Cleaning The Tank?

[kittencapes]

I've had my tank going for about 3 weeks now, sadly I've lost two goldfish now and am left with just one. I was wondering if I should clean the tank out? I am guessing I wouldn't touch the filter, but should I clean the stones? I've put quite a thick layer of them in too which I think is wrong.

I did buy a stone cleaner, a sort of pipe thing but it doesn't seem to work.

Could the fish who have passed away have left anything dangerous in the tank for Pearl? I really do feel I want to clean it. We have a filter in there but I doubt that will remove the poops?

 

[Harlequins]

A gravel cleaner is very handy for sucking up the debris in the gravel,usually these are a syphon,pump it up & down in the water should start it off,if that fails give the pipe in the bucket end a suck,it'll draw the water through but move it away from your mouth before you get a gob full of tank water

Its more than likely you goldfish passed away due to the ammonia & nitrite during your fish n cycle,some fish are hardier than others,but they eventually die if subjected to high levels.

The filter doesn't remove the poo,you need to do that using the gravel vac when you doing your waterchanges,has goldfish are very messy poopers,the gravel can get very messy and this in turn will affect the water quality.

Keep doing your daily w/c & gravel cleaning are hopefully the last goldfish will pull through

If you think you have too much gravel in there,scoop some out

 

[weezebegs]

A gravel cleaner is very handy for sucking up the debris in the gravel,usually these are a syphon,pump it up & down in the water should start it off,if that fails give the pipe in the bucket end a suck,it'll draw the water through but move it away from your mouth before you get a gob full of tank water

Its more than likely you goldfish passed away due to the ammonia & nitrite during your fish n cycle,some fish are hardier than others,but they eventually die if subjected to high levels.

The filter doesn't remove the poo,you need to do that using the gravel vac when you doing your waterchanges,has goldfish are very messy poopers,the gravel can get very messy and this in turn will affect the water quality.

Keep doing your daily w/c & gravel cleaning are hopefully the last goldfish will pull through

If you think you have too much gravel in there,scoop some out

Harlequins - what is an idle amount of gravel are we talking about an inch or 2 ???

 

[Harlequins]

Personally i think an inch of gravel is plenty,but also depends what live plants you have,you'll probably need a good 2 inches otherwise.

Sometimes its personal choice and how your aqua scape is,the more substrate you put in the less volume of water the fish have...

 

[waterdrop]

Personally I think an average of a couple of inches is nice but I've never thought of it as overly critical. It's true there are some plants that like to root-feed a bit more and will appreciate some depth to their substrate.

For kittencapes I'd say yes, it's quite wonderful to be doing nice big gravel-clean-water-changes all during a fish-in cycling situation. It helps the cycle not to overly disturb the filter of course but sometimes (especially with vegetarians like goldfish) even that must be gently freed of debris. Once you get above about 1/4 of full stocking level for the tank volume it can sometimes be quite difficult to maintain the 0.25ppm max on the poisons and keep them from spiking. This means great big substrate cleanings and water changes are pretty much always welcome during these couple of months.

Even though they are gold, goldfish are still pretty much typical Carp from and evolutionary view in my opinion, meaning they really want to be in a large lake or pond in most cases. I sometimes wonder if they are not technically rather stressed even when we follow our typical minimums (20,10,10 etc. for tri-tails, 30,10,10 etc. for bi-tails) and will will succumb to that stress if they are not among the toughest of individuals. But then I guess we could say that about nearly all our fish or pets so it's probably idle speculation.

I can't remember how many days you had gone after obtaining the 3 goldies before receiving the water change advice and beginning your 80% water changes (was it more than a day or two?) That could have been the problem factor. At any rate, nice frequent "cleans" (you're sometimes not really "cleaning" as the nitrite and other organics you want to clear from the substrate region of the tank are mostly invisible) are indeed helpful as I mentioned above.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kittencapes]

Thank you for the advice, I will do a full clean out now then. Just to be sure I do it right, I plan to put Pearl in a temporary container, clean out the entire tank, treat the new water with tapsafe, and then put her back. Should I float her in the top in a bag first to reduce any shock of new water, or put a bit of the old water back with her? Also I am wondering if she might get lonely on her own, would it be worth getting another fish for her? If so another fancy goldfish or something else? I do have a little heater I could put in if needed?

Thanks again

 

[guppi]

Use the old water to keep her in while you clean out, dont clean the filter in tap water tho. Try to have the new treated water around the same temperature, no need for the heater.

 

[OldMan47]

While you are doing your cycle, there is no reason to add any new fish. A fish-in cycle is only made more difficult by adding any fish. By simply doing water changes while you monitor your water chemistry, you will make things better for your fish.