can anyone help my oscar has a cloudy eye and a bit of fin rot ph 6.0 ammonia 0.50ppm nitrite 0ppm nitrate 160ppm is this bad for my oscars i have added some tetra goldmed for the fin rot and cloudy eye.

Could possibly be fin rot & problems with the eye, your water quality is absolutely awful. You shouldn't let your nitrate levels rise above 40 ppm and Amonia should be zero at all times.

Fin rot and cloudy eyes can be brought on by poor water conditions, get your water sorted out or it will never get better.

You should also look at why your water quality is so bad. Are you overstocked? what is your tank maintenance regime? Are you feeding too much? I would look at these factors very carefully because you're not doing your fish any favours keeping them in water quality as bad as what you've got at the moment

what should i do will a water change help me nitrate levels 2 drop or can i buy some stuff 2 sort it out thanks

I only like to use chemicals as a last resort. I don't think you need to add anything just at the moment. If you read what I said on the other message, you need to look at why this has happened. Remember the old saying, "prevention is better than a cure" so if you are overstocked for instance, you need to reduce your stock to help solve your problem. Not enough water changes is the main reason for very high nitrates. You've also got to remember that the ph could also drop very low if you're not carrying out enough water changes.

Just take a good look at your aquarium and take into account what I have already said in this thread

thanks for the advice i have just done a 20-30 percent water change and added tetra aquasafe when can i test my water again mean i done a water change shall i leave it a few days.

You need to do a water test every day. The water changes should bring the nitrate levels down. Remember what I said about being overstocked, you will never get on top of water quality problems if you have too many fish. When you found that you had readings of 160 ppm nitrate levels, how long had it been before you did a water change?

i tested the water about 8:30 and i done a water change about 12:00 o clock i have 2 oscars about 14inches 4 sevremes and a pair of convict ciclids and one jack dempsey

Your Oscars are very big, they will produce a lot of waste. Keeping to fish that big on anything less than 100 gallons will result in poor water quality within a few days. However, you've got several other fish as well. The Severums have the potential to reach 12 inches. The other fish you have probably won't get quite as big, but they still add to the biological load.

Keep testing the water every day

thank you very much for the advice i will keep you informed thanks

hi thanks for the advice yestarday i tested the water this morning and the nitrate is comeing down it is on 60ppm now better than yestarday where it was 160ppm i will do a water change later and test it again 2morow thanks.the eye on my oscar is starting two clear.

Glad to hear that things are improving slowly

your ammonia should be zero. Have you got enough filtration(should be rated for a tank twice the size that you have) or are you cleaning it enough(with the correct filtration every 6 weeks should do).


As for your nitrate you need to test every week. You should aim for below 20 but 40 or below is acceptable. To reduce nitrate do water changes. If it goes above 40 do more or larger water changes. Unless you have a massive tank then you need to get some of the fish out of that tank. I would rehome or take to a shop 3 severums and 1 convict. You may have to rehome more if you find you cant keep the nitrate below 40

If the eye doenst clear up once your water is good (ammonia and nitrite zero and nitrate below 40) then try adding an anti bacterial like myxazin