Remake Of A 60 Ltr Goldfish Tank

[Biulu]

I am in the process of moving from Mexico to Montreal, Canada and this really is a process which is taking already several months. I am moving my stuff little by little as I still have property in Mexico to look after and sending down a container with my stuff is simply too expensive. This moving and being at 2 different places is also the reason why I have not been active at the forum for some months now.

The good thing is that Canada allows the import of fish, not aquatic plants though, so until now I have moved 5 (small) goldfish and my bettas. The inhabitants of the large tank will come next time around but I will need to buy a new setup for that first.

The goldfish were housed in this 60 litre tank a few months ago, sitting in an office, as I didn't have an appartment yet. I bought a complete Marineland set-up with a HOB filter, hood with a 15W lamp and gravel.

As goldfish are messy, I thought root feeders would do well and I only brought root tablets which I inserted into the gravel on a regular basis. However, this is not doing the trick and my Echinodorus, vallisneria and crypts are not doing well. The only plants that thrive are the anubias and java fern.

I also put in a piece of wood for the anubias and java fern but am not happy with it. The piece is too small for the tank to have an impact, but after having visited several shops this was the best piece I came up with.

So, what I want to do with this tank is:
- put a nutrient based substrate under the gravel
- exchange the filter for a larger one, preferably a canister
- make a new hard scape (I brought some niece pieces of wood from Vietnam last time I was there; Yes, I know, I am not supposed to )
- Replant, I already have a nice E. cordifolius 'mini' which will give a nice touch of light green to the tank but more plants will be added to the existing plants.

For the ones that are worried about the tank being too small for goldfish: each of the fish is currently 2.5 cm long and I am envisioning to reduce the number to 3 by the end of the year and then look at the possibility for an upgrade to a larger tank.

I will be going to the office this week to take some pictures of the current set-up to give you an idea of what it looks like now.

Thanks, Eleonore

 

[karawr]

Heyyy welcome to Canada. Can't wait to see some pics up of progress.

 

[Biulu]

Thanks Kara! I will be able to put pictures up on Sunday.

I have made a round of the 3 most reputed fish shops in Montreal. One took me all the way to West Island, which was almost 1.5 hrs by metro and bus to get there! Now in terms of variety in hardware and substrates, and other accessories we seem to be very bad off here. All but one shop are controlled by the same distributor (Hagen) and there is hardly any variety.

To give you an idea:
Canister filters: Rena, Fluval, Eheim and Marineland
HOBs: Fluval and Marineland
Nutrient based substrates: only Fluorite
Inert substrates: coloured fancy gravel, rounded gravel in 1 size, white and brownish sand, and black Caribbean sand
Lamps: only T5 fixtures with either 1 or 2 lamps
Plant nutrients: only Seachem, no possibilities to buy different components to mix yourself nor over the internet
Tanks: Marineland and Hagen

That's it! For a population of 3.5 million and 2 fish associations (English and French speaking)... They seem to be very big in ponds here though... Unbelievable with these cold winters, but anyway!

The far out shop is the best equipped when it comes to hardware and tanks. They are the only ones that are selling tanks by the meter as I would say, having all more or less regular sizes. I will need a 20 gallon long for a breeding project and they are the only ones to carry them.

As it is recommended that fluorite is best used as a stand alone substrate, I decided to buy API fist layer pure laterite. Even with a mix of 50% inert substrate and 50% fluorite the laterite makes a difference of 60 dollars.

I currently have visitors now so I plan to wash it un Sunday and start putting it in. Other things I can do now is to clean the wood and see if it wants to sink.

 

[lljdma06]

Geez, sounds like me in Miami until I started Marine systems. Planted is hard in Miami, very limited choices. But you have some good online sources in Canada and the import will be much better.

You did a very good job explaining the goldfish situation. I miss having goldfish, I used to love them so. Look forward to the pictures on Sunday.

