jaggy

Hi guys


I have a tank 2 Jack Demps, a Black Convict and a Para Pleco (which was rather expensive and the one I'm most careful with)

I cleaned the tank this past tuesday and went away on a 3 day vacation thursday night, I left my sister to feed them twice a day. When I came home on sunday, the water in the tank was brown.

I figured it was a matter of overfeeding and did a 40 percent water change.
Vaccumed the gravel, removed any particals of food that was stuck in or on the gravel, but my water is still brown.

My tank has been up and running for a year now. So I don't believe this could be a cycling issue.

Any idea's or concepts as to what is going on with my tank.

I will do a water change once I get home today, I'm thinking maybe 70 percent.

Thanks in advance

NeonJulie

Cycling doesn't turn water brown. It turns it whitish/cloudy.

Maybe it's an additive to the food that has broken down and stained the water. For a 3 day vacation, it probably would have been fine not to even feed, or feed once. Overfeeding is what usually results, unless you have premeasured portions in pill cases or baggies for them to go by.

Other things that would turn water brown would be tannins from driftwood or other black water additives, but you don't mention using any of that.

Have you rinsed out the filter cartridge itself? In old tank water or dechlorinated water? That's when my bucket goes really brown. It's possible most of the overfed food ended up trapped in the filter, so you may need to give it a real good swish.

I'm not sure if this is the case, but is it possible a fish has died? Would that color/taint the water?

Kuli_Loach

Ditto what he said. I don't know if any clear water stuff would work or not. Just put a new filter cartridge in and maybe it will clear up. Keep a good eye on your fish to see if they are acting different.

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Too Many tanks!!!

Tommy Gun

Welcome to the forum jaggy!

Cycling doesn't really turn the water any color to be honest...it is bacteria which turns water cloudy, and single-celled algae which turns it green from time to time. To add to that, these issues can happen any time the right conditions are present and is not solely limited to when a tank is cycling or has just cycled.

Have you added any driftwood to your tank recently? Or any new decorations, substrate, rocks, etc...? It doesn't sound as though you have, but thought I would check anyways.

Otherwise, can you give us some more information such as your water parameters, tank size, water change/maintenance schedule...and any other tidbits that you are willing to share? In many cases, these issues could stem from multiple causes or from a less-than-obvious reason which might take some in-depth scrutiny, requiring information, of course.

Again, welcome to the forum...I am sure that you will find someone on this forum who has dealt with a similar issue or who can help get you pointed in the right direction.

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As an after thought, I just wanted to point out that you may be able to get at least some of the discoloration out of the water by using carbon filter media, or if you already are, you might see some change just by replacing the old carbon with new carbon. It might be a shot in the dark, but I thought I would bring it up just in case.

jaggy

Thanks everyone.
Now that you guys mentioned it, it could have definitly been the food.
I've just recently started feeding them the Jumbo Chiclid sticks from the Tetra company which have a bit more red color than anything else I've ever fed them.

I do have a carbon filter, which I changed yesterday along with my 70 percent water change.
The water is back to its normal color now.
The only reason I told my sister to feed them is because my biggest JD, the 6 inch Bully, when he get's hungry he looks for food, and that makes 3 inch Mr. Pleco prime target.

Thanks everyone, every thing is fine in the tank now.

Although my convict who is always hiding came out for a swim yesterday (he can't come out to much cause bully is always around) seems to be getting a clear spot in his head. So I will do some research on hole in the head disease to see whats going on with him.


And since I have your attention, one more question.

I have a Whisper power filter,for 20-30 gallons. My tank is a 29 G, I'm thinking about upgrading the filter to 30-40 power filter.
Is it worth it? Or just leave it the way it is.
I change my water every other week so will it make a difference with how often I have to change?


Thanks again everyone

NeonJulie

I don't know... I change my 12g every 3-5 days. It's part and parcel with having a tank, I would think, that you change the water whenever it needs it, as much as it needs it.

I don't think you're going to see much effect as far as needing to change water more or less, unless you went with a totally different filtration concept entirely. Or dropped your fish stock way below minimum (then you can get away with less water changing sometimes.) Your water will probably look nice and clear, but filters don't really suck the waste off the bottom of the gravel. They aren't water change replacements.

Tommy Gun

As far as filtration goes...bigger is always better. The most common saying I have heard is that you cannot 'over-filter' an aquarium, but you can waste filtration if you are not using it effectively.

As far as water changes go, one of the larger reasons one needs to do them is to reduce the nitrate levels in the water. While there are methods of doing that other than water changes, nothing can completely void the need for doing so, even an over abundance of filtration. While I am not implying that you dont already understand it all, but you might be able to gather some additional understanding of how nitrates are created and build up in an aquarium by reading the article that you can find by clicking HERE. In short, monitoring nitrates closely will give you great insight into when and to what amounts you will need to perform water changes. To help give you even more insight, can you tell us a little more about:

What size tank do you have?

What size, number, and types of fish do you have in the tank?

How often and how much do you normally feed your fish?

You might also benifit from reading the article found HERE on doing water changes on a freshwater aquarium since it might give you some good tips or tricks on making them less of a chore. I can honestly say that it takes me less than an hour each week to change the water in ALL of my aquariums, including a 90 gallon FW tank and my 125 gallon reef tank. That said, water changes shouldnt really be an issue or hassle, at least not as much as it may at first seem. I totally agree with Julie though...water changes are part of having an aquarium and cannot really be avoided unless so long as you have livestock in the tank.

Andyoybna

If I were you, I would definately think about upgrading tanks, and/or removing some of your livestock. I recently just moved my pair of JDs out of a 29G tank, since for some reason the male wouldn't eat, and he would bully the female and he started going crazy on her. I moved the female to a 33G long tank, and then the male the day after, although the tank isn't much bigger, there is much more swimming room, and more places to hide.

If your JDs decide to spawn, you are going to have a LOT of problems as far as aggression, I had two issues in a 90G tank with spawning/aggression, the first was a pair of convicts, that weren't so, so bad, just chased a lot, most of the other fish were bigger, then my JDs spawned, which got bad, real fast. Ended up in a dead 8" long clown knife, and a beaten up green severum, which is why they got moved to the 29, and now the 33.

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BJP

I've lost track of which Whisper takes which cartridge now that they've gone to the tank range numbering system but most of the middle Whispers up to the double cartridge all take the same cartridge. The two smallest models take a smaller cartridge and the two largest take a bigger. In this case if going up to the larger flow filter results in the same size cartridge then it could actually increase the frequency water changes are needed.

Forcing more current through the same size cartridge should cause the wastes the cartridge collects to break down faster from the force of the water. It should also cause the cartridge to clog faster forcing the extra flow over the top sending some waste back out into the tank uncollected.

You could get a better result by simply rinsing the cartridge in the filter you have now more often to get the wastes out sooner. I've had tanks I rinsed the cartridges every day.

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jaggy

Oh they've spawned twice already, I just give the JD's the majority of the tank and put a divider in and keep the convict and pleco at a distance.
First time they hatched swam around for a day, and what didnt die in the gravel must have died in the fathers belly cause there was no bodies left.
The last time I thought I would be smart and move the father once he fertilized the eggs and just leave them with the mother, but he started flip and flopping and carrying on, that she must thought the eggs were in danger and ate em.

Thanks though, I see the aggression though.
But I can't afford to buy another tank, I'm a college student so you know how that goes.