Hi everyone,

My names Maz from Leicester and I have recently set up a tropical fish tank at home. Im completely a novice to fish keeping so joined up here for a bit of advice. Ive had my tank for roughly 2 and a half weeks now, and started putting fish in about a week ago, i have an oscar, reedfish, a malayan shrimp & a silver shark & a plec so far.

The only thing thats worrying me right now is that my tank water is very very cloudy still, i did thoroughly clean the gravel etc however its been cloudy since the first day and looks worse day by day. This morning my shrimp was dead and im worried that its going to end up killing the rest of them...?

Im thinking should I change the water completely in the tank? Your advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks

Did you take a look at the instructions for cycling a new tank? Click here.

did you add tap safe to your water? look at the cycle post

yes i did add tap safe to the water this was given to me along with the tank when i bought it. its a tetralife one. im just wondering because ive lost 2 fish now since ive had the tank that ive done something wrong. is there anyway i can re start the cycle again to avoid any future risks like this

have a read of the link in my sig 'whats cycling' and also of the guide to setting up an aquarium and the guide to weekly miantenance as a start. these should gert you thinking down the right lines, give us a shout if you have any more questions when you;ve read them,

Yep have a good read of the links in Miss Wiggles sig. You are going to be doing a fish in cycle, so you will need to do plenty of water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels in the tank as low as possible to keep your fish healthy.

Can I just ask, what size is your tank?

Do you happen to have a liquid based test kit to monitor the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in your tank? If not, I would recommend you go and buy one as soon as you can so you can test the water, that way people here will be able to help you with regards to the amount of water changes you will need to do.

Im just working through the guides now. the aquarium is set up and yes ive added water treatments, bacteria etc.

the tank i have is a juwel rekord 70 ltr.


This post has been edited by mk47: Jul 1 2008, 11:42 AM

Thats great your reading the links

However, Im sorry to tell you but your tank is far too small for the fish you have already.

A Single oscar needs to be in a 55g tank minimum, they grow very big. The silver shark really should be in a group as they are shoaling fish and again will outgrow your tank quickly, a 6ft tank minimum for them as well. What sort of plec is it? If its a common plec, then sorry, again it will be far too big for your tank. I really think you would be better off taking the fish back to the place you got them from and explain the size of your tank or re-home them some place else or invest in a much much larger tank very soon for the sake of the fish.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but have a read about, check out the species indexs on the forum and take a look at your fish and read up about their requirements.