Moving goldfish from 1g to 15g tank

The tank looks awesome! I think that since Hank's in the 1 gallon, which may or may not be cycled, it will not hurt him to put him into the big tank immediately. He'll be your cycle fish, but as long as you do water changes every day or every other for a while till the cycle is done he'll be just fine. And as Blinky said, don't overthink things -- for now (and the next year at least) you and Hank are good to go!!

Are those live plants? They're real pretty.

I've never tested alkalinity... look closely at the test bottle, that may be a saltwater test... in which case don't worry about it. The only tests I use on a regular basis are ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

As you can see from your test results before, you had NitrItes and NitrAtes (nitrIte is converted to nitrAte thru the beneficial bacteria)... and then after your water change the nitrItes were almost gone and nitrAtes down too... that's a good thing (nitrAtes reading up to 40 is safe though)!

Ph is good and stable (and will most likely stay that way unless you add driftwood or some large decorative (real) rocks to your tank.

I assume the water treatment chemical was a dechlorinator? That's good... when you do your water changes, you can keep hank in the tank (it's actually better if you do, he'd get stressed being netted out), add the new water in once you've cleaned out the old, and just pour the water treatment right in the tank.

I like your idea of giving Hank to a local school, if he gets to be too much ... but what's that I'm sensing in your posts from last night... some *ahem* excitement? :D

~Tara
 
Those plants are just plastic, but I'm glad they look good! They cost too much, at least more than I think plastic plants should cost :)

From what I know, alkalinity is water's buffering capacity - it's ability to resist changes in pH. On the bottle it showed that value to be in "caution," I think. That's kind of odd, because I would think that resistance to change in pH is a good thing! But I won't worry about it.

A little excitement, yes! Since the 1 gallon isn't cycled much at all I guess I will just put him in. I'm at work now, but he'll be in the new tank by dinner time!

For water changes... how much? 25%?
 
For the beginning you need to do water changes whenever the ammonia gets above 1 ppm and the nitrite above 0.25ppm. 25% per day at the first is probably enough for one goldfish in a 10 gallon tank. After the cycle has completed 25% per week is probably going to do well. The tank looks good. Fake plants are probably the way to go as goldies will munch on most live plants pretty quick. Of course you can always try feeding him some veggies. Often goldies like them, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, nori, peas. It may take him a bit to figure out they are food but once he does he will be in heaven.
 
I think alkalinity corresponds to KH that some of the chemistry guys talk about here, and it's a measure of bicarbonate in the water. 300ppm is ridiculously high though. I'm still learning about aquariums, but I have to monitor alkalinity in my pool (especially after the previous owners of this house left it as a 28,000 gallon algae tank). Alkalinity is a buffer against pH fluctuations, and also helps prevent chlorine loss in water. Obviously, that last one isn't a good thing in an aquarium.

Another thing about it.... Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) is mainly used to raise alkalinity, although Sodium Carbonate (soda ash) also contributes to it. Both are used as pH increasers... but I don't think you've added any of that. The only thing that strikes me as being a possible culprit are possibly the fake plants, if there was anything on the silk leaves. It's easy to raise alkalinity, but the only way to lower alkalinity is remove old water and add new water.

Do your water change tonight and maybe one tomorrow. The alkalinity should return to a normal level... and that 80-120 range you said it initially was will probably be your target.
 
Hank's new place is gorgeous, go ahead and move him (make sure there's no great difference in temperature between the two tanks though, or this will shock him - if there is, just take some of his water out of his minitank, replace it with water from the new tank, wait a while, then when the temperatures are close, move him). Don't stress too much about chemistry, goldfish like a higher pH and hardness level than many tropicals, and usually do fine in water as it comes from the tap (minus the chlorine, of course).
Once he's in his new house could you post a picture? I'd love to see the end result of all your work :D
 
Drum roll please...

Tada!!

hankintank.jpg


Hank and I would like to thank everyone at aquariacentral.com for helping us out so greatly!

hank.jpg


Don't worry... you haven't seen the last of either of us. I'm sure I'll have more questions in a very short while! Tonight Hank will be adjusting to his new home and I'll take some readings later. Then he'll get a small water change tomorrow night and we'll stick with 25% a day for a while.
 
The only thing I might add to the tank is a background. They do sell them at fish stores but for my tank I just bought a cheap vinyl table cloth and cut it to fit then taped it in place. It helps to block the sight of the filter and stuff. But that is more of a personal taste thing, the tank looks great and so does Hank.
 
Hank and his tank are looking awesome!:D

*sniff* he reminds me of my goldfish I had when I was 5, smokey. That poor fish suffered through so much uninformed fishkeeping for 2 years I think. 100% water changes, cleaning his tank with soap, overfeeding, living in a 1.5g sphere, but somehow he lived through it as long as he did. Not extraordinarily long for a goldfish...but given the conditions, it was pretty good. it was a sad sunday morning when smokey died.

OK enough of this depressing story.


Hank is lucky to have you as an owner. most people probably wouldn't go to the lengths you have to make him happy.
 
:D
Hank looks awesomely happy (and actually kind of cute!... most of the fancy goldfish creep me out... bubble eyes, big foreheads etc...).

You've done good!!

~Tara
 
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