Ok, here is some background into this fish.
I got him just over a year ago when my dad randomly dropped him and a sibling fish off, he lived in a small temporary set up (i wasn't given prior warning to receiving the fish) until i could get a tank for him and both had been unhealthy ish from the get go.
The smaller moor died off very quickly and had been obviously more ill. Since then though I have constantly had health problems with the surviving moor (named cuddles).
He spontaneously will get very lethargic and sickly, i do regular tank maintenance in identical timing to my other gold fish tank (the fish inside is very healthy). Despite doing constant water changes, giving him a healthy diet he seems to have very spontaneous health problems. He will have bouyancy issues where it seems like an invisible string is holding his tail when he tries to get to the bottom, and will hide at the surface of the tank in his plants (particularly in a shaded corner). A couple times he has side floated, and then has extremely speedy recoveries, like within 24 hours.
After making as many positive changes as i could i looked more into the ideal tank set up for goldfish and have realized the gravel is too deep in my tank (about an inch or so over whats recommended). I think that bad bacteria may have set up in the depths of the tank gravel and might be polluting the tank and keeping the water cloudy despite all the maintenance done to the tank.
My question i suppose, is how do i handle this situation?
If i remove just the top layer and there is bad bacteria trapped underneath, wouldn't this leave open a well of bad bacteria?
Is it possible to safely dump the tank and recycle it?
Thank you for your time.
I got him just over a year ago when my dad randomly dropped him and a sibling fish off, he lived in a small temporary set up (i wasn't given prior warning to receiving the fish) until i could get a tank for him and both had been unhealthy ish from the get go.
The smaller moor died off very quickly and had been obviously more ill. Since then though I have constantly had health problems with the surviving moor (named cuddles).
He spontaneously will get very lethargic and sickly, i do regular tank maintenance in identical timing to my other gold fish tank (the fish inside is very healthy). Despite doing constant water changes, giving him a healthy diet he seems to have very spontaneous health problems. He will have bouyancy issues where it seems like an invisible string is holding his tail when he tries to get to the bottom, and will hide at the surface of the tank in his plants (particularly in a shaded corner). A couple times he has side floated, and then has extremely speedy recoveries, like within 24 hours.
After making as many positive changes as i could i looked more into the ideal tank set up for goldfish and have realized the gravel is too deep in my tank (about an inch or so over whats recommended). I think that bad bacteria may have set up in the depths of the tank gravel and might be polluting the tank and keeping the water cloudy despite all the maintenance done to the tank.
My question i suppose, is how do i handle this situation?
If i remove just the top layer and there is bad bacteria trapped underneath, wouldn't this leave open a well of bad bacteria?
Is it possible to safely dump the tank and recycle it?
Thank you for your time.