waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Hello Bozrahct and Welcome to TFF!
WELL! It's always a bit more emotional thing for us when we see a newcomer who has done a Herculean amount of work and research (compared to most beginners) and yet has happened upon advice and circumstances that are nearly all completely wrong and difficult! I think your efforts have finally netted a big win in the opposite direction though as personally, I've found this site to be one of the great collections of considerate, experienced and fun hobbyists and you've now found your way to it. Excellent advice and caring so far by member Ashers!
Anything I say will just echo most of the advice already offered. Goldfish are really best as pond fish, but there -are- families that enjoy having some in a big tank and they can be quite beautiful, if a bit maintenance heavy. The stocking formula (in other words, how we arrive at a maximum recommended number of fish per tank size) that our goldfish hobbyists often recommend to us is different for normal goldfish (eg. comets, two-finned tail) versus fancy goldfish (eg. three-finned tail, special body features.) For the normal ones it's 30 US gallons for the first fish, then 10G for each additional one. For fancy ones it's 20 US gallons for the first, 10G for each additional. Your 65G would thus be about right for 5 or 6 fancy ones or 4 to 5 normal ones. With 6 in the 65G, you are probably fully or somewhat overstocked, a challanging normal situation and a much more difficult situation for cycling (fish-in cycling is normally performed with quite small stocking, less than 1/4 the full-stocking capacity of the tank. The reason being that beyond that it is extremely difficult to maintain the poisons at a safe level for the fish during the cycling period.)
Again the advice is already excellent and I second the comments: the tropical fish need to be out of the coldwater fish tank as a first step, a good liquid-reagent based test kit needs to be obtained and the tap water parameters and -all- the fish tanks need to have their stats (ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH, nitrate(NO3)) posted for the members to see (my thinking here is that when the tropicals are moved around, the tanks they arrive in need to be verified as handling them ok.) Meanwhile, massive water changing (with good technique - which means conditioning and rough temperature matching) needs to begin for the goldfish until testing can be your friend and save you from changing more than you really need to.
Also quite importantly, as the parent, you are now faced with some tricky questions. If you have comets (normals) you probably need to re-home at least one to a shop, other hobbyist or give-away on craig's list or such. This is at the very least (two would be better, obviously, as it will ultimately make your maintenance more stable.) But even more thoughtfully, you should ask yourself the question of whether ultimately your family would get more out of a beautiful tropical community tank in the 65G with plantings and colorful shoals of different fish (as opposed to just the beauty of the goldies, who will eat most plants and create waste in massive amounts.) I am not trying to steer you, just inform you. Both can be a nice experience when done correctly. Sometimes, with children, it can work better to make a massive change of direction all at once (re-homing -all- the goldies) and explaining how they will be happier and healthier in a bigger home, meanwhile engaging the family in the giant science experiment of finally learning the -real- story about the Nitrogen Cycle, the (quite interesting) autotrophic bacteria in the media and the many species of tropicals that are quite beautiful and extremely varied. Each family has different dynamics.
Be aware that most hobbyists with large tanks like yours will use a system of hoses to perform the water changes, rather than buckets (or in addition to a different use of buckets I should say.) Outgoing water is always siphoned with a gravel-cleaning cylinder being used to disturb the substrate, but can be drained via a really long hose to the garden or a drain such as a bathtub or basement floor drain. With some equipment, the same hose can then be used to directly refill the tank from a faucet, the chlorine/chloramine-removing conditioner being added at a dose level appropriate for the entire tank volume. This is a big deal if you attempt to fish-in cycle a large tank with an oversized cycle stocking.
~~waterdrop~~
WELL! It's always a bit more emotional thing for us when we see a newcomer who has done a Herculean amount of work and research (compared to most beginners) and yet has happened upon advice and circumstances that are nearly all completely wrong and difficult! I think your efforts have finally netted a big win in the opposite direction though as personally, I've found this site to be one of the great collections of considerate, experienced and fun hobbyists and you've now found your way to it. Excellent advice and caring so far by member Ashers!
Anything I say will just echo most of the advice already offered. Goldfish are really best as pond fish, but there -are- families that enjoy having some in a big tank and they can be quite beautiful, if a bit maintenance heavy. The stocking formula (in other words, how we arrive at a maximum recommended number of fish per tank size) that our goldfish hobbyists often recommend to us is different for normal goldfish (eg. comets, two-finned tail) versus fancy goldfish (eg. three-finned tail, special body features.) For the normal ones it's 30 US gallons for the first fish, then 10G for each additional one. For fancy ones it's 20 US gallons for the first, 10G for each additional. Your 65G would thus be about right for 5 or 6 fancy ones or 4 to 5 normal ones. With 6 in the 65G, you are probably fully or somewhat overstocked, a challanging normal situation and a much more difficult situation for cycling (fish-in cycling is normally performed with quite small stocking, less than 1/4 the full-stocking capacity of the tank. The reason being that beyond that it is extremely difficult to maintain the poisons at a safe level for the fish during the cycling period.)
Again the advice is already excellent and I second the comments: the tropical fish need to be out of the coldwater fish tank as a first step, a good liquid-reagent based test kit needs to be obtained and the tap water parameters and -all- the fish tanks need to have their stats (ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH, nitrate(NO3)) posted for the members to see (my thinking here is that when the tropicals are moved around, the tanks they arrive in need to be verified as handling them ok.) Meanwhile, massive water changing (with good technique - which means conditioning and rough temperature matching) needs to begin for the goldfish until testing can be your friend and save you from changing more than you really need to.
Also quite importantly, as the parent, you are now faced with some tricky questions. If you have comets (normals) you probably need to re-home at least one to a shop, other hobbyist or give-away on craig's list or such. This is at the very least (two would be better, obviously, as it will ultimately make your maintenance more stable.) But even more thoughtfully, you should ask yourself the question of whether ultimately your family would get more out of a beautiful tropical community tank in the 65G with plantings and colorful shoals of different fish (as opposed to just the beauty of the goldies, who will eat most plants and create waste in massive amounts.) I am not trying to steer you, just inform you. Both can be a nice experience when done correctly. Sometimes, with children, it can work better to make a massive change of direction all at once (re-homing -all- the goldies) and explaining how they will be happier and healthier in a bigger home, meanwhile engaging the family in the giant science experiment of finally learning the -real- story about the Nitrogen Cycle, the (quite interesting) autotrophic bacteria in the media and the many species of tropicals that are quite beautiful and extremely varied. Each family has different dynamics.
Be aware that most hobbyists with large tanks like yours will use a system of hoses to perform the water changes, rather than buckets (or in addition to a different use of buckets I should say.) Outgoing water is always siphoned with a gravel-cleaning cylinder being used to disturb the substrate, but can be drained via a really long hose to the garden or a drain such as a bathtub or basement floor drain. With some equipment, the same hose can then be used to directly refill the tank from a faucet, the chlorine/chloramine-removing conditioner being added at a dose level appropriate for the entire tank volume. This is a big deal if you attempt to fish-in cycle a large tank with an oversized cycle stocking.
~~waterdrop~~
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