Fish Poop Problems

by **Tien6079** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:16 pm

I am posting this in the saltwater section because I believe more people here will have sand in their tanks compared to the frshwater forum. I have a freshwater tank I am converting to brackish. I love the look of the white sand at the bottom but the fish crap shows up everywhere and looks horrible! Some of my fish hide under ledges and piles of poop build up. I have good circulation and filtration but by the time the poop breaksdown they have pooped some more! Has anyone else had this problem? I can't siphon the top of the sand every day, so I am thinking of adding a second canister filter. How should I deal with this problem?

by **littlej2455** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:31 pm

I had this same problem. I had good circulation but I added two more powerheads and positioned them towards the sand, and that did the trick.

by **Snowboss4492** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:16 pm

if there's that much crap in there, i'd try cutting back on the feeding, and get some better quality food.............the more waste they are giving off the less they are using as energy

Boss

by **newbie916** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:10 pm

I usually use an extra powerhead once a month to stir up the sand before I do my water change. This usually gets my sand back to white and the water change and filtration system should pick up the suspended poop. I've actually noticed my water being clearer since I started doing this after Schigara mentioned it. It should also decrease nitrates.

by **Tien6079** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:04 am

Thanks for the info. These answers should help. I have been feeding a good amount as I am attempting to encourage growth in size for the fish. I will have to cut back on feeding and I will probably buy a new powerhead to stir things up a bit.

by **fihsboy** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:06 pm

I find it Ironic that the freshwater guys try to get big fish....and saltwater guys feed as little as possible to keep there fish small....CRAZY!!!

by **Tien6079** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:44 pm

Lol! I'm not an expert on saltwaterfish but if I understand right, saltwater fish colors fade with age. All of my fish lack a lot of color. I have mono sebae and argentis along with tiger barbs and spotted climbing perches which are all not the most colorful fish. I have a large tank with a bunch of small fish, hence the reason I want them to grow larger. Why do saltwater aquarists want to keep their fish small? Is it to preserve color?

by **Snowboss4492** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:06 pm

salt water fish require alot of room, seems to be more room than fresh water, so the smaller the fish the smaller the tank or more fish you can have in the tank - - IE.......... a hippo tang at 3/4 of an inch can survive reasonably happy in a 20-30 gallon tank for a while...................that same tang in a few years can be 6-8 inches long and needs 100-150 gallons to be content and 500 to be extatically happy ..............lol

Boss

by **nicholas542** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:42 am

That's the problem I've seen in some people tanks in the rateing area they have yellow tangs in 29 gallon tanks. I was going to get ride of my tang, and give him back to the petstore when I found out my 40 gallon was too small. He died of head and lateral line disease before I could return him though.

by **Snowboss4492** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:38 am

well.............a tough lesson learned ...sorry for the lose, and yes i see and hear it all the time - - - - i think one of the best things and worst things to ever happen to this hobby is "NEMO" - - - - it got me into the hobby, I'm just glad i found people like the ones in this forum and learned as much as i could before i started buying all kinds of fish that "looked cool" but would have surely died by my ignorance

now i can just make my own mistakes as i learn from others and not make theirs as well

Boss

Fish Poop Problems

18 posts • Page 1 of 2