Water problem since moving

[sashahaddad]

Hello

A week ago I moved house and moved my 2 tropical fish (cat fish and sea breem) with me.

The fish were removed from their tank and the whole tank was cleaned (gravel, large stones, fake plants, filter, heater etc) in tap water. The fish were re-housed at the new location, 20 gallons (about 10% of the tank) of their old water added and the rest was tap water which we treated with anti-chlorine product. A new air pump was added which has a double pump (compared to the old pump which was only single and not working very well). Their new location is in a window which receives the afternoon/evening sunshine. but there are wooden blinds in the window which are always down.

The fish and water appeared fine for the first few days but now there is something amiss. The water is very rather cloudy and there is what looks like white algee growing on the graval, rocks, plants, filter etc, but not on the fish. Fish seem ok, maybe slighyly erratic. The water does not smell very nice; a bit like a manky pond.

Can anyone suggest what this could be? Have we over-changed the water, could it be too light (it gets more light now than in the old location), have we overfed the fish and the left over food has rotted??

Any advice is welcome. Thank you very much
Sasha

 

[BOD]

you cleaned out everything in tap water?

your tank is probably going through a cycle, and the smell could be ammonia (correct me if im wrong people)

do you have water test kits?

 

[sashahaddad]

HI Bob,

I cleaned the whole lot in plain tap water (the whole tank is probably about 35 gallons, i think i got my estimate wrong before, 2 standard size buckets of old fish water were kept).

I don't have a test kit, would you reccomend I purchase one?

 

[yvez9]

what kind of filter do you use and was the filter kept wet at all times when you moved?

 

[sashahaddad]

im hopeless, i have no idea what the filter is called; it has a sponge type thing in the middle of black casing which collects all the rubbish from the tank.

The filter was damp at the time of moving but i didnt soak it in water to keep it wet...should I have done this?

 

[BOD]

yes the bacteria has probably died causing your tank to go through another cycle..i would suggest buying some test kits for ammonia (Nh3/Nh4), nitrite (NO2) and Nitrate (NO3-), you can also get other test kits but these are the main one you need...its so you can keep and eye on ure water quailty....what do you do for your tank eg water changes, how much? how often?


try reading this as well...Cycling

 

[BOD]

isnt a sea bream a fish that people eat?

 

[sashahaddad]

right, i will get some test kits. If it shows that i have excess ammonia and nitrates, what is the course of action?

to be honest, Im not sure if he is a breem or not; we inherited these fish from a friend when his mother dies and we were not told what he was, and we have not been able to find out!!!

thanks for your help

 

[BOD]

can u post a picture of it....or a very good description of what it looks like might hep....

ammonia and nirites should be at 0 and nitrates somewhere between 0-15

if this is not the case you need to do a 25%water change...do you have a gravel vac??? and water dechlorinator?

1 would do about a 30-40 water change today if i were you....

buy some test kits and then post the answer and further action can be taken from there.

 

[BOD]

also if you want to know how much water your tank hold measure it and use this site... Calcualtor

then post back the answer plz...

oh yes and can u decribe thsi white stuff more? algae is not white...

 

[sashahaddad]

i will do a water change later then. and get test kits and gravel vac. i have water de-chlorinator.

i will take a pic of Harry and post it tomorrow (cannot do anything now, am at work)

Cheers

 

[BOD]

thats ok....i look foward to seeing harry to actually see what it is you have! gd luck! and by the way welcome to the forum only just noticed this was your first post!

 

[sashahaddad]

thanks!!!

I feel really bad for my little fish, I do hope thety won't die.

I have just read the "cycling" thing and i think i have over cleaned and there are the bad chemicals there. I will not be able to get a test kit until tomorrow, do u think that wil be OK?

Before i came on the forum, i rand the shop where i bough the new pump from and he also said that algae is not white; he thought it could be plankton? It is only growing on the surfaces of the rocks, gravel etc and looks very delicate. i wil take a picture of it with the fish.

 

[BOD]

plankton? does it look like little wormy things thats planaria (sp), planaria is caused by over feeding...

you should be ok if u do a water change and get the test kits for 2moro and then we will see what is going on...

also take a pic of the catfish..there are many types...we can help there too..