signet_planet

Thanks Jay (my name is Jay too...well or Jason but I go by both). I was a bit worried about water movement as I read comets typically like calmer waters and I see they often sleep in the side where there is no filter (little water movement) but then increased water movement also means less cleaning. Right now a lot of their waste floats on top and much of it is often still there when I do my weekly water change. This filter comes with a spray bar which spreads it out so it's not just one blast so I think I'll be okay.

I have a 55 gallon tank with a 10", 8", 6" and 5" comet goldfish. The filter is the marineland penguin bio wheel 350 that came with the tank and until recently was performing very well. I was using some pellet food that were left over from our fish pond that came with the house but when I went to replace them a few weeks ago I learned they stopped making that brand a number of years ago (sorry fish, I didn't realize your food was so old). So about 6-8 weeks ago I moved to a quality food (NorthFin Goldfish 3mm slow sinking pellet). The fish go crazy for it but in that short time they all grew significantly bigger and with that they produce more waste even though I'm actually giving them less volume of pellets in a day (following NorthFin's recommended amount). The problem is the penguin filter "clogs" up now enough to restrict flow that I can't even make it week before at least one of the bio wheels stop turning. I'm thinking this filter is not enough for the load these fish produce. I should note I change 40% of the water weekly. I'm thinking a canister filter would be the best option for me and I was leaning towards the Penn Plex Cascade Canister 1000 filter which is supposed to be good for 100 gallon tanks (so pretty much double the amount of water in my tank). However because comets are such dirty fish and they just keep on growing I wonder if I should not be going for the 1500 which is what they recommend for a 200 gallon tank and with that I have more room for bio media in the filter. I'm also hoping this one canister filter can completely replace the penguin filter. I thought about running two but I don't really like the idea of doubling the amount of filters I need to clean. Is it a bad idea to go too big? I'm also thinking I might try running the canister filter without any active charcoal in it as well - is that a bad idea with goldfish?

Sorry for the long delay in giving an update. I left algae to build up some and the tank quickly stabilized. I stopped managing the ph and although the ph levels from my tap change each week (sometimes dramatically) the fish seem to be doing just fine. I did introduce some plants of which one looks like a ball (about tennis ball size) that is supposed to be good at absorbing nitrites/nitrates of which they tore it apart in just a few hours and pretty much ate it all in a couple days. Then then ate all large 6 hornwort plants in a couple of days and then the leaves off another type of plant I had leaving just the stems. After than my almost aluminium coloured fish turned almost completely black (it looked pretty cool and it didn't show signs of illness so I figured it was just a colour change). About 2 weeks later most of the fish started getting red streaks in their fins, red blotches on their bodies, fin rot and were losing scales. The loss of scales could be because they started to swim erratically at random and were smacking into everything. Water conditions all tested just fine. I removed all decorations that had rougher edges and ordered antibiotics from our pet store but that was going to take a few days to get in and after just two days the fish that were ill deteriorated quickly to the point we figured they wouldn't make it another night. Discovered walmart sold fish antibiotics (I had never been in their pet area and forget they even had a pet area). One week of treatment and the fish were doing really well. One week later the rear tail fins looked so good again you would never have known they were so sick. I didn't realize they could grow fins back so quickly. That was all about 6 weeks ago and they have been great ever since. Think I'll plan better next time before introducing plants. Oh, the fish that turned almost entirely black is now bright orange.which is fine but I already had two other orange ones. At least I still have a white one. I never knew comet fish could change colours like this. Thanks all for your help on this issue.

That's good to know about the gases. I'll definitely try testing it out. I was considering putting an "preconditioning" tank in the basement with a pump to make things easier. There is a spot where I can install the lines right into the main tank upstairs with little or no hassle. We don't have chloramine but chlorine in our water. Would it not harm the fish if I didn't put the chlorine remover in before that water ever hits the aquarium? I've always treated the water before dumping it in. Chlorine also evaporates as well does it not so would an "ageing" tank not have bacteria issues even if I didn't put the chlorine remover in?

Hey good news. I didn't test the water for 2 days and I wanted to read posts before I did anything today. My nitrites are at zero. Yippee the biological filter is working. My ammonia is still at zero and my nitrates have gone up up a little bit (up to 10-15 ppm) but that is survivable. I'm amazing the fish didn't die as for about a week my nitrites kept shooting up to 4-5 ppm shortly after each water change.

I wish I was wrong as that would make sense but it is just the nitrites that are high. Unless of course if my API master test mislabelled the test solutions but even then the colours are different so I doubt that. The reason I started worrying about the ph is because how drastically it changes at our tap. From what I understand, our town switches to different water reserves over the winter on a regular basis (as the river is too frozen to be a source). If the pH was relatively close I would likely ignore it. However I've tested as low as 7.0 and as high as, 8.8 (and 8.8 is the highest my test kit goes so I don't know if it is at 8.8 or higher or if it is even possible to go higher). If I'm changing 50-80% of the water while I'm waiting for my nitrites to level off and the pH is that dramatic of a change then would that not be too big of a shock to the fish? I use a Python hose/siphon that connects to my kitchen sink tap (as we have that tap on the water software bypass for cold water). I use that to vacuum drain the water from the tank (very slick). As the tap water is really cold, instead of just reversing the flow to refill the tank I fill a large tupperware container beside my fish tank. There I neutralize the chlorine and my plan was to bring it close to a ph of 7.5 before adding it to the tank. As the water is really cold, I also only add enough to get the filtration running again and then once the remaining water is more room temperature I add it to top off the tank. It's a lot of work using this process but I figured the less stress I add while waiting for the tank biological filtration to start working properly the better. I just figured by 11 weeks I should have a working biological filter. The filter in this tank is the Marineland Penguin 350B power filter. It processes 350GPH and is rated to work with a 70 Gallon tank. This being a 50 gallon I thought it should be sufficient with 3 fish (two of which are very small).

