Arrgghh!

[chibi]

My brother has a 10 gallon with 2 big angelfish, 3 flame tetras, a synodontis, an upside-down catfish, a chinese algae eater, a glass catfish, a kuhli loach, a male swordtail, a female swordtail, and a bulldog pleco. Insanely overstocked! I rarely vacuum it, he hasn't changed the filter in months, and the angelfish constantly bully each other. The annoying part? He hasn't had a fish death in over 10 months! Most of the fish in there (including the syno and the angelfish) are almost 2 years old!! The water stats aren't perfect, but they're okay, too! My 29 gallon isn't nearly as overstocked, yet I've had deaths every month or so. I gravel vac every 2 weeks, change the filter every month, and constantly check the stats.

Share your frustrating fish stories.

Please don't tell me to move any of the fish out of the 10-gallon. It would break my brother's heart and I've got no where to put them.

 

[Esfa]

WOAH! THAT INSANE. AND CRUEL.

but no deaths?.... i hate him already.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

My brother has a 10 gallon with 2 big angelfish, 3 flame tetras, a synodontis, an upside-down catfish, a chinese algae eater, a glass catfish, a kuhli loach, a male swordtail, a female swordtail, and a bulldog pleco. Insanely overstocked! I rarely vacuum it, he hasn't changed the filter in months, and the angelfish constantly bully each other. The annoying part? He hasn't had a fish death in over 10 months! Most of the fish in there (including the syno and the angelfish) are almost 2 years old!! The water stats aren't perfect, but they're okay, too! My 29 gallon isn't nearly as overstocked, yet I've had deaths every month or so. I gravel vac every 2 weeks, change the filter every month, and constantly check the stats.

Share your frustrating fish stories.

Please don't tell me to move any of the fish out of the 10-gallon. It would break my brother's heart and I've got no where to put them.

that's probably your problem chibi

too much maintenance can be bad for your filter, if your bacteria colony is always under stress from cleaning it may never fully mature which could cause water quality problems.

 

[adamgreen240]

haha my friend just flushed a load of tropical fish because he was getting rid of his tank - i live a road away - one knock and i would have glady accepted them!

 

[ebrcknrdg]

My brother has a 10 gallon with 2 big angelfish, 3 flame tetras, a synodontis, an upside-down catfish, a chinese algae eater, a glass catfish, a kuhli loach, a male swordtail, a female swordtail, and a bulldog pleco. Insanely overstocked! I rarely vacuum it, he hasn't changed the filter in months, and the angelfish constantly bully each other. The annoying part? He hasn't had a fish death in over 10 months! Most of the fish in there (including the syno and the angelfish) are almost 2 years old!! The water stats aren't perfect, but they're okay, too! My 29 gallon isn't nearly as overstocked, yet I've had deaths every month or so. I gravel vac every 2 weeks, change the filter every month, and constantly check the stats.

Share your frustrating fish stories.

Please don't tell me to move any of the fish out of the 10-gallon. It would break my brother's heart and I've got no where to put them.

The problem is that you are changing your filter! You arent letting the good bacteria grow on it. Just rinse it out in your tank water (when you do a water change) when it becomes clogged up. When you gravel vac do you do it all in one go? Theres good bacteria in there as well so you should only do half at a time

 

[chibi]

The thing is though, I have one of those filters where you change only a part at a time. Could that still be my problem?

 

[jourdy288]

Just out of curiosity, what type of filter does your brother have?

 

[chibi]

He has a Hagen AquaClear, just like me. His is an AquaClear 10, while mine's a 30.

 

[SouthernCross]

I have a Aquaclear too - a 50.

I never change out my sponges. All I do is give them a good squeeze in a bucket of tank water. In mine I have one full sponge, a half sponge, and the bag of bio material. No need for the carbon unless removing a med. On occasion, I add an extra little layer of filter floss to help keep it extra clear - and when that gets grotty I throw that out and replace it. But that's all - NEVER replace the sponges! Or if it's seriously falling apart (but I imagine that would take YEARS) - only ever replace half of it at a time.

The only reason the instructions say keep replacing your sponges is because they want you to buy more of their product!

Everyone in this thread is right - your deaths are from changing your sponges. Everytime you're doing this you're causing a minicycle and you're poisoning your fish with ammonia and nitrite spikes. If you're checking your stats you should be seeing these spikes. Just keep the same sponges and rinse them!!! But ONLY in old tankwater so you don't kill your good bacteria!

 

[kribensis12]

My teacher who i gave a golly to( which i now have again) never gravel vacumed, overfed, and changed the filter pad all the time, never had a dealth( she didnt even have a heater)!!!!!!!!!. I have a deatrh every once and a while. Ohh, she never dechlorinated her water either.