Ideas on a new tank and advice on an old one

[Migitney]

Wanted to get ideas and even advice I was given a 55 gallon tank thinking I might be live plants. Which lights, substrate what plants for newbies how long should it cycle. Also have a 10 gallon newly established has yet to cycle has a goldfish who hates cold water it turns out.... and a 3.5 with my betta who is well established and real healthy. Can't seem to get fish to live with my goldfish without dying except my pleco. Had lived with tera for several years but hates the cold water needed for other goldfish.? What should I do with the 55 and any advice on my 10gallon?

 

[PorshaF]

What kind of goldfish do you have? (Edit: I think it would be a good idea to move the goldfish to the larger tank as to not stunt its growth) I've seen some people do a dirted tank but seachem makes a pretty good line of aquatic plant products, the plant substrate you can find anywhere that sells commercial brands. Also make sure to grab some fertilizer, roots tabs and recently I was recommended seachem flourish liquid fertilizer. I have heard good things of fluval brands also, unsure of if there is a price difference. Plants I find easy and have also heard are easy, hornwort, moneywort, amazon sword, amazon compacta, anubia, Kleiner bats, narrow leaf swords, java if you like them. I think those are all pretty low light. I've had the best luck with Kleiner bar but they aren't very full plants instead rather tall so good for the very back in a bunch. Hope this helps a bit-other people have more ideas I'm sure! Can't wait to see the 55 up and planted!

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

When you start dealing with aquatic plants you're kind of looking into an entire new subject area. If that's where your interests really lie then start watching youtube videos, read a few books etc. For example you have to be super careful about fertilizing plants in general. Seachem does put out products called Flourish and Flourish tabs - they are the same thing administered differently. The tabs you just stick nearby the plants underground and - in my tanks - just wait for fish to undig it but in s tank with well behaved fish they just ignore them. You replace them according to package instructions. With flourish - the liquid - you just dose the tank every so often. As far as which plants you like you would really need to locate a very hard to find aquatic fish store and have them help you just like you would if you bought an above ground plant. Lots off online sellers sell sets of beginning plants - I find I end up hating about hsve or more of the plants. Some plants grow fast but clog your filters terribly, personally I like spears - most fish leave them alone and they tend to stay looking better longer. Most fish really enjoy floating plants to diappear into just like a cave - that can make these plants some of the messiest around (or not). I just hate sticking my arm in the water to unclog an intake tube 4 times a day as well as rinsing plant debris off my arm all the time. I also like the little java plants too. Rule of thumb to provide debth to a tank is to put tall plants in the back, midsize in the middle and smaller plants in the front. But I don't know if your question is about water termperature issues or whether you should get into aquatic plants but I think you want an opinion on if you should use the 50 gallon tank as a terrarium for regular or aquatic plants or if you should use it to separate your fish in such a way to keep them all happy and at a temperature they like while being with the other fish they like. I suspect a number of people would question a goldfish's enjoyment of a particular temperature of water - how did you find out about this preference? Generally fish need to be kept at/around the temperatures they were born to live in - there isn't any personal preference about it - they just stay healthier and live longer if you keep them in the temperature they were meant to be in? I know goldfish don't usually require any heat unlike most fish but also they tolerate great changes in temperature so I'd think they could live just fine in the same tank as the pleco - just not vice versa/. Without more info on how you can tell what they would like it's a question I can't answer but I know I tend to try to keep my fish in a tank where he/she is comfortable temperature wise and that may or may not work for the pleco. Most tropical fish (not goldfish) prefer a temperature between 78 and 82 degrees F. I would imagine most gold fish would lve quite well at that temperature. But I don't know much about goldfish.

 

[Migitney]

So my gold fish is a common goldfish but he was in a tank with tropical fish we won him at a fair game from my kids school. So when the tetra died I went to get more fish and the lady was like oh no not with goldfish your a fish killer. Kinda deal but he lived with them for almost 2 years and then I heard they dont like the cold so j slowly turned it into a cold tank well he hates me now becuse he was in a tropical tank his whole life tried doing right by him and he's just a tropicL goldfish. Also I have had planted tanks before my 35 breeder and it was pretty easy. I wa t to make this more a project for my daughter since she's the one like one tNk two tNks three tanks a dog a kitten a hamster a mouse and several bunnies...