Save my marriage!

[Les]

My lovely beautiful Italian wife won a Goldfish at the carnival five years ago. We started with a tupperware bowl and last week moved it into it's seventh home - 100gal aquarium with a remote filter, lights, bells and whistles.

It is in the dining room, so we eat in the basement now.

Here is the problem: the water is emerald green and gettin' worse. The local fish doctor is a twerp and has my wife's ear and ready to sell us another $3-400 worth of filters. He claims the algae stuff will kill this fish. It is a carnival goldfish that is abt 12" long now and looks like Moby Dick.

Any fish gurus out there?

[Chad Fabry]

That green stuff won't kill the fish. But it is ugly.

Get an ultraviolet light to run the water through..5 or 10 watts would be plenty. 30 bucks on ebay. It mutates the algae so it can't reproduce. Use activated charcoal filters. I buy the charcoal in big jars and fill old stockings with it and save about 90% on the price of filters.

Put in ten or twenty pennies in the filter housing. The copper kills the algae.

Copper chromate works but I'm used to treating a pond and it turns the water a funky blue.

Before you do any of it, change out most of the water first and scrub the tank walls before you drain it. Stopping over feeding helps a lot.

It's damn near impossible to kill that fish.

[hausdok]

Hi,

My wife has a 50 gallon tank with about 30 of the damned things. Not goldfish like you have - tropical fish I think. She has to change the water, rinse the gravel and clean the glass every few weeks. (I bought her an attachment that hooks to a kitchen faucet through a long hose and it works like a vacuum cleaner.) She also has to treat the water every time she changes it with some kind of anti-slime stuff and also with some kind of anti-algae stuff.

That's about as close to it as I get. I told her when she bought the damned thing that if she wanted to have the fish she had to take care of maintenance on them. She used to try and get me to do it, until one year when she went to visit her family in Korea and half of 'em croaked before she got back. Now, she cleans out the tank before she leaves and put in automatic feeders and medicine dispensers so I won't touch 'em.

You should have seen me during the Nisqually quake in,.....2001 I think it was. The building began to shake rattle and roll and I heard a scream in the living room. I ran out there and there was my 5'2" wife trying to stabilize a 7ft. high grandfather clock with one hand and a 50 gallon tank on a pedestal with the other. Both were rockin' and a rollin'! I yelled for her to get out, but she wouldn't until I'd relieved her at the clock and fish tank. Know what happened then? She ran off and left me standing there bracing them and said, as she was going out the door, "Don't let go!" Sheesh! I remember standing there holding onto those damned things thinking, "Christ, they're gonna find me in the rubble of this building still holding onto these friggin' things." Well, the shaking finally stopped without the building collapsing, but not before the ol' sphincter muscles got pretty tight.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[kurt]

Filet it. Cook over medium heat in saucepan w/ olive oil & garlic. Serve w/ lemon wedge garnish.

I'm not sure what kind of wine to serve w/goldfish.

[Scottpat]

First don't put pennies in the tank they can kill the fish if you put too many.

You are having what is called an Algae Bloom.

Cut back on the food, feed the fish every other day for about a week. Or about half of what you are feeding the fish now. A product called Algae-Fix, works great and if used as directed will not kill the plants, it works quick. I have used it a couple of times. New tanks are not "seasoned" so algae blooms are common.

The non chemical way would be to do 25% water changes every other day, add some live plants to compete for the nutrients in the water that the Algae is feeding off of. Also check the Nitrate levels and Ammonia levels in the tank, this will cause an algae bloom. Most algae problems go back to over feeding or over crowding. With a 100 gal tank, you could have 10-15 good sized gold fish or Koi in it as long as you have a good filter system.

Charcoal will not remove the Algae, it will help to "polish" the water after the algae is dead and remove odors.

Good luck and let us know!!!

White Zinfandel works well with fillet of Koi!

[Bill Kibbel]

I never had a problem with the proper size flow-through filter. The only maintenance was to clean the filter and vacuum the gravel creating a 30% water change once a month.

I had to put a few drops of something to neutralize the chlorinated replacement water.

When my girlfriend (now my wife) moved in I had 5 tanks. 100 gal was the smallest. She hated them. I reluctantly agreed to get rid of one tank at a time as the fish died off. She eventually admitted to regularly dumping toxic chemical cocktails in the water. Almost 20 years later, I got even. We bought a house that came with a pond containing over 100 fish.

[Les]

The filter is about twice the size of a large coffee can with layers of ceramic noodles, limestone, course fiber filter, fine fiber filter and activated charcoal filter. It is connected to tank by 3/4" hose suction and 1/2" hose discharge below water line. There are two fish - one big and one small. No airstones. There is a two bulb 4foot florscent light, no direct sunlight. Thanks for info so far.

Download Attachment: MVC-018S.JPG

39.24 KB

Download Attachment: MVC-017S.JPG

37.04 KB

[Scottpat]

Les, sounds like a canister filter with Bio medium materials in it. You might need to add in some good bacteria. One brand name is called Cycle, it will add in good "bugs" that will live in the filter medium. They will convert the Nitrates(bad) into Nitrites(good)and this will keep a good balance in the aquarium. With only two fish in the tank it will take months for the good bacteria to build up to a level that they can do anything. I bet if you add some in it will help.

I am down to two 55 gal tanks, one salt and one fresh.

[Bullwinkle]

Get a couple of snails and throw them in, they'll clean the glass. There are several types of algae eaters also to help keep the algae down after the tank has stabilized

[A-Pro]

Here's a good reference site for your problem:

http://www.algone.com/algae.htm

I agree with buying a couple of snails and algae eaters as well. Also - how many hours per day do you keep the aquarium lights on (and/or is the tank exposed to bright sunlight)? Algae LOVES light, so cut the lights back by 2-3 hours per day to help control it a little better. The fish won't mind.

When all else fails... empty the tank, rinse the gravel in boiling water and start fresh. Don't use chlorinated water for the refill, though. Goldfish are pretty tough, but not THAT tough.

Good luck!