New to the forum and fish keeping have some questions.

Hello everyone.
So I had fish as a kid and enjoyed the time I had with my parents with them. Forward 30 years and now with kids of my own well starting out again.
My kids were at the local fair and you know the story they both won a goldfish. well I had to get something and we got what in hindsight was way too small 3.5 gallon tank.
I'm sorry guys I wanted something else but wife was not having it. Well one of the fishes died after a year and then the fair came into town... Well one of my sons won another fish. By this time the original gold fish got huge. To be honest I'm not sure what kind of goldfish this is and he started out gold and now he is white and almost translucent. This fish is large and maybe he is a koi or something. Anyway we put the new fish in the tank and well I could not deal with that. The fish were so crowded that I had to do something and told my wife we need to get something better for these fish.

We set off to Petsmart and I got a 36gallon bow front. I have dived full head into this and having a lot of fun. I will show you what pics of the fish before and after to this. Anyway so I have this 36 gallon bow front tank along with a Eheim 350 canister filter that after watching pondguru changed around a bit. I put in tray one my mechanical pads course medium fine and then a polishing pad, in try 2 I have 2 diffrent types of biological media about 2.5lbs, and try three I have a carbon pad nitrate pad and ammonia pad with another fine foam pad on top of that. I also have a Korallin sulphur biodenitrator s1502 nitrate reactor which is not cycled yet. Now I had a bubbler in this but with the flow of the canister filter I was getting a lot of micro bubbles being thrown around in the tank. This was not coming thru the filter at all but pushed around by the water. So I want to run something by you guys if I can ask if you think the surface agitation looks good to you guys/gals to suffice for oxygen exchange.

I own a water quality testing company so I have professional access to testing equipment and know exactly what's in the water except for dissolved oxygen sensor which I will be ordering in for my Hach SL1000 parallel analyzer. Right now my PH is 7.5 free ammonia is .30 nitrate is 0 nitrite is .012 ppm. The tank is only 2.5 weeks old and I am not running a fishless cycle. I can take care of water and will make sure the fish are good with water changes using stability and the sort. I have a RODI system for my home and use that for water changes and then add a water conditioner as well.

So anyway that's my story my kids are having fun with everything setting all this up and learning to care for some animals. We have in this tank the 2 goldfish, a orange tail shark, a rubber nose pleco, and a snail ( not sure exactly what type it is).

This is a video of the surface agitation and want to know your thoughts.

Here is the old tank I know its pretty bad for the 2 fish.

 

With ammonia and nitrite readings, and zero nitrates, you're in the middle of cycling. You've kept toxin levels down with water changes, good job. Keep doing what you're doing. If you add ammonia and nitrites, and keep the levels below 1 ppm, your fish will be fine. It also helps to use something like API Prime for water conditioner, which neutralizes ammonia and nitrites for a day or two.

It's great that you have so many different types of filter media, but to be honest, the benefit is in the surface area for biological growth. The fact that the media is charcoal, or carbon, or a biotenitrator or whatever doesn't have that much to do with it.

 

Thanks for the reply. The Bio Media is as pictured. just the top tray before water goes back in the tank is chemical carbon, ammonia remover, and nitrate/nitrite remover with a top layer of fine filter pad. Does the surface agitation seem sufficient?

 

Hello everyone.
So I had fish as a kid and enjoyed the time I had with my parents with them. Forward 30 years and now with kids of my own well starting out again.
My kids were at the local fair and you know the story they both won a goldfish. well I had to get something and we got what in hindsight was way too small 3.5 gallon tank.
I'm sorry guys I wanted something else but wife was not having it. Well one of the fishes died after a year and then the fair came into town... Well one of my sons won another fish. By this time the original gold fish got huge. To be honest I'm not sure what kind of goldfish this is and he started out gold and now he is white and almost translucent. This fish is large and maybe he is a koi or something. Anyway we put the new fish in the tank and well I could not deal with that. The fish were so crowded that I had to do something and told my wife we need to get something better for these fish.

