Somewhat Bad News *Updated with Determination!*

[Kalei]

Well, I was sitting in my room today just staring at my fish tank and watching Queen, and I realized that I don't think I could live with myself if I gave her up. I know it may be expensive to keep her, but hey I live with my parents and have quite a bit of spending money, if she costs me 40 bucks a month, then I'll do it!

I dont' know what it is, but I started thinking of taking her away and I held back tears. This is the fish that I want to have live with me for as long as possible which could mean 35 years! I am going to help so much to make this tank clear. I'm going to buy the ammonia kit, and buy waste control.

And I am going to have to give SeaKing up too. I thought it was a girl, but I found out again the other day that SeaKing is a boy and the eggs that he makes Queen have dirty the tank so so much. And I had a question for all you fish people Do you think that a male's sperm could also make the water cloudier?

I was also thinking of getting a snail or two, I hear snails are very good with keeping algae down, and I"m also going to get a bunch of live plants cause I hear they are very good for tank too because of the oxygen they give off. Just wondering too, does anyone know if snails are good or bad for a tank?

Thanks so much for listening everyone! And to answer your Question Blue Frog, when I take water out of it, its like a milky type of cloudy, so its whiteish...maybe it is some of SeaKing's sperm?

[IRescue452]

Keep in mind she's still going to get bigger and be cramped in that tank.

Get liquid test kits, no strips, because the chemicals on the test strips start to break down as soon as they are exposed to air, leading to skewed results.

I've never heard of the fish's sperm making the water cloudy. I think it would most likely be bacteria and ammonia.

If you have an algae problem than plants might not be a good idea. Plants need lots of light and sometimes CO2, more light plus fertilizer= more algae.

For algae, snails can do some good. But you can also get a young chinese algae eater (sometimes called golden algae eater). They can clean a tank spotless in a week. But as it ages you might have to trade it in as they go from eating algae to eating fish. We have a young one in our guppy tank and the tank is sparkling. Snails are also sensitive to chemicals in the water, like your waste control stuff.

[Blue_Frog]

Everything that IRescue452 says is spot on

If you want an algae eater, don't get a common plecko (trust me, they get huge!). The goldens are a great option (just be prepared to rehome him if he gets agressive, my current one hasn't been a problem he just likes to sit on the frogs), and also the siamese algae eaters. I just got this little guy (Otocinclus sp. Oto / Dwarf suckermouth catfish / Dwarf Pleco), and hes a great cleaner too, but i'm not sure if you can get him in your area (he doesn't have a name yet, he was new as of friday).

this is the little so-far nameless guy, already hard at work ---

[Kalei]

Thanks for the advice, but its not an algae problem, I already have a pleco named Bob, he's like 6" long and there is no algae in my tank at all. One reason I know is because I have to feed Bob myself and he even goes up and tries to eat the goldfish's food lol. So I think its pretty much all ammonia and bacteria that is the problem, I am going to wal-mart tonight and I will get a good kit and see what the ammonia level is at. I will also get some waste control, and probably within this month another filter, so I"ll have two 110 gallon filters, should do the trick I hope.

Thanks so much for everything, it means so much that you guys care and are trying to help me out, and so far you have all helped me alot! I bet I will see a change in the tank soon!

Edit: I just got back from the store and I bought an ammonia kit, Waste control, and the thing that makes the Ammonia levels better. And now I know what my problem is. The ammonia level was at the highest level it could get It is suppose to be at 0ppm but mine was between 6 and 8 so I'm fixing it up as fast as possible. Hopefully we will soon see a clearer tank for Queen

[IRescue452]

Wow! That's super high. Test your tap water, maybe you have chloramines, they show up on the test kit as ammonia.