hi, well im going on holiday for 1 week in 2 weeks time so i thought i would see how my tank would be if i did nothing to it. i cleaned it out 1 week ago today and have not cleaned the gravel or any thing else in the tank and have fed my fish on what they usually eat to see how my tank and fish would cope with me not been there for a week. here are my test results

nitrate 50mg/l
nitrite 0.25mg/l
amonia 0.2mg/l
ph 6.5


would you say these results are good to say i have done nothing but feed my fish for 1 week?

Ummmm.... your water quality is a little poor unfortunately.

Okay, with a healthy biological filter, you should be able to leave your tank unattended for more than a week and expect the ammonia and nitrite to stay at zero. Your nitrate is also quite high for just one week. 40 ppm is about the highest you want it at the end of one week.

Remind us what fish you've got again? how have you been cleaning your tank previously?

On the plus side, your pH is quite low which is good if you've got ammonia present. Ammonia is more toxic with a higher pH.

i have a 6 inch oascar a 2 inch oscar and a 12 inch pleco. i now use a hose to empty water out and to refill. i also use a hose attached to this plastic thing to clean the gravel which i normally clean every other day but i havent cleaned anything at all through this week to see what would happen to my tank with no attention so there has been alot of waste sat in the tank. i know i am over stocked as i found out my tank is smaller than i thought so i am going to re-home the pleco as soon as i find some one that will give him a good one. i also normally clean the glass every other day and i clean one set of filter sponges one week and the other the next...

definitely re-home the pleco, that is definitely one way you could improve things. I am familiar with the filtration systems on the juwel tanks. How many sponges have you got in your filter, three or four? also, how are you cleaning them?

the one built into the tank has 3 sponges..one black one white and one blue. i also have a fluvel 404 canister filter that has 4 songes and 4 different media types...

I would also condisider if its possible that a small amount of chlorine could have got into your filter while changing your water. if you put water straight into your tank,after emptying your tank add your dechlorine treatment,let pump mix this for a few mins then turn off pump, then add new water.give a few mins and turn pump back on. if you rush there is always a possibility that your filter can get a dose of chlorine. how much are you feeding and how often. the oscar will always want more so you may need to say NO.I would only clean one filter at a time, wash 1 sponge from 3 sponge filter and leave 2 untouched,2 wks later wash 2 sponge from 4 sponge filter and rotate in this order. wash filter sponge in old tank water that you have siphoned out. dont empty crap out of filters thats floating about inside.

yes i did make the mistake of turning the filter on whilst adding tap water but turned it off after 30 seconds when i realised what i had done. i feed the oscars 3 times a day. i put about 15-20 medium pellets in each time and they are gone within 1 minuite. i did want to cut the feeding down to twice dayly for the bigger oscar but as soon as i open the lid of the tank they are both there. and every 3rd dayis they get frozen bloodworm. i give them half a block to share

Make sure they are not filling there mouths with food too. they will try to eat all you put in if they can,and fill there mouths antill stuffed. I would try a little less twice a day, say 6 each?? I think your fish are about 4 or 6" Is that right??

one is 2 inch and one is 6 inch..i would have thought that the amount of food your recomending would be to little!! my big oscar would eat 40 twise a day if i let him lol. are you sure they would be fine on that amount?

ow and the little oscar only manages 2-3 pellets when i feed

I would remove the black filtration media, that is charcoal and you don't need it. The white cotton wool media is your mechanical, and the blue is biological. when I had my Juwel tank it was a 350 [77 gallons] I have three blue sponges and one white, I would change the white every week. When you clean your blue media, just rinse it out in existing tank water, it's really just a case of submerging under the water, a couple of quick squeezes and that should be okay.

You've also got a fluvel 404, I believe that filter is okay up to nearly 100 gallons. So you have actually got some really good filtration on your tank, you shouldn't have any ammonia and nitrite present. How long has a tank and running? you shouldn't need to clean the canister filter every week, I think if you leave it for a couple of weeks and check it, if it isn't too dirty, leave it for another week and see what it's like. Obviously filters do need cleaning, but I would only clean the sponges if they really need it, leave the biological filtration alone for a few weeks. A lot of people think that filter should be spotlessly clean, this is a things go wrong, they just clean the filtration system too much and then wonder why the water quality goes down hill.

ok so i will take the black one out and put another blue one in there. as for my canister filter when i come to clean it every other week it doesnt have alot of crap in it at all. my tank has been running now for about 12 weeks with its current fish. i bought it second hand off of a friend and he had it running so i emptied it, took it home and then set it up without cleaning the filters however they did have a 15 hour brake before they were turned back on so i think that means all my bacteria died.