 

[Biulu]

Geez, sounds like me in Miami until I started Marine systems. Planted is hard in Miami, very limited choices. But you have some good online sources in Canada and the import will be much better.

You did a very good job explaining the goldfish situation. I miss having goldfish, I used to love them so. Look forward to the pictures on Sunday.

Thank Liz! Yes, I also think they are cute to watch... I am afraid though that I won't be able to take them back, as it is the main attraction for the colleagues in the office. They love them! Even the cleaning lady speaks about her 'sweeties' on her rounds and talks to them

Plant and fish choice are fine, better than in Mexico. It are the paraphernalia that come in a limited choice. There are about 2 - 3 online sources in Canada and unfortunately most of the US sellers don't send stuff abroad.

I am planning on becoming a member of the anglophone aquarium society here, and hope to be able to know how organise their lighting, ferilisation etc.

 

[Biulu]

I only cleaned up the house yesterday after the visit, but tomorrow is a national holiday (labor day) so enough chances to do something then. I got the wood out that I bought in April and took pictures of it but Photobucket is having trouble and I am not able to upload anything at the moment.

I have 2 pieces and wanted to bounch off some ideas I have for it and possible positions. This will have to wait until tomorrow though, unfortunately....

 

[CrazyAirborne]

well good luck with it all, glad to see you are getting settled in.

 

[Biulu]

well good luck with it all, glad to see you are getting settled in.

Thanks! I am having problems with photobucket. Does anybody else experience this? I can get in but can't upload anything. The page closes down when I click in uploading...

 

[Biulu]

Alright, while using the bulktool, I was able to upload pictures from the wood. So here we go.
This is the first piece from different angles:

The last picture as a size in it, and you can see that the 'bottom' part is around 30 cm.

This is piece nr. 2:

For some reason I like to see from left to right (maybe because I am left-handed?), so I like the wood to be pointing to the right. But I would love to hear from you which piece you like best and in which position.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

 

[Biulu]

I am really undecided regarding the hardscape to put in. Just came across these rocks that I still had. I had planned to make a Vietnamese landscape with it, but the tank I had envisioned for it, broke.

As it is an existing tank, I basically need to do everything at once if I am not to stress the fish too much, so I need to have the plan ready. Extra planting can always be done later, but the laterite and the hardscape have to be in place. The only thing I know is that I like to keep a large chunk in the front unplanted as gold fish like to pick up food from the substrate.

In the mean time I tried the laterite on 5 gallon tanks that I have and it worked well, especially wth the gravel. The one with the sand substrate I did yesterday morning and the tanks is still not clear . Hre is a picture of the rinsing of the laterite and the packaging.

.

So here are the rocks.

A combination of wood and rocks is also feasible, but as I said i don't see this scape yet.

 

[Biulu]

As promised longtime ago, here is a fts of the tank as it stands now. As you can see, it is pretty bare and the plants in it are not growing. The valisneria has sent out a lot of runners but are not growing in height; sending out the runners is probably a survival strategy.

I am advancing with this project as I also bought a filter. The Rena Filstar XP1 was on offer, with a flow rate of 950l/h, more than enough for my messy goldfish!

Thanks for looking

 

[ian]

some nice wood there Lu, have you thought of doing an island scape with that? Moulding the substrate into a mound, then adding the wood into the mound.

 

[Biulu]

Thanks Ian! Mmm, yes, that is an idea, probably best with the second piece, I guess to create height. I am only afraid that the piece is not 'bulky' enough and gets a bit lost in the tank. Maybe I can try to make a combination of the 2 and or other pieces of wood I have to give it a bit more body and volume. Or can I use some of the rocks to make the mound and then stick the wood in the middle? I have enough javafern and moss to cover it a bit, although I would prefer to put pelia on the rocks because of its effect.

Another idea I was thinking of is to put the 'tall' wood flat, so it becomes somewhat like a meandering border in front of the plants, in this way accentuating the planted and non planted part.

This weekend I will put the laterite in, so I still have some time to mull it over....