We set off to Petsmart and I got a 36gallon bow front. I have dived full head into this and having a lot of fun. I will show you what pics of the fish before and after to this. Anyway so I have this 36 gallon bow front tank along with a Eheim 350 canister filter that after watching pondguru changed around a bit. I put in tray one my mechanical pads course medium fine and then a polishing pad, in try 2 I have 2 diffrent types of biological media about 2.5lbs, and try three I have a carbon pad nitrate pad and ammonia pad with another fine foam pad on top of that. I also have a Korallin sulphur biodenitrator s1502 nitrate reactor which is not cycled yet. Now I had a bubbler in this but with the flow of the canister filter I was getting a lot of micro bubbles being thrown around in the tank. This was not coming thru the filter at all but pushed around by the water. So I want to run something by you guys if I can ask if you think the surface agitation looks good to you guys/gals to suffice for oxygen exchange.

I own a water quality testing company so I have professional access to testing equipment and know exactly what's in the water except for dissolved oxygen sensor which I will be ordering in for my Hach SL1000 parallel analyzer. Right now my PH is 7.5 free ammonia is .30 nitrate is 0 nitrite is .012 ppm. The tank is only 2.5 weeks old and I am not running a fishless cycle. I can take care of water and will make sure the fish are good with water changes using stability and the sort. I have a RODI system for my home and use that for water changes and then add a water conditioner as well.

So anyway that's my story my kids are having fun with everything setting all this up and learning to care for some animals. We have in this tank the 2 goldfish, a orange tail shark, a rubber nose pleco, and a snail ( not sure exactly what type it is).

This is a video of the surface agitation and want to know your thoughts.

Here is the old tank I know its pretty bad for the 2 fish.

Welcome to Fishlore!
It's great that you got them a bigger tank, that goldfish looks huge in the old one lol!
Do you add minerals to the RODI water for the fish?
I'm sure that aggitation is more than enough for that size tank. Are the fish fighting the current or staying in one corner or area of the tank? I didn't see any of the fish in the video. You can have too much water movement.
He's a nice looking goldfish. My grand daughter's goldfish changed colors too! It went from pale orange with white patches to a solid bright orange. That one pictured is a common goldfish. They can get to around 12 inches long (noise to tip of tail) and live up to around 20 years with good water, diet and care. Redtail sharks and rubber lipped plecos are tropical fish and really do better in warmer water (72 to 79°F) while common goldfish are coldwater fish (like trout and bass) that require cooler temps, around 65-68° F. You might get away with setting your heater to 72, but nobody's going to be entirely happy with that. Is great that you got those goldfish in a better tank than they were in, I'm sure they're happier!

 

They all swim around however they have there favorite places as well. None seem to be gasping for any breath and no one is going to the top for air. I have the temp set on 71 deg . I do put in a water conditioner and sometimes I do a 50 RODI and 50 tap water mix. My tap water is filtered thru a carbon block for the home and has 0 chloramines in it.

 

"rubber lipped plecos are tropical fish and really do better in warmer water (72 to 79°F)"

This actually depends on whether it's truly a rubber lip or a striped bulldog pleco (sometimes sold as rubber lips). The bulldog plecos actually prefer cooler temps 68 to 72.

 

here it is

From what I was told the pleco is Water temperature: 72-82° F and the goldfish were 68° to 74° F and the shark was 72-82° F I just doble checked and my tank is set to 73 deg

 

here it is

From what I was told the pleco is Water temperature: 72-82° F and the goldfish were 68° to 74° F and the shark was 72-82° F I just doble checked and my tank is set to 73 deg

Okay, That's a rubberlip pleco for sure.
The reason I was asking about them staying in one area was because of water current. When there's too much turbulence in the water, fish will congregate in the least turbulent area of the tank (in one corner, on one end, behind rocks). I have an fx5 canister filter that I can't adjust flow on, for my Cichlid tank, and to create a little extra ripple on the surface, I just direct outflow of one nozzle toward the surface. The other nozzle I have to direct down toward the front wall and my fish still tend to congregate primarily toward the other half of the 125 gallon tank.

 

This is my Canister filter and reactor

 

Okay, That's a rubberlip pleco for sure.
The reason I was asking about them staying in one area was because of water current. When there's too much turbulence in the water, fish will congregate in the least turbulent area of the tank (in one corner, on one end, behind rocks). I have an fx5 canister filter that I can't adjust flow on, for my Cichlid tank, and to create a little extra ripple on the surface, I just direct outflow of one nozzle toward the surface. The other nozzle I have to direct down toward the front wall and my fish still tend to congregate primarily toward the other half of the 125 gallon tank.

I totally agree with this suggestion