First Time Tropical Fish Tank...

[rakem]

Hi Guys!

This is my first post on this forum, yay for me!! lol

I have just got myself a nice 60L fish tank which i plan to use for tropical fish. It came with a heater, filter, gravel and a light. Its all second hand from a friend who used to also use it as a tropical tank.

So i have just set it all up and am running it through with no fish in there at the moment. Now question number 1. Since it's second hand and the previous owner said she gave everything a quick clean, i'm assuming there will still be a fair amount of bacteria left in the gravel and filter, so would this reduce the time i have to run it in without any fish?

question 2)

I also have a very small tank with 4 gold fish in there. There are about 1.5 years old. Would it be ok to put the gold fish into the new tank. I have heard that gold fish don't mind living in warmer water but i just want to confirm this with some knowledgeable people!

Also will the gold fish get along with the tropical fish? I haven't bought any tropical fish as yet. So it would be good if i could integrate the gold fish and the tropical fish so i can use the smaller tank as my quarantine tank.

what do you guys think?
thanks!!!

 

[Spooky76]

HI Rakem - welcome to thhe forum.

Firstly - you obvioulsy know what your talking about because your asking the right questions.

1. Running the tank with no fish in it doesnt actually do anything.
2. Unless there was a source of food / air for the bacteria, they will be dead. The bacteria colony needs ammonia (Fish waste) and oxygen to survive, so no, they will be dead.
3. No your goldfish wont 'like' warmer water, it speeds up their metabolism alot too. Depends what temp, as to be honest, your room temp wont be far off tropical water temps most of the time. What temp is your cold water tank at ?
4. I wouldnt mix goldfish and tropical fish personally.
N.B I dont know if you know, but never ever ever let tap water near your tank / filters / fish. Always dechlorinate your tap water first using any of the available de-chlorinators. Secondly, dont use hot water from your tap, use it from the kettle.
Also - buy yourself a water test kit, usually about £25 from ebay or local fish shop. Its invaluable when setting up a new tank and for the future.

Any more questions, feel free to ask, someone will always help you. And dont feel silly asking silly questions either.

Good luck

 

[abzorbd]

Hi. welcome to the forum.

I wouldn't put anything in there yet. If your friend "gave evrything a quick clean" then they most likely used regular tap water on it. The chlorine in tap water will kill the bacteria in the gravel and filters.

Also you could run it for a long time and still not have it safe for fish. You need to get some liquid water testing kits and do a fishless cycle explained here: http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

Depending on what kind of goldfish they are most likely cramped in the smaller tank you have them in now. And they will most likely be cramped in the 60l tank as well. How big are they going to get? If you don't know you should look it up. Overstocking a tank is never a good idea.

I have had a goldfish with other tropical fish before and never had a problem. That was when i was very inexperienced though. I wouldn't do it again. I will never buy another goldfish. They get BIG and so does their mess.

Anyways, I hoped this helped. I'm sure you will get more opinions and have more questions soon so good luck.

dangit spooky. you slipped right in there while i was typing all that. lol

 

[Colin_T]

any bacteria that was living in the tank should have died within a day or two of it being emptied. Certainly the filter bacteria would have died as soon as it dried out. The filters will have to develop from scratch. Having live plants in the tank will help speed filter development and liquid bacterial supplements can help too. I use Sera Nitrivec and it seems to make a difference but many believe they don't work at all.

Goldfish will live in warm or cold water. Whereas tropical fish must have warm water.
If you want to put the goldfish in the bigger tank with a couple of tropicals make sure the tropicals like neutral to slightly alkaline water (PH value 7.0 or above). And make sure they are big enough to get food during feeding times. Swordtails, Platies and Mollies should be ok with most goldfish. Watch the male swords, they might pester the goldfish.
Don't keep tetras or barbs with the goldfish.

 

[rakem]

ok so the bacteria is dead, i do have some living plants in my smaller tank so i will put one of them into the big tank.

i'm gonna go up to the local pet store on the weekend to buy some rocks and water testing kits as well.

So would one small plant get enough bacteria going or should i add some liquid bacteria as well?

thanks for the replies!

edit:

so also at the right at this moment i have a full tank with the heater in and the filter running. As mentioned i dont have any liquid bacteria in there at the moment, is it ok to turn the filter and heater off? I will be getting the supplies i need on the weekend.

 

[chicklette]

I think the goldies that you have now need a bigger tank. Personally, I would make it a coldwater goldfish tank because they are in a small tank now.

Then in the small tank you can add a few tropicals. That is what I would do. I would also do a fishless cycle. Then no fish will suffer the consequences.

How big is the tank your gold

I would not mix tropicals with goldies, but that’s just my opinion.

 

[Colin_T]

leave the new filters running all the time. You can turn the heater off until the day before you get the fish. Then turn the heater on and monitor the temperature.

If you have a power filter on the goldfish tank, you can take some of the filter material from that and add it to the filter in the new tank. Then you can add some fish straight away. Alternatively transfer the goldfish and their filter to the new tank, leave it to run for a month or so and then add some other fish.

