Wife's community tank

Jman

Jman

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Jan 21, 2004
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My wife has a tank. I think she's overstocked and overfed, but that's just me.

It is a 20L Whisper Biobag fliter and a heater.

The tank contains 2 female bettas, 2 dwarf gouramis, 2 neon tetras (2 have disappeared?!?) 3 small brown frogs she saw at walmart and 2 white clawed frogs (I think that's what they are called they are white and maybe 2 inches or better) 3 apple snails and a pleco.

The water chemistry seems to be ok.
There is no ammonia or nitrite and the nitrates aren't bad.
The Ph maybe a bit high between 7.6 and 8.0 (the dipsticks are tough to read)
the problem is that the water is cloudy I mean CLOUDY
We did 2 30% changes with R/O water and it helped for a bit but it clouded right back up.

the tank does get a bit of sunlight late in the day so that may cause an algae bloom. that's my theory on what is wrong.
Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.
 
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A 20 litre tank? That tank is definately overstocked. First of all, I'd get a bigger tank... somewhere along the lines of 30 gallons. Then I'd get rid of that pleco (which I assume to be the common pleco). Unless you or your wife are willing to shell out for a bigger tank (70+ gallons), that pleco will get too large for your tank... not to mention that they're poop factories. Reduce on the feedings that your wife gives her fish... just enough so that your fish can finish in about a minute or so... once a day, or once every other day will do.

When changing water, I would suggest against changing purely with RO water. RO water contains nearly no minerials in them... and thus have little or no buffering capacity. Having little or no buffering capacity will lead to a bouncing pH, and thats much worse than having a slightly high (but stable) pH. If you insist on using RO water, buffer it a bit using baking soda, or put crush coral into your tank. Aim for a KH level of about 4.

HTH
-Richer
 
Lucky, RO stands for Reverse Osmosis. It's a form of purified water created by pushing regular tap water through a permeable membrane filter at high pressure.

A lot of trace elements and minerals are left behind in the filter and the water comes through "pure".
 
2 neon tetras (2 have disappeared?!?)

i'll blame the frogs for that, they will grow large and eat anything that fits into their mouth.

what type of pleco, if common the tank is to small these can grow to 18" and more in some cases.

Cloudy could be due to over feeding - don't feed for couple days see if improves
or could be either algae or bacteria - try another water change and don't allow the tank to get any direct sun light. if leaving filter turned off for long periods while changing water etc, bacteria seems to bloom then when filter is turn on the bacteria enter the tank.
 
I definitelt think you're overstocked but not horribly so. The pleco, if it is a common pleco, will grow to about 18" long so you'll need to take him back or commit to buying a much larger tank in the near future as Richer said.

The African Dwarf frogs should be okay although the other fish may cause some competition for food so watch that they eat.

The African Clawed frogs have to go very soon. They will grow to be 6", are ver aggressive, and will eat anything they can get their claws on.

Definitely cut back on the feedings. I would continue frequent water changes with gravel vacuuming to clean out the left over food. I would also alter your feeding method. What helped me was to almost hand feed the fish. I would take a pinch of flake food and slowly grind it between my fingers only dropping a bit int he water. After the fish had eaten most of it, I'd drop in more. I did that for about a minute to a minute and a half and found the fish would actually get bored and go off to do other things. They'd had enough. Using that method for a couple of weeks helped me to figure out what amount of food was really appropriate for my tank. whaile you're trying to get the cloudiness down I would feed every other day.

The cloudiness may be a bacterial bloom which will go away on its own in a week or so usually.

Tom
 
We changed about 40% of the water today and it was green!
I definitely believe that it is algae.
We will do another change in a couple of days and we have decided to reduce the feedings and restrict the lighting.
Thanks for all of the help
 
REduced feedings will help reduce the nutrients in the water, but may result in fewer fish--the frogs will eat anything they can catch if they get hungry.

I'd split that tank up some--too many fish, and some incompatibilities that may cause problems down the line. JMO.
 
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