Quick Question seeking eligible Quick Answer

[Cynic]

Hi all,

Would two adult goldfish produce enough ammonia to maintain a healthy bacteria colony in a 120L tank?

Cheers in advance ,

Chris

[mfdrookie516]

There will only be as much bacteria in a tank as there is food for one... so you'll have about the same amount of bacteria in a 1 gallon bowl as you would a 50000 gallon tank with the same fish.

[jlk]

120 litres is @30gallons so 2 goldfish in this tank is fully stocked & more than enough ammonia to maintain your bacteria as long as its fully cycled. Goldfish are very messy (poop ALOT) and have a very high bioload so make sure you keep up with frequent pwcs.

[jlk]

Forgot- this is assuming its 2 fancy goldfish and not 2 comets/commons/shubunkins which do not belong in an aquarium because they grow to be 12-18inches in length & realistically belong in a pond environment.

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by mfdrookie516

There will only be as much bacteria in a tank as there is food for one... so you'll have about the same amount of bacteria in a 1 gallon bowl as you would a 50000 gallon tank with the same fish.

Cheers, unfortunately my question was probably too vague...I'm currently unsure on what I want to do with my 120L tank and am considering using my two gold fish as an ammonia source to maintain the tanks bioload.

Originally Posted by jlk

120 litres is @30gallons so 2 goldfish in this tank is fully stocked & more than enough ammonia to maintain your bacteria as long as its fully cycled. Goldfish are very messy (poop ALOT) and have a very high bioload so make sure you keep up with frequent pwcs.

Thanks. The tank is indeed fully cycled.

The plan is to move my fish currently in the 120L tank to a new, just cycled (Finally!) 175L tank. However it seemed like a waste to let the 120L tanks microsystem die off so thought I could move my two goldfish that are very much out of place in my other tank to the 120L in order to maintain it.

Sound reasonable?

[jlk]

As long as they are fancies, 30gal is an adequate home for them and its perfectly reasonable to move them. I would just watch your tanks parameters for the next 2wks or so to make sure there are no spikes in your levels. If you had smaller fish in there previously, your bacteria will have to adjust to the increased bioload from the goldfish. I hope they enjoy their new home!