Hello, I recently got two fancies from my lfs. It has been cycling for for around two months until I put them in a few weeks ago. I wasn’t in a rush to get them so I let it cycle for awhile to make sure that the beneficial bacteria grew. It is 25 gallons. I’ve noticed that I have gotten a bloom the first few days after I put them in, then the water went back to crystal clear. The ammonia levels were high, but not deadly high. I got it back down to 0. (By letting it run its course) I recently did a water change (about 25%) and I’ve noticed that the cloudiness is coming back after two days. I’ve tested the water and the ammonia was coming back. I use prime by Seachem. I’ve also noticed that the water is turning yellow... could it be from the light being on constantly throughout the day or is the waste that the goldfish produce? Within the first week the filter was clogged and was almost to the point of overflowing. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.
Before you added the goldfish, were you adding a source of ammonia or did you just add bacterial additive without anything else? It sounds like you’re overfeeding if your filter clogged in only a week. What kind of filter is it?
Did you test your tank for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate while cycling? Did you get down 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5-10 nitrates before adding fish?
Yes, it was 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and somewhere in between 10-15 nitrates. The filter is topfin brand (petsmarts brand) and it came with the tank. I am not home right now but I’ll check when I do come home. I did not add a source of ammonia before I put the fish in but I added beneficial bacteria. I should’ve done some research of my own before getting the fish. Petsmart employees don’t seem to know what they are talking about even though they owned the same fish of their own. I’m surprised.
Of course they don’t lol. Well you did nothing by waiting to put fish in. Your cycle started when you added them. Can you test your water and post the results when you get home? Your filter is likely subpar for Goldfish if it came in a kit. Are you sure it’s a 25 gallon? That’s a really uncommon size and I cant find a Topfin kit that’s 25 gallons on any website, including Petsmarts.
You can roughly figure out the gallon size by doing the math. LxWxH (in inches) =X X ÷321 That will give you an idea of how many gallons
I wouldn't say that...I mean, her waiting wouldve been MORE effective had she been adding ammonia. But if you've been testing the water and observing the cycle...than it's cycled. Thats how my mom cycles tanks and it drives me insane. She just adds a BB suppliment to a 75 gal for the first week and waited a total of a month. The tank was cycled. Took forever, but it cycled without fish/ammonia suppliment. Bottled BB come with a bit of ammonia in the bottle to keep the bacteria alive. I wouldn't say you don't have a cycle, it might not be as strong as it needs to be for goldfish, but its definately not un-cycled...(ugh, double negative).. How long do you leave your light on? it could be unicellular algae. have you added any wood to the aquarium? it could be tannins. How long have goldfish been in the tank? Could be ammonia? My mom actually let that 75 gal (that i mentioned previously) go. It was a tropical community with 3 comet goldfish (I bought the goldies to cycle another tank expecting them to x.x, they didn't, now they're each 7in long...). She stopped doing water changes on it, would feed it once a day, etc, eventually it ammonia spiked and the entire tank was compromised (except the goldfish, a gourami, and a pleco...) When we were draining the tank (at 3 in the morn), the water was a yellow-green color, probably from ammonia. My point is that if you're taking care of it, it shouldn't be ammonia unless the goldfish are uber big and are producing a ton of waste. She let this tank go prob 6months without a water change... Common tank sizes are 15G, 20GL, 20GH, 29G. If it's a bowfront or anything special the gallonage will be different, like a 26 gal or a 38 gal.
You should really have a filter that's x10 your amount of water for Goldies. The one that came with the kit - as you're finding out - is struggling a bit. I'd recommend picking up a canister filter; it will serve you well in the long run.
Agree with the above comment, tank maintenance is ALWAYS easier with a filter rated higher than your tank needs. You'll need to be careful though, when you put a big filter on a little tank, the flow from the OP filter may blow your fish all around the tank. Most filters have flow adjusters, but just be aware of that. I have a 70gal filter on my 45 gal. A Fluval 306 for my 75G (I'm reading thats only rated for 70G? I thought it was higher, I didn't buy the filter so..oh well...I would've put an Fx4 on it if I could've), and 30G filters for my 20 and 10 gallons. It ensures the filter won't clog early AND if you overstock the tank or have any cycling issues or anything, the filter is big enough to accommodate. You want a bigger filter for goldfish because they are one of the most messiest fish, and usually a larger filter will help with that.
You cannot cycle a tank without the presence of consistent ammonia, it’s scientifically impossible. Putting bacterial additive in and waiting does absolutely nothing, nada, zip without either adding fish or another source of ammonia. Never judge of filter by its “rating”, go by gallons per hour. For a hang on back filter, it should filter 8-10 X your gallon amount per hour. For a canister it should be 5+ X gallon amount.
You purposely bought goldfish to put them through the stress of a cycle not caring that the probability of them dying was high just because you wanted to cycle a tank? Why not do a fishless cycle? I mean if I’d known about fishless cycling when I started its 100% what I would have done. Purposely putting an animal through distress (and possibly death) on purpose seems very cruel.
