ideal goldfish tank

[Phoenixphire55]

I apologize in advance if its annoying that I've posted this before, but no one responded to my original post several months ago.
Anyway, I plan to get a 50 gallon breeder or maybe 50 gallon long tank for my 7 goldfish and I plan to add a couple more goldfish and maybe some weather loaches and / or cloud mountain minnows. I don't think I'm going to have gravel in the tank because goldfish + gravel = filthy gravel. I guess planting much of anything isn't worth my time in a goldfish tank as well since they'd probably dig it up. I'm hoping some people can give me some ideas for really cool goldfish setups. My ideas are : unidirectional current so its like a stream, a row of hardy plants sitting on the bare bottom in pots. Would a bare bottom tank be bad for weather loaches? Would a sandy bottom be a distastrous idea? I'm also considering putting several large round stones on the bottom in piles to make it look more like a stream bottom, and maybe some driftwood as well. I just want it to be safe for my goldfish, not terribly hard to keep clean, and also very aesthically pleasing to look at. Help me with some ideas

 

[jsoong]

I personally don't like the look of bare bottom tanks .... too utilitarian .... I know it is easier to take care of & all, but I like a more naturalistic look. <OTOH, if you like the totally artificial look, that's fine too ... go for something funky like marbles, glass sculptures ..... >

Goldfish safe substrate - something too large to fit in their mouth or small enough to pass through the system when eaten. So it is either a layer of river rocks or sand. Sand has the disadvantage of anaerobic pockets formation - so you need to stir it up weekly. Also goldfish poop on top of white sand might be ugly and it is difficult to siphon vac sand ....

For a deep (front to back) tank like the 50 Breeder, I think it looks better to have a bit of height variation..... maybe a bit more substrate depth in the back, some rock work or a large piece of driftwood. Do make sure that there are no rough edges on your rocks to catch the goldies' fins.

You can create a stunning tank with potted plants, or plant in the substrate. My fancies don't eat live plants at all, and they seldom dig deep enough to uproot anything. However, the only way to know how plants will fare is to test it. Put some plants in the tank for a few weeks & see if you fish shows any interest in fresh salad.

Decorating a tank is the fun part of fish keeping. I'd say go for whatever suits your fancy. Keep rearranging & playing with the aquascape to get something that is truly you.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

It sounds like a floor made up of that black moon sand, and then some big river rocks in the background would look good and work well. Is that compatible with weather loaches?
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[haykay]

sand is good for loches.. what type of goldfish are you keeping.. I may avoid adding more goldfish especially if you plan to add other cool water fish
Sand can be easy to keep clean teh key to avoid anerobic pockets (the bad ones aerobic is good) is to keep the sand more shallow.. when you vac just run it over the sand to pick up the poo.. make sure you overfilter the tank...for your goldfishes sake...
I would avoid large rocks unless you plan to move them often to clean debris up from around and under them
keeping plants in pots will work well, but the golds may munch on them..

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I do like the idea of a background shelf of rocks, but yeah, that could be hard to clean. I can probably deal with cleaning under them. I think I'll stick with the potted plants as well. I've never used sand so I hope its not too hard to deal with, but I imagine its aesthetic appeal will be worth it.

 

[pirateshake]

im looking into black sand as well for my new tank. hope it turns out well. my goldies are like plant exterminators. But i just look at it as adding to there selection of meals per day