Does anyone have any ideas for some cool Goldfish tank Aquascapes?

I really have no idea how to decorate my 55 Gallon Goldfish tank and I would like to ask you guys!


So, here's what I have to work with... "PETCO White Aquarium Sand"....

That's it. Hahaha....any plants? ornaments? themes!?


Please leave ideas down below! Thank you!

 

HI and my advice, have fun. Whatever you plant in a goldfish tank will usually be munched on plant wise-best to root with a pot as they will also uproot about everything.
I don't advise sand although some people will use it. I found that they will try and pick up things off the bottom and then ingest mouthfuls of sand-they are greedy but lovely.
In fact, goldfish look so good with a painted bare bottom tank-if I were to have goldfish again, my dream tank would include bare bottom with ocean blue painted back and bottom with a few decorations for them to swim in and out of and a few potted plants-terra cota works btw!
That is my tank but of course there are as many opinions as there are ideas!
Whatever you decide, good luck with them!

 

My fancy goldfish do better with a barebottom tank and considerably more filtration that is considered "minimum" or "adequate."

Early on I had to decide who the tank decorations were for: me or the goldies? Now that that question has been answered all of us are happy. Lol

 

Before taking into consideration any themes, styles, etc I would think about the type of fish you are keeping. Goldfish, especially the fancy types, are very clumsy swimmers. In addition to that, it is not unusual for them to reach 8-10 inches. So they will need plenty of space just for maneuvering around the tank. And from your profile I see that you have 5 of them living together. With decorating goldfish tanks, I have found that less is more.

Since goldfish are incredibly messy, whatever substrate you put in will be more work for you to keep clean. I'm not saying that you can't or shouldn't use a substrate, but for me it was just there for looks, not really to serve a particular purpose (in a goldfish tank) and in the end, was way more work than it was worth. A painted bottom, as suggested above, or even a scenic background placed on the bottom of your tank can accomplish the same thing.

Whatever you put in your tank, be prepared for your fish "playing" with it. Moving it around either intentionally or unintentionally and basically rough housing with it.

As far as decorations go, fish (especially goldies), are very curious. If the decoration has holes, make sure that the holes will be big enough for it to fit into as it grows larger. Otherwise they will get stuck and possibly do damage to themselves while playing/investigating. Fancy goldfish also have delicate fins, so also make sure the ornaments you get have no rough or sharp edges.

 

I'm thinking minimal decor, I saw some really nice Greek decorations last time I was in PETCO...I didn't stop to examine them though because I had to get home to do an emergency water change.

 

Emergency water change?

 

Emergency water change?

Yeah, I had a bit of an issue with a Nitrite spike but it's corrected now, it turns out the plant I had in the tank (A bamboo) had a lot more decay than I thought and upon further inspection was decaying pretty badly...

My levels are fine now though, as of last night these are the results;

Ammonia: 0.25ppm (It's a really light 0.25 though so I'd say 0-0.25ppm)
NitrIte: 0ppm (Main issue, tested at 5.0ppm, yikes!)
NitrAte: 10ppm
pH: 7.4