Some Tips on Decorating

So, I'm formulating my plan for the 75 gallon and, in light of recent developments, have made some changes I thought you all could help on. I hope I'm posting in the right place.

1 - I'm pretty certain I want to switch to a large, polished, river rock substrate, at least for the top layer. Motley has an enormous mouth as I watched her uber-vacuum what I thought would be a piece of gravel far too large for her to ever suck up at her current size. The girl wanted her pellet I guess haha. I literally saw her straining to suck extra hard. In the interest of never having to worry about that again, I want river rocks. But we're talking about a 75 gallon and I can't find a single bag bigger than 5.5lbs. Anyone know a place where I can get a larger quantity of river rocks safe for an aquarium?

2 - I recently discovered my goldies have been slowly tearing their fins on hidden, knife-sharp edges of these stupid rock formations I bought that were supposed to be aquarium-safe. I had even buffed out the edges I did find prior but, after noticing a tear in both Lola and Motley's fins, I found more. They've been removed and subsequently I'm put off on the idea of any decor that isn't a plant. So I'm thinking of just using plants for the 75 gallon unless I find some decor I really trust. This brings up a couple issues.
a. Substrate - river rocks aren't going to root many plants so I'm thinking I may have to layer something else underneath the river rocks for the plant roots to grab onto. Are there any plant substrates out there that are safe for goldfish foraging? I know some people love sand for goldies but I'm not 100% convinced that's not going to cause some problems for them down the line. This substrate, whatever it may be, will be layered underneath the river rocks so hopefully not easily accessible anyway but still.
b. Planted aquariums - A 75 gallon aquarium decorated only with plants is going to be A LOT of plants. I was thinking of creating a covered area using over-grown jungle vall to stretch and float a small ways across the surface of the area then filling the rest in with plants. But at this quantity of plants, do I need to consider CO2 injection, or can it be done without? I don't have plant lighting yet but I hope that can wait a little as we are in warmer months and as the aquarium is a glass top and the tank will have lots of indirect, natural lighting. I'm also a little skittish about the CO2 stuff being so new at this. I'm currently just using SeaChem Flourish for my plants in there now but if I used Excel or root tabs would that be sufficient in providing a carbon source for the plants? I've also got a MEAN air pump to encourage gas exchange that will more than sufficiently aerate the 75g, not to mention the canister filter with will be the Sun Sun I think 304B - the one with the UV sterilizer rated as up to 150 gallon filtration capacity.
c. Chemical filtration - I don't want carbon, I'm slowly phasing it out in the 29 but I have read lots of good stuff about Purigen. Any thoughts or tips on this product? I don't know really anything about it.
d. Decor - I'm really put off of rock decor after this which may be unfair but it really scared me to see the injured fins. But I like a natural look in my tanks (no sunken ships or castles for me) and I might be more open to trying again once they are in an appropriately-sized tank. IF someone can recommend some nice, 100% fancy goldfish safe decor. I love driftwood but unfortunately it's not an option due to the tannins. But I would imagine I'm at least going to need something to mount plants on to give it a dynamic look so they're not all just growing right out of the ground and straight up.

Money is an issue. I'm already dipping into tuition savings just to get the canister filter and substrate I need to get them IN the tank let alone decorate it but I feel bad I've over-stocked them and want them to have a good environment as soon as possible for all the happiness they have provided me during a really difficult, stressful time in my life. So I'm grateful for any cost-effective recommendations you all can make.

Thanks so much

 

Ok here is the simple way I have plants in my tank..I get the plants with bulbs or runners ,like water lilies, onion plant, java fern. If the plants have some roots you can wrap it around a rock and pile rocks around it . Or I found these man made rocks hollow inside and I just fill with river rocks with a plant. I don't add anything extra ..They are growing with fish poop and the led light that the tank came with.These are the rocks I got.

 

Check out local landscaping places for river rocks - MUCH cheaper than buying by the bag at a pet store !

 

HappyKnitter those I think are cichlid stones what a creative idea! I did notice they are a little rough to touch your goldies have never hurt themselves on it?
HOWsMom that's an excellent thought I will do that!

 

As long they don't go inside .. they will be fine . and price wise they run about $19.99 for both.

 

Landscaping was ridiculously priced surprisingly unless ordering a pallet. I found 60 lbs of polished river rock for $54 on eBay I figure I will layer my 40 lbs of gravel underneath (less than that in the 29 gallon tank I just have more leftover) the river rock for the plants to grab on and to preserve more of my cycle. It's not ideal but I can no longer spare no expense. Next step is the canister filter and floor reinforcement. It will make for a boring aquarium for awhile but my fish will be more glad of the room I think so I would rather get it up fast and have it look boring for awhile. So progress made. maybe this won't take as lomg as 6 weeks to get it bare bones up and running. It just may take 6 mos to get it looking good haha.

 

Actually what if I put sand underneath for the plants? Lighter weight than the gravel but I imagine the river rocks and sand combo would make for weird cleaning practices right?

Also I found some pillar ruin decor looks smooth and I may be okay with if tangled up in a bunch of plants just to spruce it up.

Other option is to put only a thin layer of river rocks down nothing beneath it and then actually put the plants in pots I don't know what material is safe to use though.

