Planning new cold water tank

[gsparsan]

Unlike my existing tank, I want to plan well ahead for a new tank I'm gonna put in my office.

The office is just a house that has been empty for quite some time. I am in the process of setting up an office there, cleaning, painting etc and its only after that that I will set up a tank downstairs, maybe in 4-6 weeks. There is a concrete bench all around the downstairs hall and it is on that bench that I will set up the tank.

With unlimited resources, I'll have the tank follow the bench all around the room :drool: but... resources are limited n wants... The tank is not going on office budget but my personal budget.

The bench is only 440mm wide so the tank has got to be 400mm wide. I'm thinking about 400 tall as well and possibly around 1500mm long. Maybe 1800mm. I already have a long-fin commet about 8" long in a tropical tank for the moment (see pic) and the whole point of this new tank is for him really. I intend to add aquaclay as substrate from my existing tank (I got 4" in some places for the moment!) and 2 external filters plus one powerhead for circulation mostly. The aquarium is downstairs and not really a show piece. So the main purpose of the tank is well-being of the fish. I'm also planning to buy the external filters now and run them on my existing tank 330L for a month or so.

My questions are :

1. How many more gold fish can I add to the tank? I want to have at least another one of similar size and the rest much smaller.

2. I'm planning to go for simple gold fish and long finned commet instead of fancy veil tail varieties. Possibly black moor too. Whats the smallest fish I can add?

3. I have an unlimited supply of elodea from a river nearby. I want to put some in the tank as fish food more than for display. But I dont want them to rot away in the tank. Whats the minimum light do I need. The tank will get good tropical sun light for 4 hours atleast, although no direct sunlight. (the pic below was taken at 11 without flash). Any fertilisation? There won't be CO2 injection.

4. For that amount of water and fish, how much filtration do I need?

5. What other fish variety do you suggest? Anything that will help maintenance? Any alg eater that will do well in those conditions?

6. Do I really need a hood? (limited cash!)

7. Any other suggestion most welcome.

Lots of questions but I want to start off well on this one.

 

[Animallove]

1. I would put in only put in 1 other goldfish (plus your current kind) , and leave room for the smaller fish you would like too.
2.I would stick to simple tailed and long finned comet since the fancy variety would have trouble getting food (with the competition of your comet) and also prefer slightly warmer waters.
3. Your tank is around 75 gallons ( i think, I sort of estimated) so you would need around 70 to 100 watts minimum.
5. Algea eaters produce more waste then they clean, and the only kind of algea eater I know for a cold water tank (besides snails) are chinese algea eaters, which get aggressive. As for other fish you could put in some rosy reds (make sure to quarinteen (sp?) them first as in most cases they are sold as feeder fish and aren't in the best conditions) and white mountain cloud minnows.

If you would like plants you would need a probally hood, but for now you don't need one.

 

[THE V]

If your tank is 1500mm it will be a 60 U.S gallon. (220L)
If your tank is 1800mm is will be a 70 U.S. gallon (250L)

This is enough space for 4-5 goldfish to live happily. All of the non-veiled tail varieties get to be about 25mm (without the tail) so pick whatever you like and they'll be fine. The filtration is dependent on how many plants you have in the tank but a good general rule is to have all of the water in the tank flow through the filter 5 times per hour. Most of the filters are rated for tanks at 3 times per hour but this will give you a little insurance.

Given where the tank is going to be if you don't have a light algae shouldn't be a problem. If you are going to use elodea from the river be sure to quarantine it and treat it with a good disinfectant before putting it in your tank. If you do decide to put a light in I'd used snails, cheap, easy, and fun to watch. If you don't use a light only put in enough elodea that the fish will eat in a few days. Then pull the stripped stems out and add more . It's not as pretty as a fully planted tank but the fish will love the munchies.

As for tankmates, rosy reds and white clouds are both minnow species that do well with goldfish. They can also be put in the tank in small schools as bioload is very minimal when compared to goldfish.

 

[gsparsan]

How do you disinfect the plants? I wanted to plant enough elodea so that the gold fish can only "control" their growth rather than finish them. Like the two extreme ends of the tank fully packed with planted elodea for a width of say 200mm, plus some that will inevitably find themselves floating at the surface. Maybe I can put some ligth just local to the planted area? Then I will need less powerful / cheaper light.

Also, do comets / goldfish get territorial? Would it be wise to put the small ones in first before introducing the big ones?