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My fish tank is clean, but the filter gets dirty fast, I change it often, but after a week its thick2007-11-24 23:38:24

large goldfish, and small. 20 gallon tank, snails, water changed monthly. I feed them 3 times a day, as much as they can eat in 5 minutes. Otherwise tank is very healthy, and the water is very clear.

Answers:

Way too much food. Feed them only once per day and you will see a significant difference.

A

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TOO MANY GOLDFISH!!

Goldies are nasty pooping machines and really are not appropriate aquarium fish. They do best in large ponds. You are also probably over feeding them. Twice daily is more than plenty.

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I would increase your water changes to once every 7 days, and as for the filter - this is normal.

Not knowing your complete setup it makes it kind of hard to know, but if say for instance you are using a Biowheel filter with some sort of Carbon based insert - just leave those in for 3 to 4 months (as they will become a very good bacteria bed for the good bacteria that your system needs). Do not change the filters too often - and moreover - do more frequent water changes (again - once a week - not once a month).

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Thats fine. The filter is doing a great job.

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arent there filters supposed to be changed once a week anyway?

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Get a placostimas? Not sure about the spelling. They love eating the gunk off the sides of the tank. They are pricey, but worth the money. I think you feed your fish too often.

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Sounds like you're overfeeding them or your tank is a bit overcrowded. Try cutting back their food to twice a day, and only as much as they can eat in 2-3 minutes. I usually do a 20% water change every week or two, and make sure to use a gravel vacuum to get the grunge from the gravel.

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they really dont need that much food, just feed once or twice a day and about as much as they can eat in a minute, also if you're feeding flake, mix the food with water first so it sinks, if you feed pellets, make sure you get sinking ones. gold fish are bottem feeders but they dont always realise it (we all know how smart they are right?) if they eat from the surface they can swallow air and they cant get rid of it like most fish can so theyll end up swimming on their backs the rest of their lives. you only need to actually change your filter once a month, but you can rinse it out in between changes. how many fish do you have in ther, gold fish need aprox 2g of water per inch of fish and get about 10 inches a piece, if you have more than 10 inches of fish in there your problem wont go away till you get a bigger tank, you dont count tails when your measuring them tough, good luck

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- Increase water changes from monthly to weekly.