# Question



## Avatar~God (Oct 21, 2004)

This doesnt involve me but a customer of mine at work

This ladies tank is cloudy and its been like that for a while now. She said she has been doing water changes weekly since the tank has been set up. I thought because of that maybe her tank hasn't been able to cycle properly? She has one small fantail in there and she had a problem with ammonia, i tested it and it was high but she was using ammonia lock which throws the readings off.

I told her to stop doing water changes and had her add some bio-spira and supposedly its still cloudy after two weeks of not doing water changes. Any guess's on the reason behind her tank being cloudy? When she adds any fish to the tank they die, I'm half tempted to just go to house and check things out my self its becoming such a pain in the ass.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

She is lying to you.
Thats all I can think.
What else could it be?

Is it in a window?
WHERE there other fish that dissapeared and are in the tank somewhere?
Does she siphon the substrate?
What type of filter is on it and what is in that filter?
Does she ALWAYS clean the filter with the water changes?
I dont know..it doesnt make sense.


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

I agree with NA it doesnt make sense but i think we need to know what other fish she has tried to add as well as how often she has tried to add the fish. depending on timing it could of never been cycled because the ammonia output by the fish keep fluctuating and the beneficial bacteria die off and struggle to catchup when she tosses in a new fish which causes a ammonia spike and another spike occures when the fish stays in the water for how ever long just roting until she takes it out. then eventually she adds another one and the cycle continues best case scenario. worst case scenario she has something rotting in that tank and never gravel vacs. in addition to what NA ask what size is the tank?


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

Does she even have a filter?
Maybe she is trying to get you over to her house to "service her" not the tank??


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## Restricted- (Aug 21, 2008)

cobrafox46 said:


> Does she even have a filter?
> Maybe she is trying to get you over to her house to "service her" not the tank??


HA


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

nice..I was actually going to ask that about the filter...But I was like nah...nobody is that clueless!
But then again...maybe thats why she is changed the water so frequently!


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## Avatar~God (Oct 21, 2004)

notaverage said:


> She is lying to you.
> Thats all I can think.
> What else could it be?
> 
> ...


I was thinking she was full of it also but she is coming in my work all the time so im sort of confused on her inpatients

She keeps her tank in the basement with little sunlight at all

She has only kept goldfish in there

It is heated but she says its at about 74

The filter she has is whisper and it hangs in the tank, im not a fan of it because i feel it doesn't put off enough current in the tank

She said she did clean the filter at first but i told her to stop for obvious reasons

One thing that made me think was the fact that she is doing so much to this tank at one time, She add's stress coat, ammonia lock, aqua safe, and she also has a bag of ammonia chips that she says she rest's in the tank. I didnt think that resting the chips in a bagy at the bottum would do much of anything without much current?

Hers a pic of her filter (random pic online) She also has a 20 gallon tank and she has the 20 gallon model not the 10 gallon


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

How many fish are in the tank?


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## Retaks (Apr 6, 2008)

Those filters suck. I have a 10 gal on for in my 2.5 gal tank when i had a Betta in there and it worked OK in that small of a tank. She needs to get a good filter for the tank clean everything out and start all over. Then explain to her exactly how ot properly cycle the tank with the fish she has in there. Goldfish can live through about anything so i doubt she will kill it cycling the tank. My Ex-Gf had one in a bowl for a month without changing the water or a filter and overfeeding it every day. Its still alive now and it is 3 years later.


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## Avatar~God (Oct 21, 2004)

cobrafox46 said:


> Those filters suck. I have a 10 gal on for in my 2.5 gal tank when i had a Betta in there and it worked OK in that small of a tank. She needs to get a good filter for the tank clean everything out and start all over. Then explain to her exactly how ot properly cycle the tank with the fish she has in there. Goldfish can live through about anything so i doubt she will kill it cycling the tank. My Ex-Gf had one in a bowl for a month without changing the water or a filter and overfeeding it every day. Its still alive now and it is 3 years later.


Yeah i told her that I'm not a fan of those filters but she says she doesnt want to replace it because its "newer".


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## Retaks (Apr 6, 2008)

If she wont upgrade the filters she is going to keep having problems. For $20 she can get a Aquaclear filter and not have to worry about anything for a whyle. The smallest filters AC makes is for a 20 gal but that would be fine on a 10 gal tank and it is what i would recomend since most people overstock 10 gal tanks anyways and goldfish are very messy fish that get large.


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

I would tell her to dump everything and start over. Clean the sh*t out of all of it. I still think she wants your meat bro!!


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## Retaks (Apr 6, 2008)

I really recomend buying new filters. I would say an AC20 for the 10 gal tank and either an AC30 or possibly and AC50 depending on whats in the 20 gal tank.


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

I hate to say it but based on reading this over again she aint coming to you to fix a tank but instead she just...yea kids read this so fill in the blank for me...be creative







lol. also on a side note i actually find that filter to be very effective when used properly for a smaller tank of course there is no competing with a AC but its still a good budget filter especially the one rated for 20g.


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

^^^^ I have been thinking the same thing from post 1. Nothing could be causing all these problems unless she is doing a 75% water change everyday. Even then every fish thrown in would not die right away. I think she wants your trouser snake in her worm hole!!


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## NegativeSpin (Aug 1, 2007)

After some thought and personal experience I was thinking that most flake and pellet food have a relatively high percentage of carbohydrates although some don't list them on the crude analysis. Uneaten pellets and flakes would provide the necessary nutrients for a bacterial bloom. It wouldn't take that much protein and the excess carbs would provide the rest of the raw materials for cell growth and progagation. I would suggest feeding the fish specialized food that has no plant nutrients in it as an educated, but yet unproven, guess to answer this problem.


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## Demon Darko (Jan 28, 2007)

I'd say scrap everything and help her get started from the beginning.


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

From the sound of it, there's too much chemicals and not enough cycling going on. If you're constantly adding things that take the ammonia out of the water, then it's never going to build up enough to get a bacteria culture going.
I'm with Slytooth. Time for a do-over.


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