High Nitrite & Cloudy Water After 1 Month

[greengoddess]

No, the carbon is not important. Carbon's primary purpose is as a "chemical media" and is used for mostly for special purposes such as removing medications after they've been used or removing yellow tannins that leach from wood. Under most circumstances carbon only lasts for 3 days and then is ready to be removed and tossed. This is why most aquarists in normal situations do not use it continuously - it would just be too expensive.

Very good and detailed advice up above. It can be a difficult choice to provide a large tank with good filtration and good maintenance for a pair of goldfish, but if you decide its worth it then its nice to learn the right way of going about it.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks. I threw the carbon away yesterday and now have a large sponge, small sponge and zeolite in that order of filtration. The water is currently crystal clear and the nitrite level has fallen considerably and is now below danger level. At the moment I am reasonably happy to leave them for a week whilst I am away.

I have bought one of those holiday feeding blocks, I assume this is safe to use as I don't have anyone who can visit to feed the fish when we are away.

 

[Harlequins]

I wouldn't personally use the holiday block,this may end up making the water conditions worse,maybe give the fish a bit extra food for a few days before you go away.I'm sure someone will help you more on this i'm not sure how long fish survive without food,if you left it out...

How big is the holiday block?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with Harlequins, most here feel feeding blocks make the situation worse than if you didn't use them. Tropicals can go for very long periods without you feeding them, 2 weeks with ease. I'm sure goldfish can go for pretty long periods too but I'll defer to any of our goldfish experts out there who can speak from experience...

If we don't get a good reassurance from one of them I'd still day the best bet would be to not use the feeding block and to not worry about not feeding them for a week. Fish are cold-blooded, have stomaches the size of their eye (yes!) and are quite adapted to long periods of having to go without food in the wild. In the case of goldfish one other thing that can be done is to drop a couple of big bunches of plants (elodea, etc.) in there - they are vegetarians.

~~waterdrop~~