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I have a 45 gallon tall with 5 baby fish In there. I know my tank is kinda crowded and im planning on getting a 125gallon around tax time. I did a water test yesterday at a local fish store and everything was good ecept my Nitrate which was up just a little. I can't seem to get my water to clear up. I have two Oscars about 4" a piece. A Blood Parrot a EBJD both about 3" and a 2" Firemouth. I have had this tank setup for 5weeks. It's still cloudy Imma start doing small 15% water changes weekly. I have a Top Fin 60 and I just added a Tetra EX45 about two weeks ago. Any advice on clearing up my water and how often should I change my filters?

This does rather sound like a bacterial bloom to me. It would be handy to know the actual water readings, i.e. ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH. You always going to have a nitrate reading, as long as it doesn't get too high, your fish out okay. However your tank has been running for five weeks so it might not be quite cycled yet. Without knowing what you ammonia and nitrite actually are, it's difficult to say exactly why this is happening, but like I say, I suspect that you are not quite cycled. I would advise you to limit the amount of food you put in the tank for the time being, that might help. Maybe feed once a day, and not too much.

Have you done any water changes, cleaned your filters in any way? Any information you can give us will help.

I feed once a day. I did a water changer of 20% yesterday. And since my tank been up I did thre water changes total and changer my filters on my Topfin 60 once. Never changed them on the Ex45 cause I just started that filter. The guy at the store where I got my levels chcked at told me to do a water changer every other day up until sunday then bring him another water sample.

I would strongly advise you to get your own testing kit. This will help us help you a lot quicker. Fish stores are notorious for telling people what they want to hear, rather than what is important. We need to know the exact results for ammonia nitrite, nitrates and pH. Look at it in the same way as getting a blood test from the doctor.

It is made difficult for me to suggest for the time being until we know what your water conditions actually are. How are the fish behaving, not breathing heavily, hanging at the surface? Eating okay?

OFL wrote:



Hey man thanks for replying I really like it here you guys are awesome! Their behavior is normal their swimming happily. When I come to the tank the swim to the top to greet me and beg for food. LOL... Not breathing hard at all they seem healthy color looks good too. Their also eating great. I feed them a variety of stuff I mix it up daily. I give them a frozen blend the consist of blood worms, brine shrimp, or vegetable drops. Freeze dried krill, Brine shrimp pellets sometimes flakes and sinking chiclid pellets. I have also feed them some live brine shrimp that I picked from The fish store I go to. So I try to switch it up daily. i feed once a day and enough for them to eat in about 3mins. They alwats finish their food. Whats a good water test kit to get that will allow nme to test all the different levels. And which levels should i concentrate on the most.

This one is really good and not too expensive:

www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4454

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals are the test kits I use and I find them extremely good.


It is important to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and pH. Ammonia and nitrite are highly toxic and any trace of this in your water could harm your fish. Nitrate is not anywhere near as toxic but it needs to be kept under control so you will need to check for this as well. Your tap water will probably be between 6.0 and 8.0 but you need to know what it is because some fish require a certain pH.

You may also want to consider getting some tests that tell you the hardness of your water.

OFL wrote:



Ok cool is there a test kit by this brand that will allow me to test all those level? And how much do they generally run? Whats water hardness and will that test be in a multi kit?

The API master kit tests for high and low pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and will run about $20-$30...you can find it at most pet places.

Not sure about the hardness test though...I would assume they make one but i've never used one before so maybe someone else can help you out with that.

OFL wrote:



Ok I got The API master test kit today and here are the results.

Ammonium 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 40
Ph 7.1
High Range Ph 7.4

Didnt get a water hardness kit yet. What do you guys think or suggest? My tank is still cloudy. I got ex45 and a top fin 60 for filtration. Think I should change my topfn 60 its been running since I set my tank up last month on the 17th. I just added the Tetra ex45 on December 4th.

Your water conditions seem to check out okay. Check them out again tomorrow and see if you get the same readings. I think you will need to carry out a water change shortly because your nitrate is about as high as we like it to get.

If your ammonia and nitrite remain at Zero then in theory, the cloudiness should disappear.