"NetMax" wrote in message
...
| "James" wrote in message
| ...

|
| I'm not familiar with the Whisper 60, but a persistent bacterial bloom is
| typically due to under filtration, or more specifically insufficient
| filter media surface for a large enough nitrifying bacteria colony.
| Never turn off the filter, avoid replacing the filter media (clean only)
| and look into adding another filter if needed.

The Whisper 60 has 2x the media area as the 30 does. So.... I agree with you
entirely there. I always clean the media prior to outright replacing it.


|
| I suspect your tank size will be a problem before your pH is worth
| worrying about ;~).

Hah! :-) I figured you'd say that. HOPEFULLY, my 180g will be up and running
prior to any major growth spirts LOL. The Oscars were a gift so I had to
kept 'em.

|
| sharks, 30g might be too small for their territorial tendencies, ymmv
| gouramis, research eventual size (10-12")
| Convicts, research propendensity to multiply ;~) and hope you have 2
| females.
| CAEs, research eventual size and evil disposition towards large fish
| Oscars, research eventual size (12-14") and filtering requirements
| The only thing you are missing is a couple of Pacus ;~) *sorry, couldn't
| resist*
|
| Typically, the industry recommendation for ONE Oscar is a 55g, and a 70g
| for two Oscars. With your Kissing gouramis, keeping everything in a 70g
| would be quite a squeeze once they were adults.

Gonna get real freindly in there huh ;-)

I know the problem is not overfeeding because today I did a gravel clean and
there just was not any consequence of funk caught during the cleaning. I
gues I will give this new filter a couple of weeks. And this time I did a
50% water change and will do another next week I gues to see what's up. The
water looks better so far.

Sad thing, it's seems my water was always better to look at BEFORE I knew
anything about water chemistry... but I know it's better for the fish ;-)

Thanks!

-James