In article ,
"Koi-Lo" wrote:

- "Suzie-Q" wrote:
-
- Should a freshwater aquarium have a smell?
-
- A clean healthy aquarium has a faint pleasant lake-like aroma.
-
- Sometimes I get a "stale" smell coming from my 2.5-gallon betta aquariums.
-
- It sounds like it's time for a partial water change!
-
- And I sometimes get a foul smell from my 10-gallon aquarium (a dozen
- glo-light
- and neon tetras, a pleco, a SAE, and about four ghost shrimp).
-
- This tank sounds a bit overcrowded and probably also needs some partial
- water changes. Larger changes and more often. Vacuum the gravel as well.

Overcrowded with all those little tiny fish (and shrimp)? Another thing I never
would have imagined.

- I vacuum the tank and do water changes, although probably not as often as
- I should.
-
- How often are you doing them? A least once every 10 days?!?!?!

Maybe every two or three weeks. I'll start doing them more often.

- I've also started using distilled water, since our local tap water
- is very hard and God only knows what's in it! (I won't drink the stuff.)
-
- Fish will die at some point in distilled water. It's not a good idea and is
- also expensive when water change time comes. You can mix it 50/50 with your
- tap water if your tap water is hard and alkaline.

Man, I'm an idiot when it comes to fish. I had no idea about the distilled
water. I'll use the tap water from now on. How about filtered tap water? (I
have one of those Pur filters that attaches to the faucet.) Is that okay?

Thanks to all of you who responded.
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

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