my friend has a little tank prob 40-60 ltr with gold fish
the problem is the water keeps going cloudy and smells.
he was using black chipped rock as his base
i thought this was making the water go discoloured.
but i gave him plan stone and it has happened AGAIN.
it has to be the water he is using.he lives near the foothills of the mountains
wicklow i guess.but he drinks the water all the time.
the guy is a total beginner so he has no readings of the water.
im going to give him my testing kit to see what is wrong.
he also has no filter.

i doubt its the food.
what can he do if it is the water ?????

I would say it is the combination of food and no filter plus the fact gold fish are champion s**T machines.

first and fore most a water changes and add a filter a must!!!!

I would look at the food there is a cheap supafood looks like coloured pellets this will cloud the water some thing terrible. the smell is more than likely rotten food and ammonia give the stones a good hovering and i say again water changes plenty of small (no more than 50%)water changes. i would wash the stones as well the tank will need to cycle so this would be the only time i would do this if you could add some water from a tank that is already set up it will give it a boost in the right direction. or if some one could give some medium from there tank that would be even better and a big plus too!!!!!!

Yep, tell the guy to change that water immediately.
And don't worry about cycling the tank, if the water is polluted already with fish and food waste, the water changes are the regime he needs to get into.
I'd say its inexperience thats the problem, not water quality, but thats just a hunch.

after a day or two of changing water is goes dirty etc
he really shouldnt need to change it everyday

Then its the food plus the fish digging for the food trapped in the sub strata. If it was the water your friend would be in hospital if he was lucky. Water changes and reduce the food a filter is a must again check the food type as well there is good food, bad food and some food might as well be poison. if you don't have a filter you need to do at very least one water change per day on a small tank. small tank = more work

I would say daily waterchanges would be needed without a filter. Even with a filter they will be needed untill the tank has cycled.

A filter is defo required. I was having trouble with the water due to rotten food and I changed from flakes to pellets this may be a solution as only two to tree pellets are used per fish.

Hey cathaloc2,

How many fish does your friend have in that tank? If the tank is overstocked in anyway the water will surely cloud. Has he got a filter for the tank yet and some of the food recommended by others?

How are the water conditions now, is the water still clouding? What readings did he report back to you?

Hope all is good.

Regards,
Aisling