Tank questions for native fish

[danware]

Hi, Im new here, but I have a few problems. I have a tank with a LEGAL amount of fish, I have 5 blue gill and 6 goldfish in the same tank. It's a 75 gallon tank. I have 2 wisper 60gl filters and a wisper 20gl filter. I have aeration, fake plants and wood.

My tank has been cloudy for a while. I have had this tank with tropicals in it for 10 years, the died (one by one) and I converted to blue gill (cheaper up front, more expensive down the road). I don't have under gravel filtration because I was told it could release and kill the whole tank. I'm going on, but the problem is the tank is cloudy, i have enough filtration for a 140 gallon tank on a 75 gallon. What can I do to fix this??? Would live plants help.

[Lonewolfblue]

The bluegill are very dirty fish. Almost need old water being pumped out and fresh water in all the time to be able to keep them. And the same with the goldfish, you just compound the problem. Not much you are going to be able to do to clear the water with that many fish.

[RogerMcAllen]

What are your water levels like?

That seems like a huge load of fish for such a small tank. Goldfish are best kept with at least 5 (preferably 10) gallons each. The same goes for the bluegill. I think you would be better off if you reduced your numbers by eliminating one of the species from the tank.

[Andos99]

How long has your tank been setup? When was your last water change and how big was it? If you have your heart set on keeping all those fish, you could actually use a little more filtration (a cannister would be good) along with daily (yes daily) water changes. Otherwise, as already mentioned, you need to get rid of the goldies or the bluegills.

[danware]

This tank has been setup for about 10 years with tropicals (never completly drained, only to about 25%). I have had all these fish in the tank since november 2005. The tank was always pretty clear (not as clear as with tropicals) till last month when things turned really sour. Almost lost the whole tank, doubled filtration, changed half the water and everything lived (except the minows).

Is there anything I can add, like plant to help the clearity? I tried that water clarifier from tetra, didn't work. At first I thought I might have restarted "new tank syndrome" with all the duratic changes.

Thanks again for your help,
Dan

Oh here are some pics of the tank.
http://dwl.tc/fishtank/DSCN3947.JPG
http://dwl.tc/fishtank/DSCN3948.JPG

[chabooky386]

There is some chemicals you can buy but what i think would be most effective is just draining about 50% of the water.

[danware]

could high levels of ammonia be causing this?? I have not tested that as I don't have a kit

Thanks again,
Dan

[fishygurl]

Ammonia does not cause cloudieness, its bacterial blooms. Try getting your water tested a t your LFS though, just incase.

[danware]

I Know this sounds stupid, but is LFS local fish shop??? If so, i only have a pet smart, do they do that??

[Andos99]

You have correctly identified the definition of LFS. Places like PetsMart typically use the test strips which aren't very accurate, so you would be better off buying a decent kit yourself such as the master kit from aquarium pharmaceuticals and have better results. Plus you can use it again in the future. Like already mentioned, your best course of action would be to keep up with the water changes and stick to them religiously. Good luck.

[danware]

Thanks for all you helpful input. But, if I do daily or weekly water changes, wont it dirty all the time (like after a usual water change)

Thanks again,
Dan

[Andos99]

Originally Posted by danware

Thanks for all you helpful input. But, if I do daily or weekly water changes, wont it dirty all the time (like after a usual water change)

I don't follow?

[danware]

I'm sorry, but everytime i change the water, it makes the tank even cloudier for the next few days. So by changing the water (daily or bi-weekly), wouldn't that hurt my issue of an unclear tank. Granted the fish may like it.

[JodiMartin2003]

You tank shouldn't be cloudy after a water change. Maybe you need to vaccuum the gravel better. You could be getting the cloudiness from a buildup of waste that has been in the gravel. When you pour the water in , you stir up the gravel, thus releasing all the junk in the bottom of the tank. This seems the most obvious cause to me since those are all very large fish making very large amounts of waste.

[danware]

I know in the non-aquatic world their are little insects that eat that kind of waste, is there are kinds of things like that for the aquatic world (fish tank friendly)? I have thought about putting a crawfish in their for looks, would that help since they are bottom scavengers? Also, I have "county water" and sometimes it's not the clearest to start.

[JodiMartin2003]

The best thing you can do for your tank, especially if you want to keep ALL those fish(which I dont recommend) is regular water changes. I'll bet your ammonia is crazy high with all those fish. You should invest in a water testing kit also. If you go online most petsmarts will honor their online prices. I got my Aquarium Pharmecuticals Master Test Kit for the online price of 13.49 when the instore price was 27.99. Dont buy test strips!!!! They are worthless.

[danware]

One more dumb thing, would this work, http://"http://www.petsmart.com/glob...xt=ammonia&N=2 an ammonia asorbing pad? If it is an ammonia problem, if I cut these and stuck them in a powerfilter.

Sounds to me like you need to vacum the gravel and do weekly water changes.
How offten do you chnge the water in the tank?

Do you vacum the gravel when you do?

[danware]

I kinda lack on that, I change it when it looks like it needs it, then i vacum the gravel about twice on the same water change (I.E. I go over everything twice). Does anyone think a ammonia filter/pad thing would help??? Any luck with one???

[JodiMartin2003]

I think you will find that most of the people here do not use the ammonia pad because they do enough water changes to keep their ammonia at 0. IMO this is how it should be done. I change 50% of my 55g every 2 weeks and that keeps my levels down. Most of the people here do more water changes than that. If you are looking for someone here to condone not changing your water on a regular basis and just do it when it "needs" it(which to you is probably when the water actually looks dirty, which IMO is wayyy too late anyway) you arent going to find that here. I dont want to sound rude, but all of the answers you have gotten have been the same. Get rid of one of the species and do more water changes. It's just that simple. If you can accomplish this, you and your fish will be much happier.