Goldfish Tank Setup Mistakes to Avoid

Common mistakes are often made when setting up a goldfish tank. This video will cover the most common pitfalls to avoid and solutions to ensure your goldfish thrive in a healthy and happy environment.

You would have seen goldfish kept in small bowls and being sold during festivities. But these small bowls are not the ideal home for goldfish. There is no proper filtration or aeration in these small bowls. Water volume is not enough to dilute the waste material and can lead to accumulation of ammonia from the waste products. The space is also insufficient for the growth of goldfish.

Under good conditions, common goldfish can grow well over one foot in length! Size of the aquarium will depend on how many fish you intend to keep in it. A general guideline would be 75 litres for the first fish and additional 35 litres for each extra fish. If the volume of water is lower and filtration/aeration systems are not good, it will result in stunted growth of the goldfish. It can also affect lifespan of goldfish. Well kept goldfish can survive even for decades.

Aeration is typically done using a simple motor which pumps air into the water through a small polythene tube. A porous stone is attached to the end of the tube and immersed in aquarium water so that air bubbles through water, increasing the dissolved oxygen content. Simple filtration systems use a pump along with an enclosure containing a sponge. Aquarium water is sucked into the enclosure and sent out after filtering, through a pipe at the top. The water coming out at the top of the aquarium with force also creates bubbles as it has a side tube which also draws air from outside the aquarium. The sponge holds the aquarium waste and bacteria grow there, breaking down the waste partly. After some time, when the filter is clogged, force of water coming out from the pipe at the top decreases and you have to take the system outside and clean the the sponge. Otherwise the motor will start heating up due to excess work and even fail. Such motors will be very hot to touch before it finally fails. Cleaning has to done as soon as decrease in force of the water outflow from the filter is noted. This a very simple filter system and there are much more sophisticated and expensive filter systems as well.

Water changes once a week will be useful in keeping aquarium nitrate levels below toxic levels. Nitrate is invisible and is the product of aquarium waste degradation by bacteria. Large changes of water are not ideal as the physical condition of water changes rapidly. About 20% of the water can be siphoned out and replaced with stored water. Directly adding tap water may add excess of chlorine from fresh tap water and may be harmful. Siphon system can also be used to suck out the debris from the sand manually. You can see the water level in the aquarium falling as more and more water is being sucked out along with the debris and waste at the bottom of the aquarium.

Aquarium brushes can be used to clean sides of the glass aquarium which may have algal growth and dirt. If aquarium water has become quite bad, sequential cleaning and water change over a few days will be better to avoid sudden fluctuation in water quality, which could also be bad sometimes. You can see algal growth on the aquarium wall being scraped off with aquarium brush. Algal blooms can occur if there is too much of nitrate and food material for the algae in the aquarium water. If you leave it like that, the whole aquarium glass may look as if painted green.

Aquarium sand has to be cleaned several times before setting up the aquarium as it often contains significant amount of dust which can make the water turbid initially. White sand is often preferred as it is more beautiful. Plants can be placed within the sand or in small baskets with sponges and pieces of gravel to keep them at the bottom. Often these are available prefixed from aquarium vendors. Ideally plants should be ‘goldfish safe’ as goldfish have the habit of eating up most of the aquarium plants.

You can see that there are no plants currently in my aquarium, as shown in the beginning as I got fed up of buying and replacing plants as the goldfish eat them! Other types of aquascaping like adding driftwood, shells and devices to beautify the aquarium are often done to increase the ornamental value, which I have not ventured into yet. Advanced users provide carbon dioxide for the plants at day time using cylinders and timed delivery. Beautiful light systems are also fixed in aquariums. Many readymade aquariums have both filtration/aeration systems and lighting built-in.