Are These Fish Messy? And Why Is My Water Yellowish?

[mhschiefs97]

I was wondering if the fish in my tank are messy ones or relatively clean ones that don't put a hard strain on my filter:
-3 clown loaches (should be 4 but I can't find one if my life depended on it.
-2 pairs of guppies
-4 small Otos
-4 Giant Danios
-1 small bolivian ram
-1 small silver dollar
-1 silver dollar
-1 iridescent shark (I plan on finding a new home for him because he is going to get to big and because he is CRAZY (prob from almost getting eaten in another tank) and always crashes into the walls of my tank stressing out my other fish and cutting up his face)

Now the next question. My tank is 3 weeks into cycling and its 20 gallons. After the second week I added half of the 90 ballong bio spira stuff when my ammonia was around 5 and very cloudy water. 2 days later I added the rest since I saw no change and this time around added it straight to the filter instead of the water. Since then the water has gotten much better and the ammonia read 1 today with 0-10 nitrates (probably because I added some danios and guppies yesterday because the nitrates were 20-30 2 days ago) So I am thinking my water has to be yellow from my driftwood. One peice was added a week ago and my second was added yesterday. I also have 2 small jave ferns and a crypt plant in my tank. So what could the yellow water be from?

(2 qucik typos I noticed. I onle have 1 silver dollar and it is small. And I added half of the 90 gallon bag* of bio spira)

 

[mhschiefs97]

Also I have read that Purigen is good to help clear up the water. Is this stuff hard to find and expensive, and would you guys recommend it?

 

[mhschiefs97]

Sorry I noticed I mixed up the clown loaches for KUHLI Loaches. I always call my kuhli loaches that by accident.

 

[the biffster]

what size is your tank and what size is your filter

 

[mhschiefs97]

what size is your tank and what size is your filter

20 gallon wide and my filter came with it. I think it's called an external power filter that is meant for a 20 gallon. I wanna eventually switch to something meant for a larger tank though.

 

[the biffster]

i would think that would be a bit over stocked

is your tank 18x12x12

 

[mhschiefs97]

i would think that would be a bit over stocked

is your tank 18x12x12

I don't know the exact dimensions. It is one of the basic ones you buy in the box called All Glass Aquariums.

 

[Faythee]

Using the Bio-Spira the tank should be cycled by now. The problem is that you added too many fish too quickly creating waste. They aren't "messy". Had you waited and slowly added fish, the filter would have cycled quicker. You need to do daily water changes and use a product such as "Prime" that changes the ammonia to a less harmful ammonia for the sake of the fishies.

Not sure why the water is yellow. Bio Spira will make it cloudy for a while.

 

[dzsigmond217]

Is the water actually yellow?..or a light ice tea color. If it is more ice tea colored I would think that it is from the piece of driftwood. You'll just have to keep doing partial water changes until it stops. This doesn't hurt the fish (water changes or the leaking color from the drift wood). It also sounds like your tank could be overstocked. I was told a gallon of water per inch of fish. In your first post you already had around 17 fish. Then in a later post you said you added some more guppies. Remember to calculate the max size each fish can grow if you plan on keeping them. Add up inches to gallons to figure out which fish will fit in the long run. Good Luck!

 

[littlest]

you need to rehome your silver dollars and definately your shark. Rehome then sooner rather than later as they become harder to rehome as they get bigger, and if you rehome them now you won't have to subject them to a cycling tank (and it will be easier to get your ammonia/nitrite under control).
Your very overstocked, particularly for a cycled tank. I'm confused as to why you added more fish yesterday if you knew your tank was still cycling.
You need to do water changes to keep your ammonia and nitrite under 0.25

I agree that the yellow colour is probably from your driftwood. That's not something to worry about, but your ammonia and nitrite levels are.