Upgrading Pump, cloudy water.

[Dark_S2000]

I currently have a 29g tank for about 3 months now (bought it as a kit - mistake?? hehe) anyways, I noticed the heater is only 100watts (upgrading that soon), and the pump that came with it Aqua-Tech 20-40 Gallon works okay. However, I have a bit of a cloudy water problem (might because tank is overstocked a bit, and possible overfeeding). Anyways I was wondering what type of pump to get, Any recommendations, would a 30-60 gallon pump work good in a 29g tank? Also, the Aqua-Tech comes with a bio filter, since the tank is already cycled, would it handle changing from a different pump.

We had a 10 gallon tank given to us by a friend who has about 6 tanks (two 75g's etc.) since she was moving and havn't kept in touch lately. That tank had a 1 foot pleco in it and about 10 - 12 guppies (it was way overstocked) and the guppies started dieing left and right so we decided to upgrade to the 29g tank and set it up (didnt know about the cycling process) but everything is fine now.

As of right now it might be overstocked, aparently a couple months after putting some new fish in it, the guppies kinda spawned and now there up to about 15 again hehe. We are planning on giving them away. The fish we got in our tank now are:
1' Pleco
2" pleco
2x 1" Crown Loach
2x 1" Catfish looking thingies
2x 2" Chineese Alge Eaters
2x 2" Gold Fish
2x 2" Angel Fish (there calm around the other fish, not aggressive at all)
15x 1" Guppies
100x+ Ramhorn Snails (Grrr, Just when you think you got rid of them..., Crown Loaches going to have fun when they get bigger ).

So about 26 fish total, going by the 1 gal per inch of fish thats about 45 gallons out of the 29 gallons I got. So I was wondering if it is overstocked and it is causing the cloudy water and a bigger pump would help (like I said I plan on giving some of the guppies, most of them acually) away to my grandmother. Also, could it be overfeeding them (give them 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of goldfish flakes and 1 alge tablet, twice a day).

To summerise, would a bigger pump help clear up the water and is am I overfeeding?

 

[malkore]

Welcome to AA Dark_S2000

I would run an Aqua Clear 50 (it used to be called the Aqua Clear 200). It runs 200gph, which would be a good turnover on a 29gallon tank. I ran the next size up for a while, but it was a LOT of current.

How often do you do a water change? Weekly is best
How much water do you change when you do a w/c? 25% is the minimum.

The filter you have is kind of junky, and under powered in my opinion. But the cloudiness of the water may or may not be the filter's fault. Is it hazy? Or can you actually see little particles floating around?

If its the former, its a bacterial bloom, and your tank probably isn't perfectly cycled. My guess is your cheap filter tells you to replace the filter cartridge every week or two. This is bad, as you throw away a large portion of your cycling bacteria.

If its the latter, I think your filter isn't pulling out large debris well enough, and quite possible your water changing routine is a bit too infrequent.

You also have a lot of fish in that one tank, probably added too quickly, over powering the bio filter.

Clown loaches (not crown) grow to be very large. It takes a number of years, but within 2 years, they'll need at 55gallon tank...and eventually 75+ gallons of swimming space.
Chinese algae eaters can be aggressive. When they are adults, they prefer to suck the slime coat off the other fish, rather than eat algae.
Gold fish are cold water fish. Keeping them at tropical temperatures raises their metabolism...they'll grow faster, but die younger. They are also very messy fish, and the typical stocking rule is 1goldfish per 5-10 gallons of water.

Lastly, 15 guppies is going to turn into 50 very quickly. all you need is one female to make it happen.

You're definitely over feeding. You don't need to feed more than once a day...in fact many hobbiests feed every other day, or have a day a week they don't feed. Plus, a couple small pinches is plenty of flake food. Fish don't have the mental capacity we do...if food is there, they eat it. So they always appear hungry. There are many fish you can easily kill by over feeding.
But fish are smart enough to learn that when you stand in front of th etank and lift the lid...food is coming. Don't let them trick you into overfeeding. They aren't begging...they are just waiting, instinctually.

 

[pwrflpills]

I've got a kit too...the Petsmart 20 gal kit, but it's worked pretty well for the most part. I'm starting to have doubts about the filter - "high gear" isn't as high as it used to be, but everything seems to remain in order.

One thing I did recently to help my cloudy/dirty looking water was to get a much finer sponge material for the filter. It's like a really thin, dense A/C filter material and has ammonia treatment to boot (that's all they had besides an activated carbon one, so I figured what the heck.) I messed with those activated carbon filled things for a while until I learned the truth and just started using the black sponge filter it came with, but that never really cleaned the water. I slipped in a clipping of this new stuff and the water is crystal again. If you want to look for it it's got a tan color to it and comes in a big sheet that you can clip to fit.

Good luck and get rid of some of those fish!!

 

[malkore]

filter floss will definitely remove fine particulate matter. but if this is hazy, bacterial bloom, no amount of mechanical filtration will help...biological filtration is the missing link.

 

[Dark_S2000]

Thanks for the replies. I think my grandmother is going to get all the guppies sometime this week, so that would elimiatate them. Whenever I find room, I do plan on getting a 55g tank (not a kit, might actually save money in the long run), just at the moment no where to put it. Also the water is kinda hazy looking, and I usually do 25% water change every week (usually 40% because python sucks so fast).

 

[Dark_S2000]

Today when I got home from work, I put some of the tank water in a buckey and it was still kinda hazy whitish color in a way. Just a few moments ago (its dark at the moment) with the room and tank light off I shined a flashlight into the side of the tank and I could see the beam of light shining through the water and did notice alot of particals just floating around in there, couldn't see them before with the lights on. Do you think it might possibly be overfeeding that could cause it (I only started feeding them one time a day).