Dirty Water

[Bigguy6121]

Hey guys I have a 46 Gallon Bow front fresh water tank. It's been up for almost a year now I've had the fish for like 6 years. Over the past few months the water has been really dirty. I've tried water changes changing out the filter cartages and nothing seems to help it. I haven't changed the food I've been feeding them or anything. You guys have any clue why this started? I have a really big jack dempsy and a smaller one I also have a small convict cichlid as well and 2 alge eaters. I don't think its over populated. any suggestions?

 

[dkpate]

Is that your fish on the right??? How big are the algae eaters, and what are they?

 

[HN1]

If the "algae eaters" are common plecos...

Changing out your filter cartridge can do more harm than good btw. Better to save the money and rinse them in old tank water. When you say dirty, what do you mean? Can you elaborate? How often do you do maintenance? What do you do? What type of filter is on the tank?

Sorry for all the questions, just tryin to possibly help.

 

[Bigguy6121]

Yep thats one of the Jack Dempsys back there. My algae eaters one common pleco and the other I'm not sure of it name it a long skinny orange guy. I have two bio wheels for filter a 330 and i think the other is a 200. I do water changes once sometimes twice a month. By dirty water I mean it just is always really cloudy now.

 

[Crepe]

Your common pleco will get too big for the tank. As for the orange one. I'm not really sure, how large is it? Orange is either albino or it's a hillstream(which I doubt). Do more frequent water changes Cichlids are very messy eaters.

Btw. Nice looking dempsey.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Long skinny Orange guy reminds me of a Chinese Algae Eater. They come in a gold variety...which could look orange-ish.

 

[dkpate]

Since you have a few big fish in there, you should probably do more water changes. Most people on this site, regardless of stocking, do a 25-50% pwc once a week.
I would think about getting a bigger tank too, since the pleco alone can get up to 2 feet. :O

 

[Aquarium1]

Plus, IMO, from the picture looks like you might have a little mini cycle going on. That's probably what the cloudiness is, a bacterial bloom. What are your parameters?

 

[Bigguy6121]

Yep now that I think about it I think it is a Chinese Algae Eater. Both of my algae eaters about an inch long so there still tiny. Would the cloudy water cause by the cycling be from changing too much water during my water changes? I have been doing bigger ones the past couple of weeks. I would say around 50% maybe. Heres another pic of the Jack Dempsy. When I got him I got two of them. I named them Jake and Elwood. Elwood got really big too but he jumped out of his tank while I was at work one day. I still don't really know how that happened cause it had a hood on it. But Jake is still alive and kicking. I think I had him for 5 maybe 6 years.

 

[dkpate]

He's a pretty guy!
I change 50% of my water once a week, with a vacuum, and one tank gets two 50% pwcs, so I don't think that's what the problem is. I think you are having a mini cycle since you keep changing out the filter media. No need to change that out unless it's falling apart, just rinse it in old tank water if it's gunky.

 

[Bigguy6121]

alright thanks. I was talking about the carbon filters that I change out not the little white biological filter guys.

 

[maxima423]

thats a beeeeee-u-teeeeee-FULLL jack dempsey

 

[Bigguy6121]

Thanks