One plant will help get things going a little bit but not a lot. A group of plants will do more.

 

[littlest]

So would one small plant get enough bacteria going or should i add some liquid bacteria as well?

thanks for the replies!

edit:

so also at the right at this moment i have a full tank with the heater in and the filter running. As mentioned i dont have any liquid bacteria in there at the moment, is it ok to turn the filter and heater off? I will be getting the supplies i need on the weekend.

I think there may be a little confusion here. Plants don't add bacteria. you need to cultivate the bacteria. To do this you need to do a fishless cycle (someone posted the link above), which involves adding ammonia.

Plants can be helpful as they absorb some of the ammonia, making you less reliant on the bacteria, but you need to cycle the tank still.

When you get your test kits, test the water in your goldie tank too. I'm rather concerned that you have four goldfish in a "very small tank". Goldfish need big tanks and powerful filtration as they are very messy fish and get very large. Even the 60L would be too small for four goldfish. If they are fancy goldfish they would need a tank of around 50 gallons for the long-term. If they are common goldfish they would need even larger, or preferably a pond. You may want to consider rehoming your goldies if you can't afford to provide this for them (maybe ask in the coldwater section for more info).

 

[rakem]

I think there may be a little confusion here. Plants don't add bacteria. you need to cultivate the bacteria. To do this you need to do a fishless cycle (someone posted the link above), which involves adding ammonia.

Plants can be helpful as they absorb some of the ammonia, making you less reliant on the bacteria, but you need to cycle the tank still.

When you get your test kits, test the water in your goldie tank too. I'm rather concerned that you have four goldfish in a "very small tank". Goldfish need big tanks and powerful filtration as they are very messy fish and get very large. Even the 60L would be too small for four goldfish. If they are fancy goldfish they would need a tank of around 50 gallons for the long-term. If they are common goldfish they would need even larger, or preferably a pond. You may want to consider rehoming your goldies if you can't afford to provide this for them (maybe ask in the coldwater section for more info).

The tank the the goldies are in now is probably maybe 20L. it has a fairly power filter though The pet shop said that it would be fine for 4 goldies, obviously i have been miss informed. We actually had 5 in there for a little while but one died the other week, we have had them for over 1 year in this little tank. The biggest goldie is maybe about 3 or 3.5 Inches long

Perhaps a better idea would be to not do the tropical tank for now and put the goldies into the bigger tank with a few more cold water fish.

Or if i wanted to do the tropical tank i guess i could give the goldies to the local pet shop or my sister or something like that.... i would prefer the tropical tank.

what do you think?

thanks for the great help so far!

 

[OldMan47]

4 goldies at 3 inches each are already too big for a 60l tank. Those 4 alone would require at least a 150l tank for the next few months until they start to get bigger, which they will. I must agree with what others have said, its not a good idea to keep the goldies unless you have plans to seriously upgrade your tanks. On the other hand, the filter you are using for the goldies is a gold mine for beneficial bacteria. Transferring some of the filter media or even sqeezing out the dirty filter into the new one will get a very good jump start on getting the new filter eady for fish. At that point you could probably finish a fishless cycle in less than a fortnight instead of a month or two as is typical. That means the tropicals you would like to keep can be there that much sooner.

 

[littlest]

sorry to say but 20L is nowhere near enough for one goldfish. let alone four. Keeping them in a tank that small is probably stunting their growth which can cause early deaths, and I am doubtful that your filter would be able to handle the waste they produce.

I think your best option is trying to rehome the goldfish to your local petshop or your sister (if she has a big enough tank/pond).

If you kept the goldfish in the 60L you shouldn't add any more fish. The 60L is about 15 gallons, and as I said before 4 fancy goldfish need around 50 gallons (more for common or comet goldfish). So not only could you not add anymore fish to the 60L, but the fish you have already would be too much and you would need to upgrade at some point.

If you re-homed the goldfish you could set up a nice tropical tank in the 60L and you could use the 20L to house something like a betta.

 

[Colin_T]

4 small goldfish will be fine in the bigger tank. They just won't grow to full size in it. But not many goldfish get to full size in captivity anyway. And if they are fancy varieties then they don't get anywhere near as big as the common godlfish.
If you want to keep the goldfish in the bigger tank then do it and if you are concerned about them being too big then get a bigger tank when they get bigger. If they have lived for a year in the little tank they should be happy in the bigger one for a while.

 

[rakem]

If you want to keep the goldfish in the bigger tank then do it and if you are concerned about them being too big then get a bigger tank when they get bigger. If they have lived for a year in the little tank they should be happy in the bigger one for a while.

Im not that concerned about the size... more concerned about them being in a tropical tank with warmer water...

 

[Colin_T]

goldfish are fine in warm water. They actually breed and grow faster in warm water.

 

[groovitudedude]

How much tap water would it take to make a 100G unhealthy? Like 10Gs? 5Gs? .5 Gs?