Problems with new aquarium

[Hermit]

DD (10) has been desperate for fish for at least a year. I am quite happy with rabbits, guineas, hamsters - no experience of fish.
However, she saved up and bought an aquarium from Pets At Home - 14 litres. We filled it and put all the recommended treatments in the water. It also has a filter made for a much larger tank, since the one supplied with hers was very noisy. It took about three weeks to get the water to the standard required by PAH (ammonia, pH levels etc), then DD bought two little fish to go in it. The problem is, the water is quite smelly and seems too cloudy to me. I suspect she overfed them at first as we were getting used to how much they eat. We have replaced about a quarter of the water twice (making sure the new water has warmed up, and adding Tap safe). I have cleaned the insides of the tank with a special scrubber. The water is still too murky for my liking - although not horrendous.I'd like to start all over again, but not sure how the fish would cope. Any suggestions?

I am not an expert by any means and hopefully someone else will be along soon, but I was told that 2 fish in a 14l tank is too many and it should only be one. Also I think if you were to replace all the water and start again it would be too stressful for the fish. How are the fish, do they seem unhappy? Are they active and feeding ok?

The fish seem fine - quite active and feeding well. They are very small - dd read quite a lot of books about fish, which is how she worked out that 2 would be OK. Also checked it out with 2 local aquarium shops.
If only they could talk.......

Hello, I'm a fish geek :-D

Firstly 14 litres is way too small for any fish. Smaller tanks are actually very hard to look after but 14 litres shouldn't be attempted by anyone. You need to get a bigger tank as soon as possible if you want to keep your fish.

When you say it took 3 weeks to get your water to the standard that P@H wanted it, what did you actually do during those 3 weeks? A proper fishless cycle normally takes longer than 3 weeks and tbh P@H's standards are probably way below that of most fishkeepers. You can't really trust advice from most fish shops unfortunately, there are no legal requirements for the staff to be properly trained.

Do you know what kind of fish you have? Do you have a water test kit (if not, get one as soon as you can)? If you do, what are the latest readings? I would guess that your tank is not cycled and the cloudiness you are seeing is a bacterial bloom. Have a read of this, it will explain about the nitrogen cycle in fish tanks- www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm

Am off to bed now but I'll give you more advice in the morning when I've got a bit more time

Is is perhaps algae in the water, making it murky? Does the tank sit in the sun?

Thank you both. Sorry not to have got back - been too busy with other things to get near the pc. Will have a good read and consider what to do. We're not usually irresponsible owners of anything - have kept a variety of furries with no problem. Will also have to explain all this to dd.

Pets at home are shite. Dd bought a Spongebob aquarium (I know, I know) with money she had saved up and I specifically asked if the filter was a decent one and that the water wouldn't go cloudy. They assured me it was a really good one. The water was cloudy with in 2 days so I ended up having to spend just as much money as the aquarium had cost in the first place on a decent filter. Have had no problems since. I actually loathe pets at home and should have known better than to go there after they sold us a hamster 2 years ago that lasted 4 days

The fish in P@H always look so ill as well.

Sweet has given the advice I would give, and without knowing the breed of fish it's almost impossible to give any more advice.