Cleaning Treatments Glass


My 55 gal tank has 2 large tiger oscars and 3 parrot fish.?

The water will not stay clean. I thought it was cuz I had only a 50 gal filter but I bought a 70 gal filter Biowheel and put it with the other filter and have been cleaning it every 2-3 weeks and the water just keeps getting green. I have a gravel siphon, an agae eater, and an algae scraper for the glass. I have added tap water treatments and nothing seems to work. Is it just the fish that are messing the tank? I heard cichlids are very messy fish.

Yes they are messy fish and this problem is two fold. The first as many have mentioned, your bio load for your tank size is too much. Oscars are the pigs of the fish world and eat and eat with no sense to stop, thus producing waste in a scale about three to four times a fish of the same size, thus, creating more ammonia in your water. I learned this lesson the hard way by applying that so called 1 inch of fish per gallon rule, which doesn’t in any way address waste production. I am surprised your fish have not shown any signs of distress at this point. I would reccomend if you do not wish to upgrade to a larger tank to bring back one of those Oscars at least. The secondary issue here is the waiting of 2-3 weeks for cleaning. With an Oscar, let alone two of them, you need to be water changing and gravel cleaning at LEAST weekly if not more. I believe this is the source of your algea build up and smell. Lighting could also be an issue but without the length of time you have light running as well as the wattage, it’d be hard to ascertain if that is one of the sources. Definetly non weekly cleaning is without a doubt there. If you feel Oscars are too much work, I am sure you could replace them with less labor intensive fish that are just as brilliant in coloration and activity. Evaluate how much work you want to put into your fish to decide to upgrade your tank, or get replacements, but please do act soon.

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