I wish my fish could talk they could tell me whats killing them

Question

90 gallon tank, 6 gold fish - one, lost it today... Problem... Just changed the filter system with all new stuff, { yes I rinse everything many times} Its a FLU 5 then it got a little cloudy.. Normal but the next day the tank began to give off a awful odor , the cloudiness remained but it is taken on a red sort of tinge. Fish aren't eating and its breaking my heart, I am at a loss as to what to do next , I have changed the system gain already...

Answer 1

quite changing everything. give the system time to settle in. do partial water changes by siphoning from the bottom of the tank, no more then half the water at a time. stop rinsing your filter.  

Answer 2

  I think your in the dream world.

Answer 3

Try feeding them less food. The cloudiness is usually a sign of the ammonia level being too high, which is usually from excess food that the fish do not eat decaying.  

Answer 4

Stop rinsing the filters!  Haven't you ever wondered why the tank seems to get worse after you rinse the filters?  That should be a sign.

That gunk in the filters is helpful bacteria that cleans the wastes out of the water.  The gunkier your filter is, the better it is for your fish, providing the water can still flow through it.  

Your fish are currently suffering from a lack of helpful bacteria to remove the ammonia and other wastes from their water.  Change half the water in the tank daily until you have built up another nice layer of slime in your filter, and then leave the filter alone.  If you need to clean it in the future, try to leave at least half the slime in it so that you don't have a catastrophic loss of bacteria again.  Do not clean the gravel too thoroughly, either, as the helpful bacteria will colonize there as well.  You can stir up the gravel to loosen up waste particles before you do your half-tank change; that way you will remove roughly half the excess waste.  Let the rest settle back into the gravel.  It is food for the bacteria.

Answer 5

When you do your water changes do you dip it out or suction it out from the top? or do you siphon it off the bottom of the tank? Ammonia tends to hang in the lower half of the tank so don't just take water from the top when doing water changes. A lot of the chemicals in water with fish in it are heavier than the water and tend to pool at the bottom of the tank.

Goldfish are one of the dirtyest fishes I have ever kept. They eat a lot and excrete a lot too. Even a very large tank can be easily overwhelmed in a very short time. Do test the water daily (at the same time daily) to make sure it does not build up to harmful levels.

You said you "rinse everything many times". Do you use faucet water? or do you use the water from your aquarium that you have extracted?

Faucet water has Chlorine in it... killing off good bacteria. Remember to use your extracted water from the water change to rinse the filters etc.

Usually in water "Green is good"  "Red is bad" usually means some kind of contaninate has invaded the water. Always make sure you keep your hands clean when dealing with your fish.

Hope this helps.