Basically, I need a good way to heavily plant an aquarium with only a thin layer of river rocks as the substrate haha. Anyone want to problem solve this one with me????

And as much as I love it, I cannot use driftwood.

 

Check HomeDepot on the river rocks they have them and cheap. With gold fish tanks they really don't need that much decoration. I am trying to make my tank look like you are looking in a little piece of a pond. Plants and rocks .

 

This was my goldfish tank over 8 years ago..

This was one of many tank I had ..Here are the rocks I still have , those are fake plants I got from Elmers and my two little pots and a couple of slate pieces. Goldfishes were happy.But when I was unable to take care of them and the other tanks .I gave them to a friend in OH she had a nice pond and bigger tanks for breeding.

 

I just use regular colored aquarium gravel in my goldfish tank. He (or maybe it's a she) loves picking thru the gravel.

 

Yeah I have regular gravel in there right now but I've noticed a couple problems with it.

This one is probably my fault but before I did the TSS cycle I thought maybe my ammonia was coming back because I hadn't been vacuuming my gravel well-enough so just before adding it I did a deep cleaning over 30% of the gravel and less deep over the rest. When I went all the way down a bunch of gravel dust STILL came back up even though I cleaned and strained it for over an hour before adding to the tank. The gravel vac sucked up what I picked up but I can only imagine how much more their still is. It seems to be way down at the bottom but is nevertheless unsettling to know it's in there.

The other issue is that I've seen 2 of my very young goldfish suck up pieces of gravel that were smaller than the others. Rex sucked up a little piece and spit it out, I immediately scooped it up. But Motley has an enormous mouth was chasing a pellet that had sunk into a little burrow in the gravel. With all her strength, she uber-sucked (I mean I could see her gills flaring she was trying so hard) to get the pellet and managed to get an enormous piece of gravel halfway into her mouth. That was terrifying. Also kind of funny she was so determined but mostly terrifying. She, of course, managed to spit it back out and get the pellet but I just having a feeling she's going to be trouble when she gets bigger with the gravel and that mouth of hers.

That's why I'm thinking the river rocks might be a safer option once in the 75 gallon even though it won't be as fun or easy to pick through.

However I think I've come up with a plan for planting in the river rocks, let me know what you guys think...

Get those plastic, flat-bottom, cheap and disposable water draining dishes you can get for plant pots. They come in a bunch of different sizes and have low edges and fill those with plant substrate. Put them in the tank first and blend them into the river rocks. It won't give the plants a lot of depth but it will give them width to grow in ideal substrate. Positioned correctly, my vision is some plant-heavy and forested areas of the tank the goldies can poke around in.

I figure it's cheap and worth a try haha.

 

Yeah, goldfish love to put a piece of gravel in their mouth and spit it back out. I don't know if they are trying to get algae off the gravel or they just think it's fun. But because of that compulsion, I like to have the small gravel so that they do not get a large piece of gravel stuck in their mouth.

 

Yeah, goldfish love to put a piece of gravel in their mouth and spit it back out. I don't know if they are trying to get algae off the gravel or they just think it's fun. But because of that compulsion, I like to have the small gravel so that they do not get a large piece of gravel stuck in their mouth.

See that's where I've read the derision over this topic. First of all, that one Motley got I would have never ever for one second imagined she could ever get that in her mouth haha. And I have read some serious horror stories about gravel getting stuck in their mouths esp if it's small and not round. Other stories I've read to make sure gravel is large enough not to be sucked up to begin with. Still others go the sand route but then there's talk of it irritating their gills. And finally there's the ultra-safe bare bottom but that just seems unfair and they do like to poke around.

So I'm splitting the difference and going with river stones. They won't be able to pick them up, but they can poke through them a little.

 

You just haven't found the right type of driftwood yet. I have a smooth piece found at a bird & fish pet store - java wood. When you Google it...there are kinds of prices since there are huge pieces used for bird stands. We soaked it a large new garbage can for several weeks - even though it was whitish in color it got a lot darker...beautiful when wet & did leach a color...medium tea at first then weaker tea color after some weeks.



Yes..it actually a coffee tree!

 

You just haven't found the right type of driftwood yet. I have a smooth piece found at a bird & fish pet store - java wood. When you Google it...there are kinds of prices since there are huge pieces used for bird stands. We soaked it a large new garbage can for several weeks - even though it was whitish in color it got a lot darker...beautiful when wet & did leach a color...medium tea at first then weaker tea color after some weeks.

It sounds really beautiful and I would be willing to do all that but it didn't affect your pH at all? That's the real issue. I love driftwood and trust it much more than I do rocks but I've got low KH and only mid-range GH and have had some trouble with pH stability in my tank. Though now that I've stopped using Amquel Plus I hope it will stabilize a little. But I'm just not sure how stable it's going to be once this is all said and done so I may end up in a situation where it's driftwood and crushed coral all counter-balancing each other and I worry a newb like me could get into trouble with that.

There was some good news today. We don't have to reinforce the floor! That cuts time till set-up in half. All I really need to get it going is to scrape together the cash for the canister filter I want and grab a few buckets then I'm good to go, have everything else. So I'm thinking it'll only be 2-3 weeks instead of 6.

It'll be big and boring and empty but it'll be better for the fish so I'm okay with that for awhile.