Frustrated w/lots of questions!!

acocacolagirl

acocacolagirl

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Dec 2, 2004
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I read everything in response to the thread "how often should media be changed? " by galaga-girl and I dont think I found answers to my filter problems there...besides, I have other questions. At this point, I feel very frustrated! And like I will never have the tank I want because I just cant get passed all of the problems.

I have a top fin filter and per instructions was relacing the cartrige monthly, but my water wasnt cycling because apparently I kept removing all of the good stuff. So someone told me just to rinse it. So when I did my water change a couple of days ago - (50% the week before this, about 20% on Sunday) I did that. I had noticed my water smelling bad, but it was clear. After the 20% change, the water smelled fresh, but then when I took my filter cartrige out to rinse it, I discovered that was the sorce of the smell! I did not rinse in tank water, I rinsed in dechlorinated water (three different bowls of dechlorinated water). And still it smells! I have added Accu-clear, but its not seeming to help. So what is wrong with my filter? I plan on adding a sponge or something else to it, but will that help the smell. Am I over feeding? Is that creating smell? Am I not supposed to over feed because my fish will eat themselves to death or because it will make the water yucky? The fish seem to eat what I give them, but I know bits of peas and bits of shrimp get missed here and there. I make sure no big chunks of anything - like cory food pellets - stay in the tank.
The water levels are good, but I've got this smell....
AND this brown alage which I have been given some advice about, at least on how to clean it of the tank decore, but now it is getting on the gravel, and I have to sponge down the glass every couple of days ARGGG! This is not what I want to be doing! I want to enjoy my tank not be repelled my the smell and the constant work of removing spots! Isn't there something I can do to help these things?
And while we are on the subject of questions, what other types of vegies, besides peas, would my fish like? and what is the best way to feed vegies?

Thanks so much for the help and taking time to read this long post!
 
It sounds like you may have a few problems going on here. The first question would have to be the size of the tank and how long it has been set up. If this tank is established (more than 4-6 weeks) then you should not have to change the water as often as you do. Depending on the size of the tank the tank could be over populated and the filter over taxed with the waste. What really has me scratching my head and could be a contributing factor to the smell is the brown algea. There can be several reasons for this, but from your post it appears that you do not have live plants so your algea in my opinion is coming from one of two sources or both. The first being actual over feeding. THe second is the amount of time that you leave the aquarium light on or the location of the tank. For example it is not advisable to place a tank in a picture window where it will get tons of sunlight. This can promote algea. There are lots of opinions, but keep in mind that fish can go a period of days without eating and they will not turn into jaws and eat each other. For mine I generally put a pinch in the tanks in the morning and if I feel generous or want to give the fish a treat in the evening hours I go with tubliflex worms, blood worms, or brine shrimp. I do not have mush experience with using real food other than brine shrimp and worms for the fish so not sure about the veggies. The only veggie that I have ever used was letuce to rid a tank of snails. The combination of the feeding and possibly the light situation is what is causing your tank to smell and the filter media continuously being dirty is a sign of overfeeding or over population or both.

As for the media changing, once your tank is cycled properly the bacteria is actually through out your tank and not just in the filter. Like everything else there are opinions on what you should do with the filter and how often. I have a whisper filter that is similar to your top fin and basically I check it once a week and if really dirty will allow the water from the filter to drain and then run the filter under tap water just to remove the large particles. After about a month or so I toss the media unless I am setting up a new tank and insert new media material. A sponge is a good idea and could help keep the filter media a little cleaner.

Just a little something that will prevent you from having to buy several different chemicals etc. If you use Stress Coat then you do not need to use water dechlorinators. When doing water changes I remove the water and put it in house plants and the lawn (Fish water is great for this) and then fill my tank with straight tap water to replace what I took out. Then just dose your tank with Stress Coat as per the label for removing chlorine / gals of water.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Jim
 
fish can get by on a very small amount of food. the water is their heat so they don't have to heat themselves like we do, their mass is really small so the energy to maintain is very little.

my khuli loaches only eat a 1/8th to 1/4 inch square peice of flake every couple of days, though they are the least active of the fish I have and don't eat as much.

that smell you get is the waste in the water. the filter collects it so that is why that is the worst smelling spot. if you are feeding something like peas which tends make fish generate alot of poop the bacteria may not be up to the speed at which that is produced and that is the smell. back the amount or frequency you feed things like peas off and you will have less waste in the tank and a cleaner smell out of the system. you can go without feeding your fish a random day a week and they will be fine. I've been supprized at how little I can feed my fish in my 20 gallon and everyone be good still. with a good food flake the nutrients arn't as big a concern and you can feed just enough that they don't look emaciated or skinny and they will probably be healthyer due to the better water quality.

do you know what the end product of compost smells like? definatly not odourless but it is a nice smell. that is what a healthy tank will smell like.
 
Well, lots of questions I have to answer now. Right now the tank does smell earthy, but sometimes it smells fishy. I was only feeding once a day until a couple of weeks ago when I got my guppy, he acts like he is starving even though I see him eat and the other fish don't seem to be chasing him away, but he would even dive down the the corys food on the bottom of the tank, so I started feeding more. But I will back off again. And feed less peas. I have 4 tetras, a guppy, and a cory cat in a 10 gl tank. I dont think Im over stocked. Oh, and I do leave the light on a lot. The tank is in a well lit room, but not in direct sunlight. But it looks nice with the light on, so I was leaving it on all day and into the evening until about 9pm. If I leave it off during the day, is it acceptable to turn it on at night for a couple of hours - it really looks pretty when its turned on at night. So if I back off on food and light, and if that is what is contributing to the algea growth, will the growth stop? Can I put in an anti algea tablet or something like that? So much to learn! This is harder than having a new born baby in the house!!
 
hehe guppies would try to convince you that they were starveing even if they had just eaten so much that they coulnd't get another bite down and had food hanging out their mouths.

you light the tank when you want to to enjoy it. if your not there you can turn it off as the fish won't mind. the nutrients getting into the tank from the food is the main limitation on algae growth. no nutrients no algae no-matter how much light... obviously you want to keep your fish alive so some will get into the tank but that should be at a managable level.
 
Thanks. Glad to know that I am not starving my guppy - I couldn't possibly feed him more. And now that I am going to feed less, hopefully there will be less algea.
 
good luck!
 
New tabks take a while to stabilize. I would highly suggest not usign any chemcials other than dechlorinator in you rtank right now. The anti-algae tabs can actually lead to more problems as the nutrients in the tank are trying to stabilize.

feed every other day for the next week, use a gravel vacuum during water changes, rinse out the filter media in dechlorinated water. Leave the lights on for no more than 10 hours a day.

Do water changes of at least 20-30% each week.
 
Ok. Thanks for the specific advice. I will do all of those steps. And not add any anti algea tabs.
 
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