Dirty water !!

[Precious_Scarface]

The water of my tank always looks dirty help please !!

 

[Somethingclever]

How often do you do water changes?

 

[Precious_Scarface]

About every 2 weeks the first time is about 25% and the second one about 50% and changing the filter

 

[Somethingclever]

Is your tank cycled?

 

[absolutangel04]

What is living in there? What are you feeding? Cycled?

 

[Precious_Scarface]

This is my first tank so idk about cycling too much or what to do really it is a 29g with 3 goldfishes and 2 piranhas i feed them flakes and jumbo sticks for carnivor fish they usually eat it all but like i said it looks dirty kinda greenish yellowish orange tint the tank is too small i know but the bigger one broke so until i buy a new one they are gonna have to manage

 

[tarpon]

First , you don't need to be changing the filter cartridge that often. Its bad for your tank. You need to shake it around in the tank water you siphon out during a water change. People say not to replace it til its falling apart. (If that's what you meant by "changing the filter ")

And the other thing I'm kind of at a loss on ......people feed goldfish to piranhas right???

 

[Somethingclever]

First , you don't need to be changing the filter cartridge that often. Its bad for your tank. You need to shake it around in the tank water you siphon out during a water change. People say not to replace it til its falling apart. (If that's what you meant by "changing the filter ")

And the other thing I'm kind of at a loss on ......people feed goldfish to piranhas right???

lol yeah but it counts on the size no?

 

[tarpon]

Could you rephrase that? I'm confused

 

[kelly77143]

Sounds over stocked. And your goldfish may be food one day.

 

[Somethingclever]

Could you rephrase that? I'm confused

Me?

 

[tarpon]

Me?

Haha nevermind...

 

[Somethingclever]

heh ok lol

 

[Precious_Scarface]

I change my filter every month i have those timestrips that tells me when to change it yeah ppl do feed goldfish to piranha but mine Are getting along i know they are gonna get eaten but my goldfishes are like 3 times the size of my p's

 

[tarpon]

Your still not supposed to change it that often. You're throwing away beneficial bacteria. The common opinion on here is that you don't throw it away until its almost falling apart. And two weeks before you do you jam up the new pad behind the old one and let it run like that for two weeks before throwing away the old one. That way the new one gets the beneficial bacteria on it. Other wise you're stripping your tank of the bacteria that converts ammonia produced by your fish's waste (which is toxic) into nitrite and then less harmful nitrate. (Which is the nitrogen cycle, or "cycling a tank")

 

[Somethingclever]

Mine has a cartridge and a sponge in it. Will it destroy the bacteria if i change the cartridge and leave the sponge?

 

[tarpon]

Mine has a cartridge and a sponge in it. Will it destroy the bacteria if i change the cartridge and leave the sponge?

I think enough should be in the sponge part.
But if its just like one of those mesh things id still jam the new one behind the old if it'll fit

 

[Precious_Scarface]

So lets say every month instead of changing it i put a new one in behind the old one then after 2 weeks take out the old one? Cause my filter are carbon stuff cause i know i didnt cycled it but everythinv is normal in the tank the ph and ammonia are all good

 

[mfdrookie516]

Moved to Freshwater & Brackish - General Discussion

 

[tarpon]

Id say after a month when u do your water change just take out the old filter cartridge and put it in the bucket of tank water u siphoned out and swish it around to get excess debris off and put it back in there's really no need to replace it every month. It saves a lot of money too.

As for the cloudy water idk what to tell you just make sure to do a water change every week. How long has your tank been set up??? Sorry if it was mentioned before