goldfish.... trying to get it right

[desertgirl]

So DS got two goldfish (a plain one and a fancy one) for his birthday. I was warned about this, and got them a tank, but on virtually no notice so no time for fishless cycling. I have been reading on here and realise the tank is too small - 60L - in my defence, I read this - before buying, and believed it.

Anyway, apart from the fact that I now seem to need to have my a/c permanently on at heaven knows what cost just to keep the water below 23.5 (why don't tanks come with coolers as well as heaters, I wonder) - we are not in the UK - I am very confused as to why I am not picking up any ammonia in the water when testing; surely there should be by now?

fish arrived on Wednesday; changed out 10 litres on Thursday and Friday night, have now got testing kit to play with and am confused. And we are going away for pretty much all of August so need to have some kind of process sorted so I can leave suitable instructions (that don't involve too much testing, preferably none)

The superduper multi-test strips which helpfully don't include ammonia tell me that my pH is low and so is my carbonate hardness; the website for the test strip people then says I need to add this - is this right?

am getting surprisingly keen on this fish business but do want to do it properly :)

Wow, it must be hot where you are! 23.5 is still on the warm side for goldfish. Is the filter disturbing the surface of the water? You might want to add an airstone too, warmer water holds less oxygen so you might need to try and increase it.

Yes, you should be getting an ammonia reading by now although if you've done some large water changes and the fish are very small then the ammonia level might still be low.

Who is going to look after the fish while you're away? You might want to leave them instructions on how to test the water and do water changes because there's no way to cycle the tank before August starts- it'll take weeks of close monitoring before the fish are safe.

You may not need to add any of that buffering stuff to the tank, it depends on how low the pH and carbonate hardness are exactly. What were the readings?

Hello Eau Rouge, thanks very much for the help.

It is very very hot at the moment, in the daytime it's in the mid 40s outside. I know the 'below 23.5' thing is not ideal but really can't get the room any colder :( The filter was disturbing the surface when it was pointed up, but is currently pointed down - would up be better? can look for another air stone.

My housekeeper will be looking after the fish (I know that sounds very poncy. I'm a single mum living in a place where help is easy to get). She is generally animal friendly, and willing, I am just slightly dreading explaining the ammonia tests (only ones I could find involve different numbers of drops from 3 different bottles), have more chance with the strips which test everything else.

Strips were telling me pH was about 6.5 (ish) and the carbonate hardness was about 3 d (whatever the d are)

Fish are pretty small - maybe 2 inches nose to tip of tail; one is a fancy one with a wiggly swim, and the other looks fairly ordinary.

Anyway thanks again for helping.