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First of all, this is my first tank. Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so far, http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Getting%20Started/63601.html you've all been great.

I've got a 20g tank, currently stocked with 2 Red Wag Platy's and 1 Dwarf Gourami. Since the first water change I've noticed the water has started to smell a little bit and it's become a bit cloudy. The fish seem to be doing fine, they're eating, swimming around, and taunting the cat(she can't get to them, even with cats amazing jumping ability, no worries ). I've been doing regular water tests, nothing seems out of the ordinary to me. results are as follows:
Nitrate = approx 20ppm
Nitrite = between 0.0-0.5ppm
Ammonia = "Safe"
Hardness(GH) = Between 150-300 (closer to 300 though)
Akalinity(KH) = approx 250ish
pH = approx 7.8
Water temp cycles regularly depending on time of day from 77.5F to 79F

I unfortunatly can't post a picture of the cloudiness, my girlfriend is taking the camera to Thailand without me , but the cloudiness is very minor and it doesn't seem to be getting any worse. The odor however is fairly strong when I lift the lid to feed. I've been feeding them tetramin crisps and freeze dried brine shrimp, which they seem to love.

Is this something to worry about? or is this normal?

The only safe ammonia level is zero. Anything else is cause for concern. Same with nitrite. From this post and the other your tank is still cycling. What exactly is the ammonia level? Did you vac any of the gravel or change filter cartridges when you did a water change?
A dwarf gourami isn't the best fish to add while cycling and you probably would have been better off with just the platies until the tank had cycled. If you do water changes to keep the ammonia below 1ppm and nitrates below at least 5 you shouldn't lose any fish. Don't do a gravel vac or change filter cartridges until the tank is cycled and feed only once a day every other day.
Cloudy water is normal in an uncycled tank or a tank going through a mini cycle. It's excess bacteria in the tank and will clear up when your tank is cycled.

Last edited by sham at 11-Sep-2005 01:31

The ammonia test returns "safe" when it doesn't detect ammonia. So the actual ammonia level should be close to zero. Maybe I should get a ammonia test that will give me a less ambiguous result.

When I did the water change, I vacuumed about half of the gravel. I did not change the filter cartridge.

I guess I misinterpreted when the tank cleared up the first time.

edit: today is much less cloudy than yesterday.

Last edited by Zaffy at 11-Sep-2005 11:48

Until the tank cycles it would be best not to do much if any gravel vacs and don't change out the filter cartridges. If they get really dirty than you can rinse them in water without chlorine but for now you want to preserve as much bacteria as possible so they can multiply fast and cycle your tank fast. Everytime you do a gravel vac or change cartridges your eliminating some bacteria. In a cycled tank that's not severely overstocked that isn't a problem because the bacteria multiply fast enough to make up for what's removed. It also increases the chances of a bacterial bloom because the bacteria are trying to make up for what's removed. I would definitely suggest a good liquid ammonia test kit. I bought some ammonia strips once because I as out of liquid test and that's all walmart carries. The bottle said up to .5 ammonia was safe. If you do water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite low the tank should cycle without any damage to the fish but it might take slightly longer.

hi.. I've just recently bought a 2 gallon tank for my guppy fry. I also have a 60 gallon tank. I put the fry in the 2 gallon and after 2 days the smell was horrible. I thought it might be the under gravel filtration system so i went out and bought a seperate filter. I also decided to add a goldfish and a betta to this aquarium instead of the fry. Now it's been maybe 5 days and the smell is just unbearable. I've brought a water sample to PetSmart and they say my water quality is fine. I'm just wondering if you can help me figure out why it would smell so horribly? I actually washed everything out of the aquarium after the first time and let the water run with conditioner for almost 2 days and it smelled a bit before the fish even went in..HELP?!?!?!

bratty_girl29,
Sounds like you've got a few problems going on in that tank :%) we'll try to get it straight .

First off...you have fry and a goldfish in a 2 gallon tank am I right? ...And that's the one that smells?
Part of the problem is that the tank is likely not cycled. To read more about cycling check out [link=this link]http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]. Part of the cycling process involves a very sharp ammonia smell....to me it smells somewhat like new CD's (if you've ever stuck your nose in a spindle of 100 CD's ).

Since fry tanks usually recieve daily water changes you may not end up with the tank fully cycled. What I'd suggest is to squeeze your filter media from the 60 gallon tank over the new filter ( good job on replacing the UGF ) to help seed it with the benificial bacteria from your 60.

A huge problem is adding that goldfish. Feeder or common goldfish (the ones pet$mrt sells for 29 cents) are pond fish and will get to be 2' to 3' feet long if properly cared for I'd suggest either returning the fish for credit or digging a pond in the backyard for him . If it's a fancy goldfish it'll need 20 gallons of space in a tank that is 75 gallons or larger. They also get to be massive sized fish in addition to producing a large ammount of waste.

Hopefully I didnt confuse you too much, welcome to the FP family !.

