Bristley
04-13-2010, 05:43 PM
Ok, not sure if this is the right category to place this particular question.
I have been trying to research via the wonderful interwebtubethingy and haven't found any good information as of late so I'm hoping to get some advice on this.
My daughter has a fantail goldfish that is happy and healthy but (because it's a goldfish) is very messy. It's in a 20g by itself with some decor and fake plants.
water parameters are as follows.
pH = 7.6
am = 0
trites = 0
trates = 5
Her tank does not receive direct sunlight and the light is only on for about 4 hours total per day, when she gets home from school until bedtime. (using 2 10w bulbs that came with the kit for the tank, sorry haven't looked up any more on the ratings of the lights, etc). Tank gets a 30-40% water change every week, and I'm pretty certain she's not overfeeding since I've been watching how and when she actually feed her fish. Also, filtration is what originally came with the kit. (Pretty sure I need to upgrade this and will be doing so shortly)
Anyway, in even with a good schedule her tank seems to like to build up quite a bit of algae on the glass between cleanings. I have thought of changing her water change schedule to about 25% 2 times a week, but I wanted some advice on another idea first.
Is there anything that makes a good clean-up-crew that is compatible with goldfish. I have thought about getting a BN or RL pleco for her tank as a possibility, but I don't want to add too much more bioload, plus my daughter refuses to get a pleco because she thinks they're too ugly to go with her beautiful Chloe (that's it's name).
I was hoping for some ideas on snails or inverts that may be able to do the job, but like I said earlier I haven't found any good info on them as far as compatability with goldfish, so I'm worried I'd just be buying Chloe some special snacks if I got something like that.
Well, long story short, (too late), I'm willing to hear any and all suggestions, even about ones that I've already mentioned if someone has experience with something similar to this and has had success with a particular method.
Thanks in advance.
I have been trying to research via the wonderful interwebtubethingy and haven't found any good information as of late so I'm hoping to get some advice on this.
My daughter has a fantail goldfish that is happy and healthy but (because it's a goldfish) is very messy. It's in a 20g by itself with some decor and fake plants.
water parameters are as follows.
pH = 7.6
am = 0
trites = 0
trates = 5
Her tank does not receive direct sunlight and the light is only on for about 4 hours total per day, when she gets home from school until bedtime. (using 2 10w bulbs that came with the kit for the tank, sorry haven't looked up any more on the ratings of the lights, etc). Tank gets a 30-40% water change every week, and I'm pretty certain she's not overfeeding since I've been watching how and when she actually feed her fish. Also, filtration is what originally came with the kit. (Pretty sure I need to upgrade this and will be doing so shortly)
Anyway, in even with a good schedule her tank seems to like to build up quite a bit of algae on the glass between cleanings. I have thought of changing her water change schedule to about 25% 2 times a week, but I wanted some advice on another idea first.
Is there anything that makes a good clean-up-crew that is compatible with goldfish. I have thought about getting a BN or RL pleco for her tank as a possibility, but I don't want to add too much more bioload, plus my daughter refuses to get a pleco because she thinks they're too ugly to go with her beautiful Chloe (that's it's name).
I was hoping for some ideas on snails or inverts that may be able to do the job, but like I said earlier I haven't found any good info on them as far as compatability with goldfish, so I'm worried I'd just be buying Chloe some special snacks if I got something like that.
Well, long story short, (too late), I'm willing to hear any and all suggestions, even about ones that I've already mentioned if someone has experience with something similar to this and has had success with a particular method.
Thanks in advance.