Big mistake...55g problem

[CoolWaters]

my uncle bought a tank to raise koi type fishes...little did he know the limits of the tank.....

first he bought about 10 fishes small ones no more then an 1" long...i thought they was fine for a 55g tank. about a month later he says the fishes are dying and some of the fishes are injured and messed up....

i got a testing kit and when over....i almost had a heart attack when i first saw the tank. *SICK*

at first there was about 23 fishes!!! now it died down to 18...

thats not the worst part. 2 of them are at least 8"s long...and they also have 3 "aglae eaters" stil alive to my suprise...

the smallest is about 3" and it goes up from there...

now the test.

am/nit is at 0 so thats a good thing.

but nitrate is over 80...

i added a 300 gph power head to get the oxidation going.

i wanted him to get a canister filter but hes using stock filters...

the water is very cloudy. i added water clearer products but non are helping.

where currently trying active carbon but does look like hes using it.

is there anything i can do for his tank?

 

[Balance]

that tank is going to start spilling fish out onto the floor pretty quickly...

is there anywhere for these guys to go?

 

[VirgoWolf]

Does he plan on keeping these fish in this tank? 1 koi or pleco (algae eater) is way too much for a tank this size. There is not much you can do. For now you could do waterchanges every other day and start looking for a few people with ponds or a store that will take them off your hands.

It's odd that you have no nitrite or ammonia, yet have so much nitrate. Ammonia turns into Nitrites and Nitrites turn into Nitrates, so it's odd to have high levels of Nitrates without the other 2. Also, Koi and plecos are 2 of the messiest fish you could possibly have. With those numbers, you should have excessive ammounts of Ammonia and Nitrites. Might want to check to see if your test kit is working properly.

 

[MissFishy]

That tank is too small for 1 koi, let alone 18 of them plus algae eaters...

You really need to find new homes for the koi, maybe convince your uncle to help by giving him information on tank stocking, etc. People don't like to be told they don't know what they're doing, so perhaps find new homes for the fish, then tell your uncle which ones need to go first.

 

[FroggyFox]

Have we already talked about this tank?? IF not, look up a thread that is somewhat similar....

Best thing you can do for the tank in an immediate sense is water changes. Big ones, lots of them.

Then you can politely tell them that the number of the fish in the tank is going to keep causing issues and causing themto die off...and suggest that they donate the koi to someone with a pond. Tell them about all of the great options they have with a 55 gallon tank...that doesn't include huge fish that will take over and die and cause 50% water changes every other day.

 

[CoolWaters]

well...hes building a front yard pond....im going to see if i can ask im to increase the size to maybe to about 500gs or more. he has some interesting things going along....

is there special requirements to ponds?

 

[VirgoWolf]

500gal is MAYBE enough room for 1 koi... he still has problems. Remember Koi are messy fish to begin with, add that to the fact that they get up to 3' long and you have a major poo machiene. I higly suggest he goes with goldfish for the pond and still finds new homes for these fish.

Our pond is 4500gals and we're expanding it another 100-200gals this year and I still don't feel comfortable with more than 3 or 4 Koi in my pond.

Personally I feel that 1000gals for the first koi and 200gals for each additional koi is the requirement. They are huge, need alot of space to manover, and make a HUGE mess everywhere they go causing major water qulity issues if you don't have adiquate space and filtration for them.

A 500gal pond would be great for a hoard of goldfish though, Comets are cheap and look almost just like Koi, if he wants something different Shubunkins are really nice, and if he wants somehting really nice, Walkin are amazing, yet a little hard to find and a bit more expencive.

 

[tropicalfish]

Koi belong in large ponds. This is absolutely ridiculous. If some of the fish are healthy, see if you can take those to the pet store.

 

[CoolWaters]

lol 4500g? looks like a lake to me. i live in the bay area so theres a limited amount of land we have...

if we get a 5000g pond in the front yard then either we have to dig 30' down or use up the whole front yard...

but im going to see how it goes. the whole he has right now is pretty small...i hope hes going to do something about it.

 

[VirgoWolf]

Well it's about 4500gal total, including one large pond, one small pond (adding another this year) and a couple small pools at the top and bottom of the waterfall. actually dosn't take up as much space as you would think... we have a 1/2 acre lot and it's hardly noticeable in the lot. The main pond is 5' deep, about 14' long, and about 7' wide.