, as well as the UGF.

 

[Tanked]

Phreaxer,

If you have the money to spend, I'd ditch the UGF. mine caused me nothing but problems and get a canister type filter like an ehiem or fluval and connect them to a bio wheel setup, or a little bit cheaper would be get a marineland penguin or emporer HOB system with bio wheels. the bio wheels are truly fantastic once they are cycled.

 

[Phreaxer]

what exactly is the bio wheel? Are there any websites I can look at the various setups on? and what they do?

 

[Tanked]

a bio wheel when fully cycled (about 6 weeks) keeps the tank free of ammonia and nitrite as the bio wheel has oxygen to feed the good bacteria. for a website to read about them check HERE under the power filters section look at the bio wheel pro systems (they connect to canister types and the penguin and emporer systems. the emps are a bit more expensive but have moe technologhy put into them, utilizing spray bars that use prefiltered water to drive the biowheel. the penguin systems use just the water flow out of the return to spin the wheel. I am not trying to sell any marineland products and have no affliation with the company, I have just had extremely good success with my Emporer 400 system on my 55 gallon tank. It even handled putting in 7 fish in a day (I went too crazy at the LFS, went for 2 fish came home with 7)


hth


Richard

 

[impur]

i would definately suggest a HOB filter in conjuction with the UGF. I use an UGF powered by 2 powerheads in each corner and a emperor 400 HOB filter. Works wonderfully. Good luck with your fish.

 

[FishFriend]

Hi Phreaxer,

I just went through similar situation with my 40 gal tank - the water had gone red rather than yellow (color perhaps has something to do with what food you're feeding). This happened rapidly over a 2 month period and no amount of water changes helped.

Through posts to this forum, I found my problem was with the undergravel filter - it had not been cleaned for 5 yrs (yuck). To solve the problem, I had to completely strip down the 40 gal, take out and sterilize all gravel, foliage, etc. and remove the UGF. I added a secondary filter to my 40 gal to compensate for the UGF and imagine this will be a better setup in the long run.

Regarding the current population, if you don't have a secondary tank, I recommend you find someone who will 'loan' you a setup as it takes some time to strip down, clean, and cycle the tank. It will be most beneficial to get some tank water from your lfs to 'seed' the bacteria process after stripping and cleaning the tank.

Based on my recent experience, here's the steps I took:

• Set up the temporary home
• Transfer population to temporary home
• Clean and sterilize tank (with strong saltwater solution)
• Add Bio-Zyme or some other bacteria and enzymes to the water for the first 7 days
• Transfer small, hearty fishes back to tank (leave larger and more fragile fish in the temp tank) to begin the cycling process
• Check water chemistry daily on reset tank (monitor ammonia and Nitrites)
• Check ammonia level on temp tank - you will probably have to do a daily 25 - 30% water changeto keep the ammonia down.
• After tank has cycled, you can move the balance of the population back to tank

It's quite a task but now my 40 gal water looks great again!

Good luck!

 

[impur]

If you go that route, i would recommend using bio spira. You add your entire population immediately with this product and i have seen this stuff in action. Definately a good product. It is rather spendy, but worth it IMO if you strip the tank and restart.

 

[Phreaxer]

FishFriend.

I thought about it just being buildup of some kind and the water changes may be just "uprooting" the muck, but the problem with that is I have only had the UGF in place for a couple weeks tops. I am hesitant to tear it all down for fear of shocking the fish. I think what I am going to do is ..... well... I dont know yet. I am probaly going to be rescuing a cat from the local shelter tonight, so we will be going to the petstore anyways, and I will talk to the guys there to see what they might be able to suggest, and see what they might have experience with in the past. 2 of the guys there seem to have quite extensive knowledge and seem to suffer from MTS. which is a good thing since they have experience and not just book knowledge. I will be sure to keep you guys posted. BTW: I wont be rescuing that cat myself, my wife is going to do that... I like fish, and dogs... fish dont "deficate" and make the whole house smell, and dogs are smart enough to do it outside.

Also, I have a friend who is going to be giving me a few snails... could that help? or is it too late for that?

 

[Tanked]

never too late for snails, but be careful adding more that one. when they reproduce they make lots of babies.

 

[Phreaxer]

never too late for snails, but be careful adding more that one. when they reproduce they make lots of babies.

lol, ok. I will be aware of that, although, I think that would make my puffers pretty happy...

 

[Phreaxer]

would this be what I am looking for?

http/cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=20758

 

[Tanked]

how big is your tank? that is a small filter with only a 52 GPH flow rate. if your tank is very small ie: 10 gallons or less it would be ok other wise I'd go with a HOB or canister type.