Fish swimming at top of tank after cleaning out media sponges

**Lady Hobbs** · 11-06-2011, 06:26 PM

Oh lordie. Fizgig is right on. I was paying no attention to the tank size. That tank is only

Capacity: 72 L (19 US gallon)

Not large enough of any goldfish. Please read the size chart in my signature for goldfish. If your comet is not a foot long by now, he has been badly stunted.

SMALL TANK = SMALL FISH, always

**Honey Badger 1** · 11-06-2011, 06:41 PM

I seriously doubt any goldfish would live to outgrow any sized tank if the filter media was rinsed in the tank on a regular basis. Not 5 years and certainly not to a foot long.

**gypsydancer** · 11-06-2011, 08:09 PM

When you speak of not rinsing your media in the tap water, does this mean well water also? The city does not provide our water.

**Strider199** · 11-06-2011, 11:53 PM

gypsydancer, from what I have read, well water doesn't have all the bad chemicals in it that city water has. Well water can be used to rinse out your filter as there is no chlorine in it.

**Fizgig** · 11-07-2011, 01:15 AM

While well water doesn't have the chlorine, the SHOCK of the temp. difference between the tank water and the well water will most likely kill off a significant portion of bio-bugs anyway. It's best to rinse in tank water (not while in the tank, tho and b4 vacuuming) to maintain the viability of as many biobugs as possible. The process of rinsing out the media destroys at least 50% of the biobugs as is... Anything you can do to preserve them while still cleaning up the media is best.... Well water also has its own set of issues -- PH variations, GH, KH, etc. -- which can cause shock-related problems.

That's why it's a GOOD idea to have more than one filter for a Goldie tank... One that takes care primarily of chemical filtration and one that does only bio-filtration. That way, you can alternate cleaning out filters so that bio-filtration is never really interrupted on such a mass scale. Can also provide much more surface area and a variety of surfaces for the biobugs that way, too. Maintains chemical filtration far better that way as well. Chemical filtration for Goldie tanks if even more crucial than biofiltration -- not by a huge margin -- and that media must be changed out much more often than biofiltration media. Rinsing chemical media does nothing to rejuvenate it or make it effective again. Once it's outlived its usefulness it must be replaced or you risk serious water quality issues.

But, that's all derailing the train and, likely, beating a dead horse, too.