Help Please - Cloudy Water

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That's not enough for ur bioload u have slot of large fish with not enough filtering. U probably want around at least 800.... And lose some fish :( I'm filtering 950 on my 90gal.
 
I like watching them grow. thank u for the comment. Yeah I love this app I'm addicted Lol.
 
No this is good. I need help obviously!! Hehe :) I may have to hit up the pet store tomorrow then and look into getting another pump. Or trade a small one for a larger one. 800 eh? How do you figure that out then? Just cause my fish are so big? Knowing my water is cloudy probably helps too eh? Lol
I need all the help I can get. I want to really take this on again and I have been so out of the loop raising two little squirts (lol) that I have lost touch with the fish world
 
Is there a brand/type of filter you would recommend. I was thinking of getting the next step Fluval but that is only 264 gph. Even if I had two it won't be enough
 
Fluvel is a great brand but it's not what I have. I would recomend a couple large marineland biowheels plus what you already have. The more filtration the better. I think the biowheel on mine is called a emperor biowheel but when I buy a filter I always go by the gph and not what it recomends what size tank.

I have them on all of my tanks. I love that it has nitrifying bacteria filtration. good stuff:)

yeah I have a two year old of my own and completely understand how it's easy to neglect your tank. I usually aim for at least one 30% waterchange on all tanks once a week.

What do u test your water with? I use the liquid API master test kit.... I hear it's more accurate.
 
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Right now I would say I was doing 20-35% water changes daily. At least until my water clears up. I haven't heard of a bio wheel before but I will look into it. One of the advantages of this site ... Especially for beginners like me.
I use a pretty basic test kit. It is on litmus paper with 7 different tests. Chlorine, Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, Hardness, Alkalinity and ph.
Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.
 
If I was you, I would do daily 30% water changes, possibly two a day until it clears up. Then, get a better filter and the API master test kit (liquid). Not only is it more accurate, I personally think it's fun. Lol. Kinda like a mad scientists type thing as my boyfriend would say lol.
 
I will do the water changes. Can't expect a change overnight but it is definitely improving already. My ph is back up and my nitrates are dropping. Down to 40 from 80 so that is an improvement.
 
I trust your experience over mine for sure, but at 80% isn't that going to stress my fish out more then it is worth? Being that my tank is overstocked already wouldn't that leave them flapping instead of swimming? :) I am not discrediting your advice at all, but I want to make sure before I go and take out 80% I my tank water. Obviously I went into this without doing my research so I am a blank slate.
 
Fishfriends said:
I will do the water changes. Can't expect a change overnight but it is definitely improving already. My ph is back up and my nitrates are dropping. Down to 40 from 80 so that is an improvement.
Click to expand...

It will get there :)
How old are your kids? Maybe you can enlist their help!
 
An 80% kind of scares me. I usually break it up when my water parameters are bad. I can recall doing a 125% change over a period of 4 hours. And they were fine. I broke it up into 3. I did it because my nitrites were 5+. That cleared up after a week+ of extensive changes and a mini cycle or two.
 
LogansMomma said:
An 80% kind of scares me. I usually break it up when my water parameters are bad. I can recall doing a 125% change over a period of 4 hours. And they were fine. I broke it up into 3. I did it because my nitrites were 5+. That cleared up after a week+ of extensive changes and a mini cycle or two.
Click to expand...

It doesn't affect the fish at all nor will it affect the bacteria, there's no reason why someone couldn't/ shouldn't do a 50% + PWC at one time if it needs to be done.

Over the course of 4 hours seems like it would stress out the fish more than one big water change.
 
I changed 75% of mine the other day because I was worried about an ammonia spike from a dead fish. Apparently though I removed the fish quick enough and my levels didn't change. However, i'm not having issues with my bacteria so maybe it don't matter. I agree that one large water change is better then several small ones over a few hours.
 
Maybe. Thats just what I did. Lol. I'm not an expert and I don't claim to be. I didn't lose any fish. And haven't had a problem with my parameters since, but if I do I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the tip. Makes since to me. ;)

Also, that's not a normal thing for me either the 125% change. I was desperate to get my nitrites down. I vacuumed the substrate good once, and kind of didn't disturb the fish or gravel after that. When I do my waterchange, I have a hose that connects to my bathtub so it's less stress for the fish. I could see 125% with buckets would be way more stressful. But that's not what happened.
 
Ok it is starting to make sense. So do you guys do this then with two hoses at the same time? I run a hose out (an water my strawberries outside through a window - hehe) and then when it is low 'enough' I turn the hose around and run the water off my tap into the tank. I am gonna get yelled at for that though I bet eh?? :(
I wanna do this right, I really do. So I am sorry about the stupid questions.
 
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