Sick goldfish... new to aquariums... am I ok?

I've had this tank for about 4 months. I have a PH kit and I keep
the water pretty near neutral. About a week ago the water started
getting REALLY cloudy. I changed the filter, and vacuumed the gravel
thinking maybe the filter would clear it up some. I get home today
and my algae eater's dead... also, I noticed that my largest goldfish
(about 4") had red spots around his fins, and the fins themselves were
verry red. The water's even more cloudy.

So I took my fish out (all goldfish varieties now) and did a complete
water change, washed the gravel, and cleaned the filter box real good.
Put new water back in, adjusted the PH, added some chlorine remover
and ammonia remover (picked both up today, wasn't using before) and
added the fish back. They seem to be moving around more now, and the
redness on the larger fish has subsided some. I'm still scared I
might lose more fish though and want to know if there's anything else
I can do. I did add about 1/4 tsp of salt to the filter box, but I'm
not sure if I should add more as the water around here is already
pretty hard. Any suggestions? It's a 10 gallon tank. I did add some
tetra's about 2 weeks ago but they all died (I found out later that
they like warmer water, but the lady at the store said they'd be
fine). It was right after they died that the water started getting
cloudy. I remove 4 of the 5 but couldn't find the 5th. Figured maybe
the larger GF ate him. Any suggestions? Should I just wait it out
now? I don't want to put them through anymore stress than I have with
the water change. I tried to get the temerature close, but I don't
have a thermometer and I think the water's a little colder now than it
used to be. Thank you to anyone who can give me some advice here.

Jed Savage wrote:

I've had this tank for about 4 months. I have a PH kit and I keep
the water pretty near neutral. About a week ago the water started
getting REALLY cloudy. I changed the filter, and vacuumed the gravel
thinking maybe the filter would clear it up some. I get home today
and my algae eater's dead... also, I noticed that my largest goldfish
(about 4") had red spots around his fins, and the fins themselves were
verry red. The water's even more cloudy.

So I took my fish out (all goldfish varieties now) and did a complete
water change, washed the gravel, and cleaned the filter box real good.
Put new water back in, adjusted the PH, added some chlorine remover
and ammonia remover (picked both up today, wasn't using before) and
added the fish back. They seem to be moving around more now, and the
redness on the larger fish has subsided some. I'm still scared I
might lose more fish though and want to know if there's anything else
I can do. I did add about 1/4 tsp of salt to the filter box, but I'm
not sure if I should add more as the water around here is already
pretty hard. Any suggestions? It's a 10 gallon tank. I did add some
tetra's about 2 weeks ago but they all died (I found out later that
they like warmer water, but the lady at the store said they'd be
fine). It was right after they died that the water started getting
cloudy. I remove 4 of the 5 but couldn't find the 5th. Figured maybe
the larger GF ate him. Any suggestions? Should I just wait it out
now? I don't want to put them through anymore stress than I have with
the water change. I tried to get the temerature close, but I don't
have a thermometer and I think the water's a little colder now than it
used to be. Thank you to anyone who can give me some advice here.

Read the following two websites...
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin.html
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/home.html

Beyond that... (sigh) can somebody else handle this one? Please?

-Donald
--
My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted,
I told you that your task was to push against the rock with
all of your strength, which you have done.
Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.

http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/care.htm
look at the reasons for not having gravel and how to remove it.
add 1 teaspoon salt per 5 gallons, no additives, dissolve first, add slowly. it has
nothing to do with "hardness" or alkalinity
just keep doing 50% water changes every day for a week.
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials
GF need 10 gallons EACH. get nitrate test and keep the nitrates at or below 20 ppm.

water temp that goes up and down is bad for GF and they get ich. get a heater, get
good aeration. get a bigger tank. dont mix GF and other fish.
Ingrid

