Bubbles on the surface

[Elle.15]

Hello all,
I'm new in this forum and I decided to register because I have a problem.
I've got an aquarium for my birthday, more or less 3 weeks ago, with two goldfish. Everything was fine until this Tuesday, when I cleaned the tank and replaced the decorations (I washed everything before).
The problem is that now the surface is full of bubbles, but a Lot! And I haven't used any chemicals or anything. The fishes seem to be fine as usual, but anyway, I'm starting to be concerned.
This is my first aquarium so I'm not that experienced.. All I know is what the guy of the shop told my boyfriend.
This is a picture:

 

[tamtam]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

So you didn't use any soap or anything? Can't say I've seen bubbles to that extent before.

1 thing I will say is that there is no need to completely clean out your tank like that. There are some cases where it might be needed, like an illness out break but for general care it's not needed. It's more work for yourself and adds stress to your fish that can be avoided.

That tank looks pretty small, what size is it?

I suggest you do a bit of research on goldies. Don't rely on the pet store clerks, sadly a lot are not properly trained on all of the fish in their shop and give poor or incorrect advice. I'm not overly familiar with types but I think you have commons. They get to be huge. 12 inches at least and need a lot of space. Goldies are pretty messy fish, they don't actually have a stomach so produce a lot more waste than many other fish. The large tank size is not just for size but to help maintain water quality. I think double filtration is recommended for their tanks as well to help control waste and provide enough oxygen for them. Anyways, that's just some basics on them to give you an idea.

Hopefully someone can chime in with an idea on the bubbles.

For water changes though I will say you can save a lot of effort on your part. It won't be easy with a small tank to use a gravel vac but usually you just use the gravel vac, it's like a siphon that sucks up water and pulls the gravel into it, it tumbles it around removing waste with the water. You remove the water, wipe down the tank walls if needed and then refill with conditioned water that's you've temp matched to your tank. Use old tank water you've removed to swish out your filter media or if you need to clean decor use a cloth or toothbrush(used just for the tank) and scrub it down in the old water.

I'm also going to direct you do a couple links that should help you out since this is a new tank you will need to learn about cycling.

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice
Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

 

[Elle.15]

Thank you so much for the reply!

The tank is just 20 liters.. I know that they need much more space but my boyfriend went to buy it for me as a present and the guy of the shop told him that the size was fine for 6 fishes!! Anyway, we are planning to buy a bigger one soon!
Also, thank you for all the information about the cycling, I didn't know anything about it! I'll try my best to do everything in the best way possible.

I hope to solve the problem with the bubbles tho. ?

 

[tamtam]

What do you have for filtration? Do you have a bubbler? If it's not soap, the only thing I can think of is air bubbles. Maybe too much oxygenation or not enough surface movement so they are just collecting. IT's the best thought I have.

 

[Elle.15]

What do you have for filtration? Do you have a bubbler? If it's not soap, the only thing I can think of is air bubbles. Maybe too much oxygenation or not enough surface movement so they are just collecting. IT's the best thought I have.

This is my tank: http://www.pet-shopper.co.uk/product/deco-o-20-round-aquarium-20-litre-white

Check there for the information because I just know that there is a filter but I don't know which kind. ?

The thing is that before it didn't make all those bubbles.. It started when I changed the vulcano, with the house. I'll show you:

 

[Maximus13]

it's probably just the airstone in the house decoration. the bubbles are finer and don't really have much surface tension. whereas the volcano produced larger bubbles that likely popped soon after reaching the surface.

it's how Betta fish make their nests, they create tiny bubbles so they don't pop as easily and they collect on one another.

but that's just my 2 cents...

 

[tamtam]

I agree with Maximus. It's the bubbler. Nothing to be worried about. With still water like that the bubbles just collect.

 

[marsh]

I am just tossing ideas around but perhaps the airstone itself needs replacing if it is clogging and air can't pass through.

 

[Elle.15]

Ok thank you so much for the answers! I'm gonna replace the air stone then..

 

[Zimmanski]

I had this happen on my 3 gallon and my 29 gallon when they were very new. It's nothing to be worried about and it will go away soon. From what I can tell its some kind of weird chemical adjustment in our water that comes and goes away quickly, just keep up routine maintenance and please really look into the goldfish info and NEVER take advice from pet store people, they're only in it for the money and sales, they know the fish will die quickly in their store so they try to sell them quickly to ANYONE with ANY SIZE tank. Do your own research or ask on here before purchasing any more fish and I'm sure you will get sooo much more joy out of this hobby