Should I Split Them?

[Azaezl]

Ok at the moment I have 3 fancy goldfish, a black moor, a calico telescope and a choc oranda, at the mo they are in an overfiltered 80L tank which I know is way to small but I have just bought them a bigger tank, just need to find a place to put it, if I can't find a place they'll have to wait until I've bought a bigger house which hopefully shouldn't be too long.

Anyway to the point, the tank I've just got is really 2, one on top of the other on a metal stand(a real bargain at £45) the top tank is 170L the bottom is slightly smaller at 142L, now could all 3 live happily in the top tank or should I split them and have 2 in the top and get another and have 2 in the bottom?

I don't really want to have to split them as they seem quite happy together, hopefully if I have space in my new house I'll be able to eventually get them a 5ft tank but incase I don't what would you suggest I do with them?

Thanks

 

[wendywc]

I would NOT split them. Keep them together in the 170L and use the other tank for a different setup.

 

[GoldLenny]

Three fancy in the 170L would work for a while but it would still be too small in the long run if the fish reach their full potential. How long have they been in the 80L? If they are stunted a lot, then the 170L would work but if they are not stunted, then it wouldn't.

If you like goldfish, I would make both tanks goldfish tanks and put no more than two in each tank.

Put your two smallest in the bottom smaller tank and your larger one in the top tank and when you get another one, it won't be stunted so it would probably end up really large.

Or the other thing you could do is turn the bottom tank into a planted tank with other small cold water fish and then put an overflow box on the top tank and a canister filter system to circulate the water from the bottom tank to the top tank and then the water would overflow back to the bottom tank. This would technically make your overall water volume equal to both tanks so the hormones, ammonia and waste put out by the goldfish would be diluted between both tanks and the plants in the bottom tank would utilize the waste to keep things healthy in both tanks. This way, the plants would be safe from the goldfish and yet the goldfish would benefit from being in a planted tank system. You could still add a 2nd HOB filter on the top tank to further filter the water directly in the main goldfish tank.

 

[cuticom]

With proper filtration I cant see a prob with keeping all 3 in the 170l, just make sure you do plenty of water changes etc, but I doubt it'd harm em in the long run.

 

[Azaezl]

Thanks for the replies, still a little unsure as to whether I should split them, I really don't want to as they've been together for a long time now, they've grown considerably since I've had them as well so not sure if they've been stunted.

I do 20-25% water changes twice a week at the moment, sometimes more depends on if I think the tank needs it, they've only suffered with white spot once and that was from the last goldie I put in who had already contracted it from the lfs,apart from that it's been disease free, so I'm guessing they are fairly healthy.

I haven't picked the tank up yet but I know it comes with 4 filters, I think they are all internal so I was thinking of buying 2 external filters, each suitable for a tank up to 300L, with this amount of filtration would 170L be ok for them for life? I am probably going to upgrade my 240L once I move to a 5ft tank so if I do the goldies will be going in that and I'm assuming that would be big enough for all 3?

Sorry if I sound like an idiot goldlenny but how does an overflow box work / where is it situated, etc? I had the idea of using 2 external filters, to circulate the water through both tanks. So tank A would have filter A's out pipe in it and the in pipe would be in tank B, tank B's in pipe would be in tank A if that makes sense? Only problem I could forsee is if one of the filter's decided to stop working then I'd have a very full tank a very wet floor and an empty tank with dead fish!

Thanks

 

[GoldLenny]

Sorry if I sound like an idiot goldlenny but how does an overflow box work / where is it situated, etc? I had the idea of using 2 external filters, to circulate the water through both tanks. So tank A would have filter A's out pipe in it and the in pipe would be in tank B, tank B's in pipe would be in tank A if that makes sense? Only problem I could forsee is if one of the filter's decided to stop working then I'd have a very full tank a very wet floor and an empty tank with dead fish!

Thanks

Here is an overflow box. http/www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=CR1511 (This one is capable of 300 gph but there is a larger one up to 650 gph. The main thing you would want is the overflow box capable of siphoning as fast as your canister. Most canisters do not go over 300 gph)

It works like a skimmer so when the water level in the top tank gets above the lip of the overflow box, it fills up the overflow box front compartment which then siphons over the top of the tank and back down to the bottom tank. You would set up your canister filter to suck water from the top inch of the bottom tank which would then pump water up to the top tank which would keep the overflow box constantly flowing down into the bottom tank and your canister would be constantly pumping the water (and filtering it, of course) back up to the top tank. In the event of a power failure, the canister would quit pumping up to the top tank so as soon as the water level drops below the overflow box, the siphoning would stop. If for some reason, the siphon stopped, with the canister intake just being an inch below the waterline in the bottom tank, as soon as it pumped that inch up to the top tank, it would stop pumping, so there would be no chance of either tank overflowing.

You would have to install some under cabinet lighting and you could have tons of fast growing plants like anacharis, hornwort, etc., which would add a lot to the overall ecology of the system. You could also add some of the anacharis to the top tank on occasion as a snack for the goldfish.

I haven't done this yet but I have checked it out thoroughly and plan on adding a 20G sump tank to my 65G goldfish tank when I move next month.