I have a 10 gallon tank, with a filter and heater. I was wondering if the water is supposed to be crystal clear like when I first put the water in the tank with the water conditioner & bacteria fighter? Or is it supposed to be slightly cloudy all of the time? I’m on day 4 of the cycling proccess, and I’m supposed to go to Petco for the fish on Friday, so I don’t want the fish to die or anything in my water. Right now it’s slightly cloudy, but the right temperature. Thanks!

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I had fish for quite a long time, but it was constant buying because they never stayed alive long. I gave it up, and now i got a new tank and want to start again. I’m thinking of things to do differently, and maybe thought distilled water (pure H2O) might be a better idea to fill my tank with. Help?

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If you fill a glass with water from my tap (well water) the water is crystal clear. When you let it sit for an hour or so it starts to yellow, and gets and oily film on top. If you let it continue to sit for more hours/overnight it gets filled with little orange balls of goo that float all around in it.

We already have water delivery because of the water being smelly and softened with a softener which the landlord claims is a "purification system" that "makes the water delicious" … well we never believed that one!!

So what can be making the water get so nasty after it sits around? He’s added more chemicals/salts to the water system, but it actually seems worse since he did that.
We don’t drink it, we don’t give it to the cats or fish, and we don’t water plants with it. It makes our heads scaly and skin dry, and turns all the bathroom fixtures orange. It is happening through the whole house.

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I have a 12 gallon. Im not sure how long i should let the water go through the filtering system before i can put fish in. plzzz help
I know that it has to be cholorinated. I just need to know how long the tankmust be going before it can establish healthy bacteria.also I have two goldfih which are what im going to put in it.

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Ok, i have a 10 gallon tank with heater, slightly high ph (well, really at the highest amount for a beta and tetras-7.4), a thermometer, a filter, 1 beta, and 4 (well, NOW four) neon tetras. 2 days ago, i bought 5 neon tetras. they were to go with my beta that i currently had in the 10 gallon tank. the water is pure, i clean it approx. every 4-5 days. when i first got my tetras and put them in, they were fine. yesterday, i noticed the beta was sometimes swiming right next to them, but they were out in the open and he was "stalking" in the plants. occasionally they would swim together in the open, so i figured it was ok. half the time, this one neon tetra (he was a tad longer and slimer than the others, and had more potent coloring) would separate from the others, sometimes swiming side by side with the beta. this morning, i was feeding my fish when i realized only 4 were swiming around in the tank. i couldn’t find the last one! my mom went fishing around the tank with her hand when…
…she accedentally uprooted two plants. when she was re-planting them. she saw a tetra floating around with no tail at the surface. my little "rebel" was dead! he must of been held down by the plants. he definetely wasn’t floating b4. non the less, we think the beta bit off his tail. now, the other fish always stay in a school, but occasionally separate. ever since, ive noticed they are a more aggressive. the beta is always "stalking" in the plants, though it looks as if he is looking for food. but, just now i saw he looked for food right beneath the tetras, and i tapped the tank so that the tetras would see him. then he tried to take a little nip out of them one, but he got away. i really want my fish to stay safe, what should i do???

p.s. i also got these fish from petco, so i still have a warently on the 5 tetras if i should by new to keep the quantity high. thx!
i let my tank go through the cycles and all that already.
oh and also, for the part of the question saying what is wrong with my fish, my beta has this large lump (about the size of his head) right behind his gills.
did i forget to say the dead neon had NO TAIL!!! (when he was found dead , of course.)
im still waiting for answers…desperately!

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i have a 29 gallon tank with pool filter sand as substrate (pure no chemicals) water here is 7.0 ph. im interested in lively fish such as cichlids. i prefer to be understocked to adequate rather than overstocked. what common cichlids can i get from stores and how many can i get? experienced answers only please.
please experts only half of these are ridiculous
and please read the question im asking about cichlids…

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I bought a 55 gallon set up from a friend that was moving. It was originally a Salt water tank so it has a salt water filter with square media.

