# Help!



## Little Droogie (Oct 8, 2011)

Hi I recently moved house and rehomed my freshwater/coldwater fish from a 136L tank to a 330L corner tank. Looks ace apart from the fact that the water is now whitish/cloudy looking. It was cloudy initially then cleared, now I am back to dirty looking water! I have an Aquis 1250 external filter, which I have cleaned once since setting up. I feed the fish once a day and do fortnightly partial water changes. All my levels seem to be fine, so why is it like this? I've never used an external filter before so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Possibly overstocked? I have 6 goldfish/fantails, 2 weather loaches, 3 peppered catfish and 1 large 1 small plec. Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.


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## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

Little Droogie said:


> Hi I recently moved house and rehomed my freshwater/coldwater fish from a 136L tank to a 330L corner tank. Looks ace apart from the fact that the water is now whitish/cloudy looking. It was cloudy initially then cleared, now I am back to dirty looking water! I have an Aquis 1250 external filter, which I have cleaned once since setting up. I feed the fish once a day and do fortnightly partial water changes. All my levels seem to be fine, so why is it like this? I've never used an external filter before so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Possibly overstocked? I have 6 goldfish/fantails, 2 weather loaches, 3 peppered catfish and 1 large 1 small plec. Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.


hey there!

firstly, yes, i would say you are overstocked by quite a bit! the goldfish need about 90L for each fish as an absolute minimum , so your 6 should be in a tank no less than 540L, preferably bigger (or even better, a pond). on top of this, your peppered catfish and plec are tropical species. they can tolerate more temperate conditions, so are sometimes sold for coldwater tanks, but tolerating is not the same as thriving, and it can lead to health problems. neither of them make good tankmates for goldfish anyway. plus, your plec will likely get huge, and will need a big tank just for himself!
for your size tank, you should really only be housing 3 goldies on their own, maybe 4 at a push with good water changes every week. goldfish can be clumbsy fish, and will eat many smaller species, so its usually advised to keep them on their own, with no other species present in the tanks.

That said, i believe your overstocking may not be a direct cause of the issues your having. the white cloudyness suggests a bacterial bloom, especially as you say you have cleaned the filter out since the switch. did you swap the filter directly over from your old tank? if not, did you swap any media over from the old tank, or mature the filter in any way? and how did you clean the filter? 
a bacterial bloom in the water suggests that the filter may not be fully mature yet. if its an old filter, then the bacteria could simply have died off if the swap over was prolonged and it was left switched off/out of water for a few hours. or the benefitial bacteria could have been washed away/killed if the filter was cleaned incorrectly. in the meantime, i would get the water tested if you havent already done so, and post the results here. we need to know results for ammonia, nitrITE and nitrATE. once we know if any of these results are worrying, we can advise frther on how to deal with the issue 

hope this helps
Fishyfins


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## Little Droogie (Oct 8, 2011)

Hi thanks for the advice. When I set up the tank (about 3 months ago) it was a completely new filter, the old one was an internal canister filter now I have an external one. I did swap most of the water and gravel from the old tank into the new one in the same day. I never had these problems with the old tank, although the 2 plecs have only been added recently.The filter sponges were cleaned with water from the tank. I have been told that I'm over feeding and should reduce this to 3 times a week?! Also to increase my water changes to weekly. Just confused as there seems to be conflicting advice everywhere I look! Would it take 3 months for the filter to mature? Gutted that I'm overstocked as I keep getting everyone elses waifs and strays! Also, is my filter adequate for my size of tank? I'm guessing normally it would be, but not with all my motley crew in it!

Cheers


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## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

Yeah, basically, when you swap to a new tank, you need to swap the old filter over as well. if not, you either need to swap the media from inside the old filter to the new one, or run them in tandem for 3 or 4 weeks to allow the new one time to mature. there is little benefitial bacteria contained in the gravel and water column, so swapping this over will have had no impact on the filter maturation.
Basically, for want of a better way of describing it, youve basically been running what is essentially a new aquarium, overstocked, from the very start. I imagine this is what caused the problems. As suggested i would cut back feeding to once every 2 or 3 days (though once the problems are sorted, go back to once per day, because you are not overfeeding with this). and yes, it can take 3 months for a filter to mature in some extreme cases.
Ive looked into the specs for your filter, and its generally advised for tanks no bigger than 250L, so it would be a little underpowered for your tank anyway. But with goldfish being such messy fish, its always best to overshoot a bit, so i would advise upgrading to a much more powerful filter as soon as possible.
Dont worry about there being different advice everywhere you look. we all run into that problem. just remember that shops are not really the best source of information. most staff have little or no experience, and most are trained to say stuff for the pure reason of selling and making money. a lot of shops operate on a system like this - sell fish with innapropriate equipment. fish get sick. shop advises either dangerous drastic action, or expensive medications. doesnt work and fish die. customer buys more fish. fish get sick. shop advises.... you get the picture. a lot of shops are more focused on selling and profit rather than the welfare of the fish. so dont blame yourself


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## Little Droogie (Oct 8, 2011)

Ok thanks for your advice. I bought the tank online as a package, it came with lights, filter etc. I should have checked more into the size of the filter before I ordered it. Now looking at Eheim filters as I've heard they're awesome! Good job my hubby is understanding as the cost of all this is creeping up! Oh well we live and learn! :thumbup:


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