Whats up with my tank??

T

Tom_Hung

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Feb 16, 2004
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Ok, so it's a 29 gallon, that has been up for about 3 months. When I set it up, I transfered over one of my filters from my 55 to help jumpstart it. It is stocked with one 3.5-4" Flowerhorn, a 8" pleco and a 4" lace catfish. The water has been getting progressively cloudier each day for the last 2 weeks and I'm wondering why. I tested the water yesterday, Amonia, .25ppm, Nitrite, .25ppm, ph6.6, Nitrate 5ppm. I have been changing out about 15 gallons a week and feeding 2-3 times a day. I work at a petstore so I have access to just about anything you can suggest, thanks in advance :(
 
AHhhhh!

First of all your tank is not cycled. I dont know how this happend being that you used an established filter and its been 3 months.
Did you add the fish as soon as you transferred the filter, or did you wait a while to add fish? If you weren't feeding the bacteria then it most likely died and the cycle will have to start all over again.

Okay... so you have a 29 gallon tank with fish that are wayyyy too big for it. The only fish that might be okay is the 4" lace catfish. The rest are much too big.... and the flowerhorn is only gonna get bigger.

You feed 2-3 times daily!? <----- Possible (likely) cause of the cloudy water and uncycled tank. I feed my fish minimally once a day.... and skip a day every few days. Fish do not need a lot of food!!!!!! They eat minimally in the wild... so you must feed them minimally as well.

Personally this is what i would reccommend:
Beacuse your fish are too big for this tank i would take them all back and start again. Do a complete clean-down. Refill tank with new water. Start from scratch and either do fishless cycling or cycle the tank with a few danios. Read up on cycling to be sure your doing it right. Dont feed your fish so much! Instead of doing big water changes every once in a while... do frequent little ones. Ph seems a bit low as well.... but that can be worried about later.

With a cycled and healthy tank you should NOT be showing ANY Ammonia or Nitrite.... and Nitrates are removed by doing weekly water changes... and you should not let them get too high.

If you dont want to do the complete tear-down i would just fast the fish for a couple days... then start feeding them less. Make sure the pleco is getting algae tabs and what not. Continue with lesser and more frequent water changes.... and see if this helps the cycling and the cloudy water.

:)
-Diana
 
The 29 is only a temporary home, I am moving in July and buying a 125 :D I know I am over feeding, that was intentional. I feed the pleco and the catfish probably 3 times a week. And the flowerhorn small meals as often as possible. I only feed what he will eat and scoop the rest out, Between the 55 that I have and the 29 I rotate water changes every other day, either 5 or 10 gallons depending on how much time I have. So I am still at a loss as to what went wrong.
 
What else is strange is I tested it, probably a month ago, and it tested out 0 amania and 0 nitrite with less then 5ppm nitrate, so I figured it was done cycling and should be good to go....
 
Well if the bioload is too heavy and your intentionally overfeeding then the first thing i would expect is cloudy water.

Cloudy water is often a bacterial bloom brought on by the cycling process. And it looks like your tank is in a cycle (a weird one at that).

I cant suggest more for you than to reduce the bioload and/or feeding..... if the cycle continues as planned then the cloudyness should go down over time.

Try to cut down on the water changes. Every two days is too much. I would say 10-15% once a week while your cycle is establishing. Water changes too often could be the problem as well. If your constantly removing the ammonia then the nitrites aren't gonna take over and thus the nitrates and so on. Some people don't do water changes at all while cycling (mostly fishless cycles though) ;)

HTH and good luck!

-Diana
 
yea the ammonia doesnt have time to be converted over to nitrate/nitrite. change the water every week, and you should have betetr water.
 
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