Ive been looking on Ebay this afternoon for a suitable tank which is close enough to pick up as the weight makes people reluctant to post them
As for 'cycling' Tokis-Pheonix ... All im aware about it is that its a way of controlling the nitrates that build up over time. Other than that im completely ignorant about it.
As you've brought it up im assuming its important so id appreciate it if you could point me in the direction of a decent online guide if there is one?
Yep there's a couple of guides on the forum for cyling;
Avoiding and treating new tank syndrome;
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099
The pinned topics/articles at the top of beginners section has a wealth of handy info
;
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=88643
Basically with the cycling thing, it mostly revolves around growing and keeping the bacteria which gets rids of toxins in your tank produced by waste which the fish poop out.
The two main forms of cycling are fishless cycling and cycling with fish. Fishless cycling is more complicated, but takes quicker to do and doesn't stress the fish out (as you only put the fish in after the tank is cycled). Cycling with fish means you can put some fish in the tank straight away, but it generally takes longer for the tank to become stable water quality wise and can be stressful for the fish.
Goldfish should be more than hardier enough to be used to cycle the tank, they are very tough fish, but because they are currently in a bowl, its probably better to get them in a tank ASAP (which will be a better environment overall in many ways, even if it is cycling) and cycle it with them than wait for the new tank to fishless cycle.
If you know anyone who has a tank or pond with a mature sponge filter, you can squeeze out some of the muck from their filter onto your new filter sponges, or borrow one of their mature filter pads, which will help speed up the cycle a lot by borrowing some of their benneficial bacteria
.
As to keeping the tank clean, cleaning mainly revolves around;
1. Water changes: its imortant to do at least a 30% water change a week although its not advised to take out more than 60% of the tank water in a single day. Water changes help;
a. Keep the water clean.
b. Help prevent large build ups of nitrates
c. Help remove unwanted toxins from the water
d. Help prevent ph crash in old tanks, where an excess of minerals build up in the tank due to evaporation in the tank over long periods of time, causing the ph to crash which can be lethal for the fish.
2. Cleaning the substrate;
a. To help prevent build of waste in gravel substrate, which would otherwise rot and cause ammonia problems or harbor deseases like columnaris.
b. To help prevent build up of anorobic bacteria which causes pockets of toxic nitrites to grow in the subtrate, wether it be sand or gravel (sand is more prone to this than gravel, while gravel is more prone to trapping rotting waste than what sand is).
c. To help keep it clean- dirty substrate is particually bad for bottom feeding or dwelling fish like cories, loaches or pleco's.
Unclean substrate can bring on bacterial infections in fish particually if they spend much time around it (corys for example are prone to get bacterial infections in their barbels/whiskers from dirty substrate).
3. Cleaning the filter sponge;
a. To help prevent the filter clogging up, and in worst case scenario, stopping completely. Your bennificial bacteria lives here and to survive needs a constant source of waste/ammonia, water and oxygen to survive.
If the filter gets clogged up and stops working, that means the water stops flowing which prevents the bacteria from getting the oxygen it needs, and so dies/suffocates.
If the filter is over-cleaned, you remove its food source completely or too much and so starves.
If the filter sponge is cleaned in untreated tap water, the chlorine will kill the bacteria. So most people clean their filter sponges in old tank water from water changes as this is most likely not going to upset it.
To have your filter and benneficial bacteria working and growing properly and efficiently, you should roughly out clean your filter sponge every 10days to 2-3weeks in water from water changes. You should definately clean the filters pad out if they are clogging up with muck to the point the filter current is being affected.
Make sure you don't overclean the filter sponges, you should just clean them out enough so the filter runs smoothly
.
Sand substrate is generally better for goldfish tanks as goldfish poop a lot in comparison to other fish, and sand doesn't trap as much waste as gravel. Goldfish have also been known to swallow gravel as well, which isn't good for them. You can either buy some nice fancy sand from your lfs (local fish store) or just get some childrens playsand and very thoroughly wash it out before you put it in the tank.
