Newbie needing advice...

[liloflight]

Hi All! I am a neewbie and need some advice please. My goal is to have a beautiful tank with happy healthy fish. Please take into consideration like I said, "I am a NEWBIE"...lol....Ok I had a 20gal FW tank with about 6 feeder goldfish in it and a couple snails. Just to start out and have something for the kids to watch. Tank was always crystal clear and fish were happy, it was easy to maintain. I liked it so much I decided to take a 37gal tank that a friend had and didnt want anymore. So I transferred everything over from the 20gal and bought another 6 goldfish and another snail. I have had fish tanks a majority of my life but always 5-10gal with just goldfish in them and never did anything other than set up the tank and add fish. Always had good luck only a few fatalities here and there...lol I just want some advice on the new set up, my tank has been up for about 1week now and it it just a tad cloudy...I mean hardly noticeable. But I want to know how to get it crystal clear and do I have too many goldfish in there? I want to get a couple plecos and maybe a couple moss balls. I eventually would like to switch it over to a tank with a different variety of fish. How do I accomplish this? And Is my thinking of using 13 cent goldfish to start the establishment of the tank ok or have I done it all wrong? oh and i also bought test strips for this bigger tank and check daily along with doing partial water changes daily too and all seems fairly acceptable for the time its been going. Please any comments will be so greatly appreciated! Thanks in Advance!!!

 

[Rivercats]

Boy I hate to be the bearer of bad news but not only are you over stocked but common goldfish get huge, like 12" in a tank unless they are stunted due to too small a tank size. Plus pleco's can severely injury goldfish by sucking the slime coat off them. You don't want to keep pleco's with goldies. With so many goldies in such a little tank you need to be doing daily WC's until you can rehome them.

Honestly if you could I would find a home for the goldies or see if the store will take them back. Then set up the larger tank for a proper community. You already have a filter with good bacteria on it so you could set up the new tank and transfer the filter over to get a big jump on cycling. There are wonderful articles on cycling here on the forum. If you want to do a fish in cycle then you could get say 6 danios and use them along with the seeded filter to get the new tank up and running. Sometimes new tanks get cloudy due to a bacterial bloom which will clear up on it's own.

 

[Rivercats]

Test strips aren't always the most reliable so when you can see about investing in an API mater test kit, which has all the basic tests you'll need. And the bad thing about feeder goldfish is they normally aren't the healthies fish around and you really don't want to start a new tank that way.

 

[liloflight]

First of all, THANK you for your reply Rivercats! So if i get rid of the goldfish (that cost me like 1.56) I can have danios in there? And would the danios and plecos and maybe some other types be okay together? And when should i get the goldfish out of there and how long should i wait before i get some danios and plecos? and what about the snails? Can they stay? I Like The Snails...lol THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!!

 

[liloflight]

I do daily water changes and have for the longest time because I head somewhere that goldfish need that because they produce high amounts of amonia (this is just what i have been told) but i always had goldfish and a pleco together and never really had a problem. I dont know, like i said I am a newbie...but i know for a fact that i have always had a few goldfish a few at a time in a 5-10 gal tank with a pleco. I just had my last goldfish die after 6 years and it never got any bigger than 2" and it was a feeder goldfish and the pleco with it was i wanna say 2 or 3 years old and about 3". Thats all i have ever had and all i have ever known. But like I said I want to have tropical fish in this tank and accept your advice but just wanted to inform you of my experiences over the last twenty years of what little dabling I have done with the goldfish and pleco together thing...

 

[Rivercats]

Which tank are we talking about, I'm getting confused...lol. If you want pleco's hunt down some bristlenose pleco's, they stay small and if you can find an albino or longfin albino bristlenose pleco's which are much brighter in color you could get two for that size tank. And I like the longfinned danios but get which ones you can. If your talking about the 37g tank once you get rid of the goldies change out as much of the water as you can and refill, leave the filter alone since it has your good bacteria in it, make sure you have your tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, wait a day then get your danios. You need to read the articles on fish-in cycling for all the details and how to's so you only want the danios, no other fish, to finish cycling the tank. Once cycled then you can slowly add other fish. Don't do it all at once, just a few fish at a time, wait until the BB catches up, then in a couple weeks you can add a few more. And yes you can keep your snails!

The goldies you used to keep got stunted from being in such a small tank. Back in the early 70's I did the same thing with a 10g tank my dad gave me. We always had fish in the late 50's and 60's but as a teen I didn't have any idea about stocking levels or anything else.

 

[liloflight]

thank you so much for your advice and i will take it all into consideration. I am planning on getting an API master test kit and getting rid of the goldies and start with some danios! Thanks Again for all your help!

 

[jetajockey]

Welcome to the forum liloflight! Definitely rehome the goldies and pleco if possible, a heavy stock load will make the initial cycling process more difficult. Have a read through this article, it should help. If you have any questions you can post here or PM me. Best of luck!

Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

 

[liloflight]

Thank you jetajockey, I believe I am now headed in the right direction thanks to the help found here from you guys and wonderful articles. Much appreciated. Do you have any suggestions on certain breeds of fish for a newbie tho?

 

[liloflight]

Oh and has any of you ordered any fish and/or supplies online? I am more than likely confident that your answer may be yes...if so can you recommend some good websites to check out? Simply because sometimes for me to drive an hour, (I live in the boonies) ordering stuff online proves to be cost effective. Just never thought about doing it for something like this ...may be worth looking into...thank you

 

[librarygirl]

As others have said, 12 goldies in a 37 gal is way too many; you could keep two long-term but that's it. Goldies are messy and require 10x the filtration for your size tank as well. With that many in an uncycled tank, it would be almost impossible to keep up with water changes to keep ammonia and eventually nitrites at safe levels. I'd rehome them ASAP (until then do 1-2 50% water changes daily, unless ammonia rises above .25 even with those, then you'd have to do more).

Next, decide if you want to continue with a fish-in cycle or go fishless. This guide explains cycling and the two methods: Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

If you rehome the goldies and want to do a fish-in cycle you could start with some danios or tetras. Most any type would do well in a 37 gal. After the tank cycles, you can then continue stocking (we can help as you go along).

CLoudiness in a new tank is normal; probably a bacterial bloom which should go away on its own in time.

For online purchases, I've had good results with BigAlsOnline, ThatFishPlace or Drs. Foster and Smith.

 

[meese-a-mew]

1 word for you......OVERSTOCKED.........depending on the goldfish you have but most get very large.