Lol, you're darn* right I did. They were feeder goldfish, and just like alot of other people, I didn't want to wait or spend $$$ on stocking fish when the tank wasn't ready. No I didn't add them to the tank right after filling it up, yes I made sure to add BB and wait a bit before I just dunked them in there. Are you really being a feeder goldfish advocate right now? That was also like, 3 years ago. They are freaking 7in long with happy freaking lives when they would've lived 15 minutes and then been food had I NOT bought them to cycle a tank...please dont start with me. lol.
The OP cycled her tank for two months and added fish to it afterwards. The OP problem is likely a filter that isn’t strong enough to convert the ammonia. There are a lot of people whose done in fish cycle with success. While fishless cycles are the best choice let’s not forget those who do in fish cycles are new to the hobby.
So you were just impatient and decided that the fishes lives didn’t matter? I’m not being a “feeder goldfish advocate.” When you feed live fish to other fish, that feeder fish is serving a purpose to feed another fish. What you did was just selfish in my opinion. No need of it. Yes the fish survived but just because you CAN be cruel doesn’t mean you should be. I’m not addressing the OP in my post.
No, you're addressing me, 1 comment I made in my book of a post. Again, that was 3 years ago and yeah, I'm pretty sure it was my first tank. What's you're deal though? We all can agree that in-fish cycles are more cruel that fish-less cycles. But both methods are used. Soooo, what's the problem? You just felt the need to call me out on it? that's it? well that's not what this forum is for sooo....??? 'Fish's lives didn't matter'....I have 1 tank dedicated to those darn goldfish. If I really didn't think they mattered, I would've flushed them or donated them back to my store (who really only sells comets AS feeders), but obviously I'm not that cruel. So idk what your problem is but you need to stop attacking me and focus on the OP issues. Tyvm.
I’m not “attacking” you. No need to be so ridiculously defensive, all you needed to do was explain instead of getting your claws out. I’m just trying to understand different people in this hobby, I wasn’t “calling you out” I was merely asking why you’d purposely want to sentence a fish to death (more than likely) if you knew of fishless cycling. No need to be so aggressive.
OP didn’t do any cycling, not blaming them, they were told misinformation and didn’t know. Let’s not get off topic over feeder comets shipped by the 1000’s.
"Lagertha, post: 3632116, member: 102033" I'm a very defensive person and most on this forum who've seen me get like that could probably attest to that. But I'm sorry I jumped on you, I just took your post kind of accusatory....Ironically, I'm a psych major. We, as humans, are more likely to initially react negatively to criticism than be understanding of it. I'm again, sorry I jumped at you...There are 2 things on this forum that bother me the most... When individuals swear only 1 fish can be housed in 10gallons. and when individuals use the word 'cruel' in the context of fish keeping. Isn't shipping a species from their natural habitat to house them in glass boxes cruel? "there are less stressful ways to go about it to keep fish healthy" Yes but...they're still in bags when they came from rivers.."we're rebuilding natural eco-systems in our homes" Yes but to what scale?..Call me ignorant rather than cruel, that would be more true, just a pet peeve of mine and I'm sorry I took it out on you. The honest answer to your question is that I was impatient. The tank had been running for a week but I wanted to speed it up, and not wanting to add the kribs that I had decided on that early, I instead added 3 (3/4in-1in) goldfish (for $.12 each with a discount so...probs costed me $.25. Kribs would've been...about 4-8$.) They stayed in that tank until I put my kribs in there. The goldfish may've gone into my 20L for a short time...(but i had an angel in there with live plants and I REALLY don't remember putting those goldfish in THAT tank.....) They were then moved into my mom's 75G (for the longest time, probs 1.5years) before her tank crashed, now that 75G is my cichlid tank and the 45G (that WAS my upgraded community/20L tank) is now my goldfish tank...I now have 5 tanks...What is left of the community fish is in the 45 with my goldfish (2 BN plecs, 2 otos, 4 tiger loaches, 4 kuhli loaches, 3 cories, and a pearl gourami.-I had an affinity for bottom feeders...) Yesss, I know I'm over-stocked. and goldies are coldwater and everything else is warm. I know, I'm in that position because I cycled with goldfish, I know. lol. But I'm working everything out and being as mindful as I can be in this position of what to do with my fish, First step is donating the goldfish, next step is rehoming (re-tanking, I love my loaches too much) my loaches, moving my oscar (because he is just getting too big too fast) and then eventually donating my grown out cichlids until I can afford a 265G+. I most certainly, am not being 'cruel' about it going through the trouble I am to keep them healthy and happy for pond life...maybe being cruel to my loaches and such for housing them with ammonia monsters....but....those goldfish are living large....lol. P.s. I say I was expecting them to die, but I didn't like....LET the ammonia spike and what not. I took care of them...Was happy to have them in my tank at the time. They seemed happy following each other around....the word cruel just really got so me so AGAIN, I'm sorry.
