Ok My daughter, while at Walmart, wanted a gold fish. It was her own
money and thought ok...... now I think what the heck have I done lol.
We had a bowl but that lasted a week when hubby went and got a 30 gal
tank. Cool. But I went on a shopping tangent lol. I loved the little
guys. we had 13 fish and 3 snails and 2 bottom dwellers. Ok got it TO
MANY! learned my lesson there. .I hate to admit but i didn't do any
research at all before hand and wish I had. Because we are now done to
4 gold fish and 3 snails. I have asked the guy at walmart and a pet
store owner what to do. The amonia was to high. The guy at walmart gave
me testing strips and clear water for it. Didn't work. The guys then at
the pet store gave me some fizzy little tablets which actually seemed
to work. Wait getting ahead of my self ....Did I mention the fish at
walmart had ich.... Ok i'm going to walmart they give ich treament ,
which i did every three days like told to do so. didn't work. a few
fish die and then i was given stress zyme and stress coat. told to put
in water once a week. mean while during treatment of ich i changed
water no more that 25-30% at a time each time i treated. water is now
getting really cloudy. ok back to the problem..... I put the fizzy tabs
in and it cleared the water. next day the water is so white you can't
see the fish. I automatically put the fish in another container and
being curious i check the amonia and nitrates and so on. they are FINE
now. but you can't see through the water lol . so now what? Yes i
changed the water 50% this time. It's still very cloudy. In need of
help big time . please write!

"scoers3" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ok My daughter, while at Walmart, wanted a gold fish. It was her own
money and thought ok...... now I think what the heck have I done lol.
We had a bowl but that lasted a week when hubby went and got a 30 gal
tank. Cool. But I went on a shopping tangent lol. I loved the little
guys. we had 13 fish and 3 snails and 2 bottom dwellers. Ok got it TO
MANY! learned my lesson there. .I hate to admit but i didn't do any
research at all before hand and wish I had. Because we are now done to
4 gold fish and 3 snails. I have asked the guy at walmart and a pet
store owner what to do. The amonia was to high. The guy at walmart gave
me testing strips and clear water for it. Didn't work. The guys then at
the pet store gave me some fizzy little tablets which actually seemed
to work. Wait getting ahead of my self ....Did I mention the fish at
walmart had ich.... Ok i'm going to walmart they give ich treament ,
which i did every three days like told to do so. didn't work. a few
fish die and then i was given stress zyme and stress coat. told to put
in water once a week. mean while during treatment of ich i changed
water no more that 25-30% at a time each time i treated. water is now
getting really cloudy. ok back to the problem..... I put the fizzy tabs
in and it cleared the water. next day the water is so white you can't
see the fish. I automatically put the fish in another container and
being curious i check the amonia and nitrates and so on. they are FINE
now. but you can't see through the water lol . so now what? Yes i
changed the water 50% this time. It's still very cloudy. In need of
help big time . please write!

A good place to start is here http://faq.thekrib.com/begin.html and
also http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html#cycle

You didn't mention how long the tank has been running. Basically it takes
6-8 weeks for a tank to 'Cycle' or for the good bacteria to get established
in your filter. There are two basic types of bacteria, those that convert
Ammonia to Nitrites and those that convert Nitrites to Nitrates. Nitrates
are relatively harmless to fish, it's the Ammonia AND Nitrite levels you
should be testing. It sounds like you already have the bacteria that convert
Ammonia to Nitrites, so now you should be testing your Nitrite levels.

You should also be dechlorinating the water you add to the tank (unless you
have well water), as the chlorine/chloramines in the water will injure your
fishes' gills or kill off your good bacteria. Also try to match the
temperature of the water you're adding to the water already in the tank.
Also if you have high Ammonia/Nitrites I wouldn't change too much at once
(30% max) as the sudden change might shock the fish. Better to do several
smaller changes over several days, unless you're levels are very toxic of
course. A Python is handy for water changes, if you don't already have one.

When you clean your filter, wash it out in a bucket of tank water, not tap
water. You don't want to kill the good bacteria in your filter. If you
replace the media (Sponges/Floss/Carbon) in your filter, don't change
everything at once, as you don't want to discard all of your good bacteria.

