Ok I’m sorry for the long post. I feel like I was doing really well with just one goldfish and now things are thrown into chaos so I’ll just dive in.
My son’s goldfish was a fair game prize. I never wanted a fish but hey, the little guy was my responsibility once Grandpa dropped him off at our house so we are making the best of it. We got him a 10 gallon tank and I’m trying to get a new 20 gallon tank cycled so he can move into that. Shoutout to Aiken Drum for his instructions; ammonium chloride is ordered and en route to our tiny town! We will upsize tanks as we can but space is limited.
In the meantime, we got an albino bristlenose pleco about a month ago. Everything fell apart after that. We feed a little protein with shrimp & lobster food and an algae disc each day. The tank exploded with algae this week, and nitrate has spiked to 160 ppm. I did a 20% water change and changed filter cartridges. I will continue to do water changes daily to hopefully get this under control.
Here are my issues/questions:
1. Goldfish has a few scales missing now. He seems fairly normal in eating and behavior but I’m worried about him. I put some Jungle Start Right in, to hopefully help with his healing and slime coat, and some Stress Coat to help with all the sludge in the gravel now, but should I be ordering something else to treat him? Could the pleco have brought something with it in terms of illness that I should be treating? Not ich - I have seen that before and could ID it.
2. I have always done water changes with 1 gallon bottles of spring water, with API Quick Start and Tetra Aquasafe Plus Water Conditioner/Dechlorinator mixed in. Our home water is awful and we use a water softener so I haven’t figured out how to use tap water safely. The other obstacle with tap water is having a big enough receptacle to let the tap water sit in to get it to room temperature. It’s killing me to cart in gallon after gallon of spring water… there has to be a better way to do this. Can I order the big jugs from the Culligan man? If so, what additives do I need to use to prepare it for the tank? I know this seems simple but I would love someone to spell out exactly what kind of bottled water and product to use so I don’t screw it up.
3. What kind of adjustment do I need to make to the pleco’s feeding to avoid another algae infestation?
Appreciate all the help guys - I have little kids and limited time to research this. I’ve got this weird determination to start being a great fish keeper and maybe invest in one of those BiOrb aquariums someday if I can ever become accomplished at this!
My son’s goldfish was a fair game prize. I never wanted a fish but hey, the little guy was my responsibility once Grandpa dropped him off at our house so we are making the best of it. We got him a 10 gallon tank and I’m trying to get a new 20 gallon tank cycled so he can move into that. Shoutout to Aiken Drum for his instructions; ammonium chloride is ordered and en route to our tiny town! We will upsize tanks as we can but space is limited.
In the meantime, we got an albino bristlenose pleco about a month ago. Everything fell apart after that. We feed a little protein with shrimp & lobster food and an algae disc each day. The tank exploded with algae this week, and nitrate has spiked to 160 ppm. I did a 20% water change and changed filter cartridges. I will continue to do water changes daily to hopefully get this under control.
Here are my issues/questions:
1. Goldfish has a few scales missing now. He seems fairly normal in eating and behavior but I’m worried about him. I put some Jungle Start Right in, to hopefully help with his healing and slime coat, and some Stress Coat to help with all the sludge in the gravel now, but should I be ordering something else to treat him? Could the pleco have brought something with it in terms of illness that I should be treating? Not ich - I have seen that before and could ID it.
2. I have always done water changes with 1 gallon bottles of spring water, with API Quick Start and Tetra Aquasafe Plus Water Conditioner/Dechlorinator mixed in. Our home water is awful and we use a water softener so I haven’t figured out how to use tap water safely. The other obstacle with tap water is having a big enough receptacle to let the tap water sit in to get it to room temperature. It’s killing me to cart in gallon after gallon of spring water… there has to be a better way to do this. Can I order the big jugs from the Culligan man? If so, what additives do I need to use to prepare it for the tank? I know this seems simple but I would love someone to spell out exactly what kind of bottled water and product to use so I don’t screw it up.
3. What kind of adjustment do I need to make to the pleco’s feeding to avoid another algae infestation?
Appreciate all the help guys - I have little kids and limited time to research this. I’ve got this weird determination to start being a great fish keeper and maybe invest in one of those BiOrb aquariums someday if I can ever become accomplished at this!
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