Freshwater Help

[drillsar]

Greenish/Ammonia Problem

I hope this is ok to post here

I went to petsmart today and a guy named Tom helped me, he seemed like he knew alot.

I had my 10 gal tank for 2 months now with 3 Goldfish which he told me was bad they should really go in a 30 gal by anyway

I brought a water sample because my tank is greenish

Ammonia was at 1.0, NO3 at 20ppm, NO2 0.5

using a top fin filter, he seemed to think either im not fully cycled or that my filter isnt doing a great job he said top fin filters arent great so I bought a penguin 150 which he said is better.

He told me I should feed the goldfish once a day (what they can eat in 3 minutes) I was feeding them twice a day

he told me greenish water usually is a result of bacteria insuficient

but he also said I should really get a 30 gal at least for 3 goldfish,

PLEASE HELP

 

[Fazulka]

He is right that gold fish need 10 gallons each. they will poison themselves, they are very dirty. The green water is algae, leave the light off for a couple days and it will be clear. There are lots of freshwater forums where people will probably be able to help you more.

 

[metal1971]

green water = microscopic algae bloom.Wich means to much nutrients in the water . In most cases this is do to over feeding (wich sounds like you might be doing )Cut the feeding back to once a day , do 30% water change and run some carbon in your filter and it should clear up in a couple days. As far as a bigger tank, it depends on how big your fish are . If they are more than a couple inches I would move up to a bigger tank. Gold fish produce alot of waste wich breaks down into the water and can also be the cause of algae blooms . hope this helps you out.

 

[drillsar]

yeah thts what he said, I wish I talked to him before, the other guy there I guess didnt know, I wish he would of told me he wasnt sure.

 

[Felix T Cat]

Start changing 20-25% of the water daily to get your ammonia levels down. 1.0 is very bad for fish and probably causing them all kinds of gill issues. Watch using the new filter because it will not have the Bio established and you could wind up restarting your cycle all over again. If the old filter material is still wet stuff it into the new filter to help transfer some of the good bio to the new system.

Check out
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/
Very good FW forums and you will find much more info for taking care of them there. It's where I started when I set up my 46 last year.

 

[rolltide12]

I had a bag green water bloom.Al I did to get it to go away is do a 25 percent water change,and for 3 days I did not turn on the tank lights and covered the tank with a blanket.Algae needs light to bloom. After 3 days the algae bloom had subsided and I did another water change and added some bio with stresszyme and havnt had a breakout since.

 

[Juruense]

Gold fish are not like most fresh water fish for two important reasons. They like cool water and they need lots of space per fish.

 

[Sapsis]

Adding cycle (great water additive), water changes, lose the heater (if using one) and you do need a bigger tank for 3 goldfish.

 

[WaterKeeper]

You might ask here-



Just click the logo

 

[reef4me2]

More water changes, and a much bigger tank! Depending on what breed of goldfish, they could get larger than you'd expect! Japanese carp (the fish from which coi and goldfish were developed) regularly grows to over 36" long, and I have kept goldfish (red-capped orandas) about the size of tennis balls with fins!

 

[surgeonfishbarb]

I agree. You need to do a 25% water change right away

 

[Felix T Cat]

as a side note, get one of these:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754886

I can do a 50% water change in my 46 gal tank in under 20 min which makes it MUCH easier to keep up with changes.

 

[drillsar]

Yeah I got one but I bought that from a bed place where they fill water beds, same thing and lots cheaper.