new fish?

[ahollland92690]

ok so had my tank cycling for a while and i put a hardy really small gold fish in and hes been alive for a week now! hes very cute less than an inch big, but ne ways, as you everyone knows gold fish make massive **** messes and boost ammonia...but iv been testing and i have no ammonia, no nitrites, and very very little nitrates (think i have the nitrites n nitrates right i tend to get them backwards) so any way concluding all of this there's a lot of fishy poop in the bottom of my tank along with uneaten food. sOoOoO im debating on getting an albino cory cat because im really hoping thats safe! i did a lil research on them n theyr good scavengers, figured i would get two of them since they like groups, just dont want them to die if i get em

 

[meegosh]

What were you using to cycle the tank before adding the goldfish? Ammonia or food? What are you using for your test? Strips or liquid test kit?

If there is lots of waste and uneaten food on the bottom you need to get a gravel vacuum and clean it out! A cory, or group of cories, will not help you with the waste however. You should also be more careful with your feedings so that you do not overfeed. A new tank that isn't cycled and bad feeding habits (overfeeding) is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Mystery]

The only real way to deal with detritus is to hoover it up... a cory will turn more of the food into poop--but that is about it.

 

[ahollland92690]

haha um i used this bacteria stuff to get it started and everything is back down to normal i use a liquid test kit, and i know i need to get a vaccum thingy...do those work with playsand? thats what i used as my substrate...but now im debating on 2 cory cats or sum snails....

 

[mfdrookie516]

but now im debating on 2 cory cats or sum snails....

get snails if you only want 2 cory's... its best to have 4+ cory's

 

[ahollland92690]

i got two snails cuz my ammonia did a lil jump so i going to wait on any fish

 

[finny al]

to answer your question about the vac....I use a python with my sand substrate and I don't have any problems.