i didn't see anyone ask what color is the water when it gets cloudy and how long have you had your tank set up? if the tank is fairly new and it is a white/hazy looking cloudiness your tank might be trying to complete its nitrogen cycle and you are seeing a bacterial boom. let it finish its cycle and establish and you shouldn't see the cloudiness anymore. if it is greenish cloudy that would be an aglae bloom, leave your lights off for a couple of weeks until it clears up completely. yellowish color cloudy might be from some driftwood you recently added? you may want to add another xp3 or some more filtration as others have also suggested. i have a 90g tank with 2 oscars, pleco, striped raphael, and juvi festae with 2 fluval 405 filters and my water is fine. i have to leave my lights off all day until i get home, then i turn them on until i go to bed at night.nighthawk2207;3225745; said:
Cleanest fish?
- Thread starter nighthawk2207
- Start date
I ate my pet taco =( lol
if u want to do less water changes, add better filtrion and a sump. my nh3 level stay pretty low below 5 in a 125g+55 gallon sump. i change water every week
my stocklist
10'' silver aro
2x 4'' fronts
4x 1'' fronts
2x 3'' yo yo loaches
2x 2'' german rams
2x 5'' clown plecos
4x 1'' clown and other plecos
i love my yoyo loach, pretty agressive when it comes to food, it will swim the the surface for it, and push plecos and the otehr fish for food. plus they will scavenge the left over food at the bottom
if u want to do less water changes, add better filtrion and a sump. my nh3 level stay pretty low below 5 in a 125g+55 gallon sump. i change water every week
my stocklist
10'' silver aro
2x 4'' fronts
4x 1'' fronts
2x 3'' yo yo loaches
2x 2'' german rams
2x 5'' clown plecos
4x 1'' clown and other plecos
i love my yoyo loach, pretty agressive when it comes to food, it will swim the the surface for it, and push plecos and the otehr fish for food. plus they will scavenge the left over food at the bottom
it usually looks white hazy. it doesnt smell or anything its just doesnt look good when
i have people over, is there anything i can do to my filter to help filter better like trying different media? I have 3 trays i is filled with foam pads then another is filled with carbon an ammonia zorb or something an the last has a micro filtration pad, i do not have any ceramic rings or bio balls do they really make a difference?? i will try anything i just want my fish to have nice water i might be able to add a rean xp2 sometime in the near futurer but is over filtering a real problem?
i have people over, is there anything i can do to my filter to help filter better like trying different media? I have 3 trays i is filled with foam pads then another is filled with carbon an ammonia zorb or something an the last has a micro filtration pad, i do not have any ceramic rings or bio balls do they really make a difference?? i will try anything i just want my fish to have nice water i might be able to add a rean xp2 sometime in the near futurer but is over filtering a real problem?
test your ammonia and nitrite levels. if either is high it sounds like you are just having a bacteria boom as your tank is trying to establish. if you find out that this is the problem, just leave the tank alone for a couple of days, don't feed any of the fish and don't do any water changes (i think not changing water will speed up the process slightly). you will probably notice the water getting worse and worse, the fish might even stay near the top "gasping" for air. if it gets really bad try doing small water changes to alleviate the ammonia levels for the fish but no more than 10-15% at a time. it will eventually clear itself up almost over night as the bacteria use up all the ammonia/nitrite depending on what stage in the cycle you are in. when your tank is clear again make sure not to clean your filter media with tap water so you don't lose your beneficial bacteria and have to start the cycle all over again. good luck.nighthawk2207;3232092; said:
sorry one more thing... and yes the ceramic rings/bio balls are arguably THE MOST important part of your filtration when dealing with large fish like oscars. those are where the beneficial bacteria grow which consume the ammonia and nitrite. the more "biological" media you can throw in your filters the better your water parameters will be for the fish.
okay well i added some bio stars that came with the filter i never thot they did any
good so i removed them after the first week but i put them back in now theres not enough i think so im going to buy more i think it only came with like 15 bio stars, how long will it take to get the good bacteria on them an how long does it take for the tank to cycle? an what temp is best recomended to help control bacteria i would think the warmer the worse.
good so i removed them after the first week but i put them back in now theres not enough i think so im going to buy more i think it only came with like 15 bio stars, how long will it take to get the good bacteria on them an how long does it take for the tank to cycle? an what temp is best recomended to help control bacteria i would think the warmer the worse.
keep your water temp around 77-78 for the fish. you have an xp3 right? i would do an entire tray of bio stars, and an entire tray of either ceramic rings or eheim substrat or similar. leave the ammonia zorb in the bottom tray. leave a couple of the pads in there for mechanical filtration as well. depending on where you tank currently is in the whole cycling process, it can be a couple weeks to a couple months before it is completely established. that important thing during that time is to control how much you are feeding (the more food the more waste which means more ammonia with nothing to break it down), and get some test kits to monitor the water. ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are what you need to focus on. don't spend the extra money for the strip test, get the dropper ones cause its half price and they are more accurate.
read this thread on cycling http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
read this thread on cycling http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
Geos are pretty clean eaters. Anything with big teeth will be extremely messy.
You could turn the 125 into a shell dweller community and house about 50+ of the little things in there!
You could turn the 125 into a shell dweller community and house about 50+ of the little things in there!
okay well i will buy some ceramic rings an more bio stars an keep a corse pad an a fine pad in the bottom with the bio zorb, i have the temp at like 76 an i just got done siphoning the gravel an doing a 98% water change maybe my problem is that im changing to much water to often??