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hi babelfish..

thanx for the reply... actually I don't have the fry and the goldfish together. I had put the fry in that tank, i had initially bought it for them... because the water temperature was going down so low during the night, and i didn't want to buy another heater, i decided to leave them in a breeding net in my 60 gallon to get bigger and bought a fancy goldfish. I did go back the day after i bought it and asked if it was possible to put another, they're so cute.. but the woman advised me that one goldfish=20 gallons..that i could if i wanted since the goldfish is in a small aquarium anyway, but she then told me to try a betta. But the water stank when i had the fry in, so i cleaned it out and let the water circulate for almost 2 days. I had went and bought the goldfish, and when i got hom to put him in, the water started smelling again. I do realize it's probably just new tank syndrome but if there's anything i can do to just get rid of the smell... i would rather, if possible, keep the goldfish...
thanks..

Well the goldfish cannot stay in that tank unfortunatly. No matter how cute and small it is right now . Check out the pics in [link=this thread]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Coldwater/64646.html?200509280038" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] no, bruce the goldfish is not dead in that first pic....that one is actually a few years old now .

A betta is really the best bet for that tank. Being such a small tank I'd acutally make plans to have it remain uncycled. Simply do 50-90% water changes weekly. However as with all fish (this includes goldfish which are often considered coldwater) you'll need a heater. Temperature fluctuations can cause massive stress on a fish and in turn bring on various diseases including but not limited to ich (why do I feel like a legal disclaimer all of a sudden :%)!).

What confuses me here is that usually water in a cycling tank takes a few days to smell and (IMO anyway ) it's really not all that bad.
Once you've taken the goldfish back (unless you're lucky enough to have a pond I'd reccomend starting the 2 gallon over compleatly. If that means a seperate thread in [link=Getting Started]http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/forum.asp?id=26" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] Do It!!! we'll be glad to help .

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Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes
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We'll be holding on forever..."

Any snails in your tank?

I had my twenty for about four months and everything was going fine. I had a few dwarf gouramies, some cories, and two snails. I noticed that my water was starting to get a horrible odor, it smelled like trash water almost.

So I decided to do a thorough cleaning. When I was cleaning the gravel I saw that one of my snails had died. I scooped the shell out with the net, threw it in the trash and took it out immediately. It smelled up my whole basement for a few hours.

A few days later the water was fine, no smelliness! If you've recently added any fish you could have accidentally brought home a snail, and it could have died.

Good luck!

no.. no snails... it just smelled even before there were any fish in it.. but my water tests came out fine at Petsmart... so I don't know..??!!

Smelled before you put any fish in it

What water conditioner are you using? Some, like Prime have a very noticible rotten eggs smell.

Any chance you can describe the smell. Yes I know this is somewhat impossible We had an assignment in freshman english where we had to describe a smell without using smells :%).....off track yes I know .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes
EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART.
And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever
And if you'll only hold me tight
We'll be holding on forever..."

haha... well i've been using AquaSafe and I've never had a problem before. my 60 gal runs fine with it... the smell...god... umm.. probably like garbage, rot.. i don't know how to explain it... it's just a horrible smell.. sometimes harsher than other... i'm not sure if it's the light causing it or what... but I've JUST removed everything from it and rinsed it all under cold tap water. and i can't smell it on the decos, the rock or the gravel... so i'm gonna try again... this time with just a betta and see how it goes.... any other suggestions will be appreciated.
thanx

ok just to keep u up to date.... i didn't put the same gravel in.. i had used half the bag last time, so i took the new unused gravel, rinsed it under cold water for a little while and didn't put as much... i'm got maybe an inch of it... i only put the ornamental rock in.. that still had a little smell after rinsing but i'm guaranteed that's not the cause bc i bought it afterwards. the plastic plants that were in it though did smell a little even after being rinsed.... so i decided not to put them in for a couple days... see if it smells.. if it doesn't i'll put them in... if it smells with the plants then we've got our culprit. oh and the betta and the filter.... so it's looking a little empty without the plants but other then that i'm crossing my fingers...wish me luck..

Smell of garbage rot- thats usually methane. Sometimes occurs when people use hollow decorations that trap water away from circulation and oxygenation. When the levels rise they leech out into the water or are the foul water is pushed into the substrate . You can get by this by drilling synthetic decorations full of holes, or changing them for something more solid. I found the new stacka- rock absolutely terrible for this and spent an afternoon drilling about 40 holes into each piece to correct it.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 12-Oct-2005 10:29

i only had 2 little plastic plants.. the water smelled a bit but eventually filtered out..i put the plants back in this weekend and there is no smell... i'll keep doing partial water changes weekly.. thank u very much!!!

I have the similar problem with my guppies fry. It is stink in the breeding net. I also noticed there is an oily substance on top of water layer in the breeding net. After puttting some carbon in to my filter, the stinks has gone.

Never try to get rid of the oily substance on the breeding net. I try to add some water into the breeding net and force the water flow out from the net but the 2nd day CASUALties happened!! Initially i have 40-50 fry but now only left 10, luckily my female guppy just gave birth last night which given me another 20 of them.