(Jed Savage) wrote:
So I took my fish out (all goldfish varieties now) and did a complete
water change, washed the gravel, and cleaned the filter box real good.
Put new water back in, adjusted the PH, added some chlorine remover
and ammonia remover (picked both up today, wasn't using before) and
added the fish back. They seem to be moving around more now, and the
redness on the larger fish has subsided some. I'm still scared I
might lose more fish though and want to know if there's anything else
I can do. I did add about 1/4 tsp of salt to the filter box, but I'm
not sure if I should add more as the water around here is already
pretty hard. Any suggestions? It's a 10 gallon tank. I did add some
tetra's about 2 weeks ago but they all died (I found out later that
they like warmer water, but the lady at the store said they'd be
fine). It was right after they died that the water started getting
cloudy. I remove 4 of the 5 but couldn't find the 5th. Figured maybe
the larger GF ate him. Any suggestions? Should I just wait it out
now? I don't want to put them through anymore stress than I have with
the water change. I tried to get the temerature close, but I don't
have a thermometer and I think the water's a little colder now than it
used to be. Thank you to anyone who can give me some advice here.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

First of all you need to read up on cycling your tank (there should be stuff
on that in the links the others gave you). You need to get test kits for
ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and while it's cycling, regularly test your
water so that you can do partial (30%ish) water changes when the ammonia and
nitrite start to spike.Cycling can take up to a couple of months so you will
need to be patient and check your water daily. Both ammonia and nitrite are
toxic to your fish so this is the reason that partial water changes are
called for.
Cloudy water is usually due to a bacterial bloom and is generally a good
thing and will pass in a few days. You shouldn't ever need to do a 100%
water change either as this isn't very good for the fish. 30-40% should be
enough at any one time. When you clean your filter are you doing it in
tapwater? If so then don't as this will kill all your friendly
bacteria.Rinse it in a bucket of old tank water while doing a water change.
You also shouldn't add salt to the filter box as this could kill your
friendly bacteria again. Dissolve the salt first in a little tank water then
pour into the tank. It's important to do this gradually though so the fish
and filter can acclimatise.
How many goldfish (and other kinds of fish) do you have in this 10 gallon
tank? 10 gallons per goldfish is the absolute minimum they should be kept
in, and tetras are tropical fish as you have since been informed. They will
also get snacked on by goldfish if they fit in their mouths so shouldn't be
kept together. As I'm guessing you are very overstocked, once your tank is
cycled you will need to do as many partial water changes as are needed to
keep your ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0 and nitrate under 20. This could very
well mean you need to do this daily to keep your water anywhere near good,
unless you can get a bigger tank. Algae eaters generally aren't a good idea
either as when they mature they will start sucking the slime coat form your
goldfish.
Hope this helps,
Mel.

wrote in message
...
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/care.htm
look at the reasons for not having gravel and how to remove it.
add 1 teaspoon salt per 5 gallons, no additives, dissolve first, add
slowly. it has
nothing to do with "hardness" or alkalinity
just keep doing 50% water changes every day for a week.
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials
GF need 10 gallons EACH. get nitrate test and keep the nitrates at or
below 20 ppm.

water temp that goes up and down is bad for GF and they get ich. get a
heater, get
good aeration. get a bigger tank. dont mix GF and other fish.
Ingrid

(Jed Savage) wrote:
So I took my fish out (all goldfish varieties now) and did a complete
water change, washed the gravel, and cleaned the filter box real good.
Put new water back in, adjusted the PH, added some chlorine remover
and ammonia remover (picked both up today, wasn't using before) and
added the fish back. They seem to be moving around more now, and the
redness on the larger fish has subsided some. I'm still scared I
might lose more fish though and want to know if there's anything else
I can do. I did add about 1/4 tsp of salt to the filter box, but I'm
not sure if I should add more as the water around here is already
pretty hard. Any suggestions? It's a 10 gallon tank. I did add some
tetra's about 2 weeks ago but they all died (I found out later that
they like warmer water, but the lady at the store said they'd be
fine). It was right after they died that the water started getting
cloudy. I remove 4 of the 5 but couldn't find the 5th. Figured maybe
the larger GF ate him. Any suggestions? Should I just wait it out
now? I don't want to put them through anymore stress than I have with
the water change. I tried to get the temerature close, but I don't
have a thermometer and I think the water's a little colder now than it
used to be. Thank you to anyone who can give me some advice here.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.