Now you have set up and stocked your fish tank aquarium you can enjoy your new hobby. Looking after your fish tank is not hard, nevertheless a few problems may appear, mainly in new aquariums. It all may look perfect for a short while then slowly algae begins to develop and completely take over the fish tank, the fish start to die and your newly set up tank no longer looks like the aquariums in the pictures. How did this happen? Why did this happen? What went so drastically wrong? How can you make it right?

Firstly, don’t panic and definitely do not rush off to the nearest aquarium shop, buy chemicals and throw them into your aquarium. This will only compound the problems! Another thing that new fish tank owners tend to do when panicking is to clean the tank to begin again. This is the biggest mistake as any valuable bacteria that you have managed to culture in the tank will be removed as well and you will have to start again with recycling.

You really need to find out what is wrong and bit by bit deal with it, without chemical products which will probably change the the aquarium’s balance even more.

Build up of Toxic Chemicals

The most worrying trouble is sudden fish death. Did you cycle the tank properly before you added the fish? The most common reason for sudden fish death is high concentrations of ammonia or nitrites that are produced by the fish. You will need to use a test kit to properly check if this is the problem. If proper cycling of the tank wasn’t carried out there will be too few beneficial bacteria to cope with with all of these toxic chemicals, especially if you have too many fish.  Do you have too many fish in the tank? This will inevitably be too much for the bacteria that deal with the waste and lead to an increase in the concentrations of nitrite and ammonia.

Fish Bullying

Have you made sure you have a good assortment of fish varieties in the tank? Some fish may be no problem when young but will bully other fish when fully grown. Tiger barbs are notorious for being bullies. Any bullying fish are best removed from the aquarium and given away!

Lack of Water Changes

Have you been partially changing the water often enough? Although ammonia and nitrites are removed by the beneficial bacteria, less toxic nitrates are produced. But nitrates can also cause a problem. When nitrate concentrations become too high they are able to cause harm to the fish and they must be removed by doing a partial water change.

Using Chlorine Contaminated Water

All tap water contains chlorine which you can remove by leaving the water to stand for a day or two. Some authorities also add chloramines which is not removable so easily. If your tap water contains chloramines, or you don’t know, you need to add a chemical treatment to deal with them them before putting the water in the tank.

Overfeeding The Fish

Overfeeding is a widespread problem, the result of which is uneaten, food rotting. This then releases noxious chemicals that cause more strain on the bacteria. The outcome is a rapid rise in toxic chemicals that will more than likely harm your fish. When feeding your tropical fish ensure that you Do not give them more than they can eat in approximately 3 mins. If you see food sitting on the bottom of the tank you are overfeeding!

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