Cloudy water could be the dissolved gasses from your tap water, although
this should dissipate in a few hours. So it's likely a bacteria bloom (a
good thing), which will clear as your tank matures. Then you can look
forward to the wonderful world of Algae.

Welcome to the wonderful world of fish keeping. I'm sure you'll get lots of
helpful advice from the other fishy folk.

On 21 Apr 2006 16:07:04 -0700, "scoers3"
wrote:

Ok My daughter, while at Walmart, wanted a gold fish. It was her own
money and thought ok...... now I think what the heck have I done lol.
We had a bowl but that lasted a week when hubby went and got a 30 gal
tank. Cool. But I went on a shopping tangent lol. I loved the little
guys. we had 13 fish and 3 snails and 2 bottom dwellers. Ok got it TO
MANY! learned my lesson there. .I hate to admit but i didn't do any
research at all before hand and wish I had. Because we are now done to
4 gold fish and 3 snails. I have asked the guy at walmart and a pet
store owner what to do. The amonia was to high. The guy at walmart gave
me testing strips and clear water for it. Didn't work. The guys then at
the pet store gave me some fizzy little tablets which actually seemed
to work. Wait getting ahead of my self ....Did I mention the fish at
walmart had ich.... Ok i'm going to walmart they give ich treament ,
which i did every three days like told to do so. didn't work. a few
fish die and then i was given stress zyme and stress coat. told to put
in water once a week. mean while during treatment of ich i changed
water no more that 25-30% at a time each time i treated. water is now
getting really cloudy. ok back to the problem..... I put the fizzy tabs
in and it cleared the water. next day the water is so white you can't
see the fish. I automatically put the fish in another container and
being curious i check the amonia and nitrates and so on. they are FINE
now. but you can't see through the water lol . so now what? Yes i
changed the water 50% this time. It's still very cloudy. In need of
help big time . please write!

Your cry for help has been heard. But this is a very lightly traveled
newsgroup. Send this post again to rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc
You will find lots and lots of help there. I also suggest you click on
the link below my signature for a great introduction to aquariums for
beginners. And not so beginners.

-- Mister Gardener

Everything Aquaria & Tropical Fish at The Krib:
http://faq.thekrib.com/

Ok First lets start this small tank with 2 cheapies, and let them cycle the
water, What does he mean by Cycling the water you ask, Read this Link
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

theres two different opinions there on which way is best way to cycle your
tank.

Second Rules 1 inch of fish per gallon of water, This rule does not apply to
goldfish because they are a dirty fish and create massive amouts of waste,
if all possible or well let just say and unspoken rule, keep goldfish and
tropical fish seperate.

Another thing to Check into , Does my community have an Aquarium Society, in
that situation there usually always someone ready to lend a helping hand

"scoers3" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ok My daughter, while at Walmart, wanted a gold fish. It was her own
money and thought ok...... now I think what the heck have I done lol.
We had a bowl but that lasted a week when hubby went and got a 30 gal
tank. Cool. But I went on a shopping tangent lol. I loved the little
guys. we had 13 fish and 3 snails and 2 bottom dwellers. Ok got it TO
MANY! learned my lesson there. .I hate to admit but i didn't do any
research at all before hand and wish I had. Because we are now done to
4 gold fish and 3 snails. I have asked the guy at walmart and a pet
store owner what to do. The amonia was to high. The guy at walmart gave
me testing strips and clear water for it. Didn't work. The guys then at
the pet store gave me some fizzy little tablets which actually seemed
to work. Wait getting ahead of my self ....Did I mention the fish at
walmart had ich.... Ok i'm going to walmart they give ich treament ,
which i did every three days like told to do so. didn't work. a few
fish die and then i was given stress zyme and stress coat. told to put
in water once a week. mean while during treatment of ich i changed
water no more that 25-30% at a time each time i treated. water is now
getting really cloudy. ok back to the problem..... I put the fizzy tabs
in and it cleared the water. next day the water is so white you can't
see the fish. I automatically put the fish in another container and
being curious i check the amonia and nitrates and so on. they are FINE
now. but you can't see through the water lol . so now what? Yes i
changed the water 50% this time. It's still very cloudy. In need of
help big time . please write!