Can this be used for the fresh water tank as well? If not what should I use for a 55 gallon tank?

We are also going to get a gravel vacuum, a heater, and eventually some fish….
It seems to be a "Wet Dry" type of filter

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they say to do a 90% water change the day before you get your fish, how do you keep the beneficial bacteria alive between the water change and the new fish?

If you change 90% of the water won’t it destroy the beneficial bacteria? because all of the stuff that feeds it ( ammonia, nitrite etc ) are gone and it has nothing to eat there fore the beneficial bacteria will die.

If you add something like eco-start or sera nitrivec ( benefical bacteria kick starters ) while doing fishless cycling ( i will be using pure ammonia ) won’t the eco-start or whatever kill the ammonia and nitrite therefore taking away the bacteria’s food?

I restarting my tank because it got ich and stuff, i am going to completly tear it down, boil the gravel, filter media, decorations, fake plants, and start all over again by adding completley dirt-free dechlorinated water and pure ammonia 1-2 days after resetting up my tank, any tips on this, destroying the good bacteria i have is not a concern.

Thanks!!!
You are not supposed to do water cfhanges during the fishless cycling, right?

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Does anybody out there realize that "triple filtered" means tap water? Even if it is spring water, that doesn’t mean it is free of pollutants or fish poop! And even if it is pure, it’s not worth more than a quarter! But as long as people are dumb enough to keep paying good money for it, they will keep making huge profits for something that is no better than tap water, which is worth less than a penny per gallon.

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I got this aquarium from an auction and it came with everything except the fish. I never had an aquarium before but so far all is well. It just seems that it is too much water current in the tank. It came with two hang on the back filters.
Thank you for your input. I will continue to run both filters.

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I have had a goldfish, which lives in a bowl, for about 6 weeks. When I got the goldfish, the clerk at the pet store told me to take out 25% of the water each week, and replace it with clean water that has been treated with water conditioner. I have been doing this, and the water has stayed clear.

The problem is that there is a bunch of fish poop at the bottom of the bowl. It looks really gross.

I want to change all of the water in the bowl, but I am afraid that it will hurt the fish. The clerk at the pet store told me that the fish needs the bacteria in the water and I should not change all of the water at once. What do you think? Does anyone change all of the water regulary? Does it have any negative affects on the fish?

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I have tried everything to get rid of this algae in my tank, fish, aqua pure filter, use only RO water, light on only 8 hours a day. Only thing left that i heard could work is shutting the lights down for a few days. Will this help, and would it harm my anenome?

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Everytime I get filtered water from my refrigerator/freezer it smells like fish. I hate it. It doesn’t taste bad, but the smell just makes me want to pour it out, which I always end up doing. Any answers why it smells like this? What can I do to make it smell normal?

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Yes, i have a undergravel filter, which is powered by an air pump. (I only have a 10-15 gallon air pump, in a 29 gallon tank. But i don’t that makes a difference, becasue it should just blow out the same amount of air through the 2 tubes) But when i put the carbon cartridges on, it slows down the flow of the filtering water (Bubbles come out every 2-3 seconds, i thought it would come out all the time and have a pretty good current). Then i read that if there isn’t a good current going through the cartridges the carbon cartridges will actully be toxins for the fish. So what should i do to help. Is the undergravel filter still cleaning the tank without the cartridges, or should i get a bigger air pump which will help the current of the water through the cartridges? Please help….
Yes i also have a filter going on also, and it have rosy and tiger barbs with rasaboras….
Do I really need the carbon cartridges on the filter tubes…

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I have a 20 gallon tank, stocked as follows:
1 swordtail
1 molly
1 pleco
2 glass catfish
3 brilliant rasboras
4 ghost shrimp

I’m wondering how often I ought to do water changes (25%). Also, when I do water changes, what do I need to do to make the water safe for my fish? My tap water is extremely hard, and contains lots of chemicals. I have a PUR filter on the tap — does that make the water safe for fish, or do I have to take other steps?

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