I have been treating my 20 gallon tank with a newer product called TetraAqua Water Clarifier.... The cloudiness is NOT going away. my Aquarium is about 1 month and 2 weeks old..... I have one medium sized ryukin, a small pearlescent, and a small black moore in this tank (as soon as my third aquarium is set up, the moore will go into that tank). I used to have two apple snails in there, but 2 days ago, I put them into my fathers fish pond.
I am posting this in two places that way I can get alot of different advice and suggestions:
The water looks like a white fog. The ammonia and nitrItes are at 0. The Ph is at 7.0. I have no clue about nitrAtes. I use a Penguin Bio Filter that hooks on the backof the aquarium. I feed my goldies Tetrafin golfish flakes once a day for what they can eat in about 3 minutes. About twice a week they get fresh shelled peas to eat to help keep their bowels regulated. .Every week, since I set up the aquarium, I have always siphoned the gravel.

I have no clue why my water is foggy. Do any of you have a clue as to what I have done wrong, or what might have went wrong? Do any of you have any suggestions to what I might to to remedy this situation for now but to also PREVENT it in the future?

As I mentioned earlier, the TetraAqua Water Clarifier is not working. Can any of you reccomend a product that really works?

Also, now when I siphon the gravel (yesterday) even more minute particles enter the water making it more cloudy until it settles again....

Thanks so much!

One first guess at this problem Hun. One one to many fish and I'm wondering what the kind of Penguin filter you have, if the filtration rate isn't the right rate the tank can hold the bio load and will be cloudy......

Koko,

The filter I am using is the penguin bio-wheel mini. It is for aquariums up to 20 gallons. It filters 100 GPH.... awe. man. see, I learnt GF's were so messy AFTER I bought it.... it's not big enough is it? I've already spent sooo much money for my fishies (I'm gonna have three tanks set up within two months)...Do you think I need to buy a bigger filter? or can I just add another filter to the tank to work with this one? if so, what size do you reccomend?

Furthermore, I just put the itty bitty black moore in, and it was couldy before that.
so, the problem came before the extra fish...

Also, I have had this question for quite sometime now:do I still have to use the ten gallon rule if the goldfish is so tiny? I know that even the little ones are messy, but they don't create as big of a mess as the bigger full grown goldfish. Furthermore, I know he will get bigger, and thats why I'm setting up another aquarium that I bought this friday. keeping him in there should be okay for a short amount of time, should be okay though right?

Also, I have been wanting to ask this question too:

I know that good bacteria grows on the filter cartridge. When I put in a new filter cartridge, I'm basically throwing away all of that bacteria on the old one. I throw them away when they look "good and gunky." But to explain, I don't let them get SO dirty looking like my LFS (so dirty that chunks of brown stuff goes INTO the aquarium). How often should I actually change the filter if bacteria likes living there? 2 weeks? thats when I normally do it. is this okay? After I rinse the new filter to get rid off carbon dust, can I put some of the "bottled" bacteria (like cycle or act) on it to help get a new colony going?

With goldfish you actually want the filtration rate to be 10 times the tank volume. so you want a filtration of 200Gph for that 20 gal tank.

I would get the next size up and keep the other filter on there. This will help the tank and will also give it an extra boost of filtration. Now with the bio wheels when you clean the filter pads, you don't have to worry about the bio bugs since they will live in the bio wheel. With my two Bios I will rinse them out and then Tap them on the sink so that I get more of the gunk out of the filter pad. I change my filter pads about once every month or two Once I know that filter pad starts to weigh some weight to them.

As for the fish in that tank i think they would be okay for a few months but nothing more than that since they will need room to grow and the more they grow the bigger the waste will be on the tank Hun, so you will have to keep an eye on the water quality more often than normal

Aha! I see....

Now, I also bought a complete set up for a 29 gallon aquarium, so I'm just betting that the filter that came with it won't be big enough for that one too! drats... but there is no where else on that one to add another filter---and the lid is plastic... Do you know if there any safe way to cut the plastic lid to make room for another filter?

i'm a newbie too-Maybe you can use the 29 filter for the 20. I bought some used stuff really cheap too. look around. Good luck! Koko's the best