Brown Water

[Somthings Fishy]

Hi,

Thank you for reading this, I could you use any help possible. I am not a begginer but thought this might be the place to go. I just recently cleaned out my 16g freshwater tank. This is the first time in more than 3 weeks i am cleaning it out. After i was done, lots of the leftover food, and fish poop was floating around. My water is brown, and is not clearing up. My LFS told me just to let the filter run its course but I was wondering if anyone could tell me other ways to clear it up! I am open to any suggestions! Thank you!

 

[boxman]

Sounds like either

1) You overfeed your fish
2) Your filter isn't good enough for the size of your tank
3) You need to increase the frequency of water changes / siphons
4) Your fish stocking levels are too high

Do you have pl*co's - they can be notorious poop machines.

Do you clean your filter media every/other water change (in old tank water)?

There could be other things that could be causing this problem but I suspect it's one of the above.

What are your water tests like?

 

[FishSticks]

I just recently cleaned out my 16g freshwater tank. This is the first time in more than 3 weeks i am cleaning it out.

You do 100% water changes and clean everything out?

 

[Somthings Fishy]

I only change about 35% of the water, never full. I did have an overstocked tank once upon a time, my guppies were little love makers. I could've been overfeeding them. My main concern was why it isn't clearing up. Is there anything I can do to speed up the proces?? Oh, by the way, my LFS told me that my filter was the best that I could buy for the 16g tank!!

 

[pjfish]

did you vac the gravel when you changed the water?

 

[Fish 'R' Fun]

How often do you do a water change? If you do 35% too often you will lose the bacteria already built up!

 

[Sky042]

How often do you do a water change? If you do 35% too often you will lose the bacteria already built up!

Not true.
Since the bacteria do not live in the water it'self.
Now if he's cleaning out the filter thats another thing.
But you can easily do a 50% water change without any real impact on the bacterialogical filter.

 

[Fish 'R' Fun]

Try aswell cutting right down on the feeding and once the levels reach 0 avoid feeding them for 3 -4 days! That is what i always do on my aquariums and it never fails!

My fish are very healthy and living fine!

 

[Slyspy]

Sounds like you are overfeeding, possibly overstocked (what do you have in there btw?) and not vacuuming on a regular basis. Hence the mess. Cut down on the amount you feed your fish, take some fish to a friendly LFS if you have too many, and do weekly water changes.

It may be that your filter is choked on debris. Try rinsing the pre-filter foam in old tank water next time you do a water change, and make sure the impeller is not clogged.