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I have two oscars that grew to six inches in nine months and a four year old knife fish. Since the oscars came the water is murkier and murkier. I replaced all but a third of the water and replaced the filter on the side wall and the filters on the underground filter system. I completely emptied the tank and replaced the gravel as well. the tank was clear for one day and now it is getting browner and browner. what is wrong?

We have heard from other board members that this is a symptom of the undergravel filter. You should have water circulating at approx. 10X an hour, any less then that and you may experience problems. Oscars place an incredible burden on the filtration system of any tank as they are extremely messy eaters. One sure way to get rid of the color is to filter with activated carbon... and be sure to spend a few dollars more on the good stuff you will be much happier with it (and so will your fish!).

As a side note it will help us with future posts and let us give you more accurate help if you give us the specs on your tank, such as size, filtration, tank members + sizes for all, ph, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings, temp... etc etc etc. The more info you give us the better advice we can give you.

Adam

sorry, I have a thirty gallon vertical tank with a t3 filter on the side whisper? and an underground sysytem as well. Just three fish though.

How big is the knife fish? from what I have read it should be around 12-18" long. If that is the case you may be over txing your filtration... you didnt say how many gph it handles, which is really the key to figuring out the problem... also you will everntually need to move up to at least a 55 gallon tank and with the knife probably a 75 gallon as they can get up to 2' long.

Adam

I don't know what a gph is and this tank is as large as it is going to get unless I find a new home. My knife fish is 8 inches long and the oscars are about six inches or more round. Three in all. I am thinking of trying to sell the Oscars even though they are very friendly because the tank looks so bad. What should I get for them or isn't there a market for them?

I have an old filter system that I could add to this tank. I think I will try that. Today I can no longer see the fish because it is so brown.

ouch I didnt realize you have 2 oscars... that is not good. The 30 gallon tank is too small for all of those fish and to have them all in there together is bad news. The rule of thumb is that a fish should be able to turn around without hitting his head on the front of the glass and a 30 gallon tank is about 12" deep. The oscars will each get 12" and the knife will get up to 40" though in an aquarium I believe the biggest they get is 2'. Here is a site with a little info on them http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gcknife.html It would be my opinion that you should either get a much larger tank minimum of 80 gallons.....or get rid of all three fish and go with something smaller, there are lots and lots of fish that can work very will in a 30 gallon.

Oh also gph is short for "gallons per hour". Its how all power heads and filters are rated.

Adam

[This message has been edited by Adam (edited 09-05-2001).]

The only way is to get a much bigger tank.
Oscars need a lot of room and a kickass filteration system happening. Lot of people dont realize how big they get and how messey they are.

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TONY The Proud Aussie
Duboisi.com

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