Why so much poop?

[Emma and the angelfishes]

Hi everyone , so I have gotten a fish tank in October last year and I have black gravel substrate driftwood and two live plants insid do have a fluval Roma f4 filter and a heater . I have one angelfish two BN plecos six cardinal tetras five guppies four plates I have gotten four gouramis two days ago . When I’ve been doing my water changes I’ve noticed that before I start ther is SO much poop on the floor literally it looks like I have brown substrate because of all the poop I feed one every two days alternating between bloodworm and flakes and i drop in two pleco algae pellets I do water changes every week with the whole water change being me vacuuming up all the poop to get rid of all the poop from the week I have to do at lest a 40% water change with my siphon am I doing something wrong or are fish just this messy ? I would appreciate any help

 

[JuiceBox52]

A 40% water change isnt a bad thing, the bigger the better.
Most of us on here do 50-75% water changes weekly

 

[PheonixKingZ]

That is to be expected...

BNP's produce a lot of waste. You need to clean the substrate every other day. I have a 29g tank with one BNP. He produces so much waste, I have to do a sand vacuum every other day.

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

That is to be expected...

BNP's produce a lot of waste. You need to clean the substrate every other day. I have a 29g tank with one BNP. He produces so much waste, I have to do a sand vacuum every other day.

That makes sense I will try vacuming every other day or as often as I can and see if I can fix the problem thank you

 

[PheonixKingZ]

That makes sense I will try vacuming every other day or as often as I can and see if I can fix the problem thank you

No problem.

It may seem like a hassle, but its necessary. And, every other day water changes aren't a bad thing...

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

No problem.

It may seem like a hassle, but its necessary. And, every other day water changes aren't a bad thing...

Isn’t the filter supposed to remove poop or not I’m sure I’ve read that some where but it it’s supposed to then it isn’t

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Isn’t the filter supposed to remove poop or not I’m sure I’ve read that some where but it it’s supposed to then it isn’t

The filter is supposed to keep the water clear, not clean.

So no, its not the filters job, its your job.

 

[Aussie_Bristle]

How big is the tank hun?

 

[Byron]

It should not be necessary to vacuum the substrate every day. The fish excrement should disappear into the substrate where it is broken down (decomposition) by various bacteria that live in the substrate not in the filter. These organics then feed the plants, if there are live plants. Or the substrate can be well vacuumed during the weekly water change. However, we need to know the tank size, and the water parameters (GH and pH especially), and nitrate. There could be too many fish, which is obviously going to make this more of a problem.

Aside from anything else, water changes in any aquarium should be in the 50-70% range, and once a week.

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

How big is the tank hun?

It’s 200L or 48 gallons

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

It should not be necessary to vacuum the substrate every day. The fish excrement should disappear into the substrate where it is broken down (decomposition) by various bacteria that live in the substrate not in the filter. These organics then feed the plants, if there are live plants. Or the substrate can be well vacuumed during the weekly water change. However, we need to know the tank size, and the water parameters (GH and pH especially), and nitrate. There could be too many fish, which is obviously going to make this more of a problem.

Aside from anything else, water changes in any aquarium should be in the 50-70% range, and once a week.

Ok will try doing bigger water changes and nitrates nitrites Ammonia e.g Always show none of them if not a very small amount on my test strips I know they are bad for your tank but surely if there is so much poop the ammonia would go up ?

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

The filter is supposed to keep the water clear, not clean.

So no, its not the filters job, its your job.

Ok thank you that makes sense

 

[Emma and the angelfishes]

A 40% water change isnt a bad thing, the bigger the better.
Most of us on here do 50-75% water changes weekly

Ok thank you will defo try that

 

[JuiceBox52]

Ok will try doing bigger water changes and nitrates nitrites Ammonia e.g Always show none of them if not a very small amount on my test strips I know they are bad for your tank but surely if there is so much poop the ammonia would go up ?

Only if it decomposes faster than you remove it

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Only if it decomposes faster than you remove it

That is most likely not going to happen in the near future...