Don't know anyone with an establish tank in my area to get a sponge from. I'll stop cleaning the algae off every week. I've had this tank for for 11 weeks now and with the ammonia and nitrates leveling off near zero I figured it was finally getting established on the biological filter. It's just odd it's the nitrites that are way off.

Or hornwort looks better in my opinion and will grow under almost any light. My guess is just that the bacteria that eat and change nitrite to nitrate just take longer to multiply. You mentioned pond fish in a 55 so the bio load on that filter is probably excessive and the nitrite bacteria have not caught up to the load yet. See if you can pick up a cheap sponge filter rated for a 55 gallon or higher and use that with your pump that's coming in the mail get another bio source going. Continue to gravel vac but I would leave the algae alone. It may be ugly but it's feeding on the bad stuff to. When things level off just get rid of it than. I had hornwort years ago in a tropical tank but was told that my goldfish tank now is too cold for them to grow properly. I've started to leave some of the brown algae on so I'll see how that goes.

I'm told they are just regular goldfish, not KOI. I'll consider the duckweed. Does it grow well in lower temp water. I do not have a heater (well I do, came with the tank) but the water is staying warm enough for the goldfish.(hovers around 21.5 degress celcius)

First off some good news. In my intro I said I had 2.5 fish as the smallest one had his fins eaten off. As the water has started to become more stable the little guy (or gal I have no clue) is actually growing fins back. The rear fin was gone (very faint white line on edge where fins should have been and based on the articles/pics I saw online I figured it wouldn't recover). I don't know if it is because he is still missing most of his fins (all of them) but he seems to be getting smaller. Although it is entirely possible the other two fish might just be getting larger. The injured fish is still in an isolation tank that is inside the main tank. My three fish are rescues from a fish pond (one was laying partially on the ice for about 2-3 days when I realized he was actually alive) so they were put in a tank that was new with no biological filters in place. Until I got my testing kit in the mail I just assumed ammonia levels were high so I was changing 80% of water a week or 50% every 3-5 days. (55 gallon tank). Once I got the testing kit the levels were all critically high (but at least the ph was good). Our town water changes so 3-4 weeks ago the ph was 7.6 which is okay for goldfish but this week it is now around 8.6 so I've ordered an API pH down bottle. Eventually the ammonia levels went to 0 and the nitrates when down to acceptable levels. However, my nitrite levels are still really critical. But this is also the time my little guy started growing fins back and he is acting healthy again. I was told I should not be cleaning everything on each water change and so now I only do half the gravel each week and I only change half the filters every other week. I also only scrub half the ornaments/fake plants with a brush (started getting brown algae). With the fish acting much healthier and the ammonia at 0 and the nitrates being really low I am now changing 30% of the water a week but I'm worried about the high nitrites. The fish are doing the best they ever had and are pretty active (they were either fairly dormant before or jumpy and smacking into everything the first few weeks). I'm only guessing but I only had the filter that came with the tank. It should be plenty of filter but it is designed to be as quiet as possible so the water tension at the surface I fear is not creating enough current or oxygen in the water. Although the fish themselves use the entire tank pretty evenly (it's not like they hang in at the surface or one corner). I'm really just guessing why the nitrites are high so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get more circulation and aeration so I ordered a couple of small air stones and air pump. That should be here Monday. I've reduced the food to ensure they only eat what they can in 5 minutes twice a day. Does anyone have any ideas for the nitrites?

Hi all, I am a new fish owner. I currently live in the Drumheller area and just wanted to say hi to the group. I say new because other than a betta my son had about 5 years ago I haven't had a tank in 20 years. Back then I was only going off what the previous owner of the fish/tank taught me (and he only had a couple years experience). I am also new because previously I had tropical fish where now I have goldfish. My goldfish are rescues from a pond that I wasn't really prepared for. I was expecting 2 or 3 babies that couldn't be caught the day they were getting sent to their winter home. I was going to put them in a smaller tank I already owned temporarily until we could get a tank big enough for them. Instead I got 11 of which most died within the first few hours. Then a couple months later in November I was surprised again when we rescued a nearly dead (and frozen) 8" goldfish from the same pond. That pond was almost fully drained and completely emptied of plants in Sept so no one can figure out where the heck a goldfish that size (and an almost iridescent bright white in colour with a couple of bright orange spots) was hiding in that small of a pond. We found it floating on its side partially on top of the ice where it had sat for at least 3 days as everyone thought a fish found sitting mostly on ice was dead. The small fish were doing well by this point in a smaller tank but it really needed filtration as water changes were needed really frequently. Once we got the larger fish and he lived a couple days (seemed like a full recovery just over the first night) and the entire family fell in love with the crazy survivor we decided to order a larger tank and keep it as an indoor fish. That tank took a few weeks to arrive. I've now had the 55 gallon tank for about 6 weeks and it is finally starting to get established to where the water conditions are pretty healthy. As the temporary rubbermaids were not at all "established" or even filtered (and big risk for them jumping out) I put all my remaining fish in the new tank immediately as it was a better/safer environment. That was the first time I was establishing a new tank with live fish and I don't want to do that ever again The big fish has already grown to around 8.5" and the 1" fish is probably closer to 2.5" inches now. I have a third fish who is in an in-tank isolation box as he was attacked and has almost no fins left. It would have been around 1.75" long. Other than missing fins it is behaving normally and actually swims really well so I hang on to hope that this little guy makes it. It's been almost a week with no signs of it getting worse although I'm not seeing any regrowth of the fins yet either - the tail fin might be too far gone for any recovery from what I read online. The back edge where the fins should be starting is just a white band.