Jake
Member
Registered: 24th Jan 05
User status: Offline
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i have a 130litre aquarium with tropical fish. my mum bought it, and really i dont think we know what we're doing with regards to maintainence. the fish have been happy for about a year now but recently the water has got cloudy, i read up and thought it was best to change the water as it hadnt been done for a while. i emptied out half of it with a syphon and cleaned the gravel, refilled with warm tap water and added some de-chlorine liquid but its still a white cloudy colour, and the other day one of the mollies got dropsy and i didnt want it to infect any other fish so took it out and squashed it  . its got an overhead filter with these weird hulahoop things at the bottom and a plastic spongy material above that but its quite 'open'. ive been doing a lot of reading up but its difficult to take it all in when every website comes out with something different. im a bit worried as today even the plecos were flying up to the surface for air which has never happened
basically i need some guidlines to stick to when it comes to keeping the water quality correct and what treatments i should use in the water along with what water temperature it should be at.
i am going to buy a ph testing kit tomorrow with a digital thermometer
cheers!
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chloe16v
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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Rotherham
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your best bet would be to take a sample of water to your nearest aquarist shop to be tested, most places test water for free
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Jake
Member
Registered: 24th Jan 05
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do they? good tip cheers
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WATSON
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Registered: 16th Jun 05
Location: Fife, Scotland
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I have been keeping malawis for some time now just like any other tropical fish but look 10x better, Spent a fair bit on my setup too (close to 1k  ) 5FT tank ect
Your filter sounds like it isnt doing its job, id replace with either a very good internal or external 
Simple water change every 6 weeks, id stay away from all that treatment crap, never used it myself even with water changes.
gravel is ur problem aswell it collects all the crap, i use sand looks much better and way better to clean aswell 
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Jake
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Registered: 24th Jan 05
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i bought a master kit to test ph, ammonia, no2 and no3 levels. the no3 levels are about 60ppm. the shop i got it from advise it should be 20ppm and the kit said 40ppm so im going to change 25% every two days to try and get it back down. everything else was spot on. they also said the worst thing ive done is clean the filter with tap water
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SXi_Tim
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Registered: 11th Mar 03
Location: South Yorkshire Drives: RS3, LET B
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I had the same problem. As watson said i bought a decent external filter and within hours it was crystal clear, i clean it once a month with tap water and its fine.
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Jake
Member
Registered: 24th Jan 05
User status: Offline
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what external filter should i get? the tetratec ex700 looks good but is there anything cheaper but just as good at filtering?
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Got money for a filter punk, but not a polisher...
Adult GiftsClick here to vist us
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Jake
Member
Registered: 24th Jan 05
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im getting a list together to buy it when ive got money coming in
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
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Well i hope im top of this list!
Adult GiftsClick here to vist us
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Jake
Member
Registered: 24th Jan 05
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top of the list is dusting my hand and giving you a slap
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Dan
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Apr 02
Location: Gorleston on Sea, Norfolk
User status: Offline
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Prehaps you need to dust them off and do some fucking work so you have ££
Adult GiftsClick here to vist us
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WATSON
Member
Registered: 16th Jun 05
Location: Fife, Scotland
User status: Offline
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I run the tetratec FX5 and had no problems,
Would be overkill for the size of ur tank, the 700 would be idea for you.
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