Creating a fish paradise

[scattercushion]

My daughter has two comets and we both loathe cleaning the tank. It soon gets green algae in it and the feeble filter (the type that's a dribble of water on the surface) gets bungled up quickly. We buy living plants but the fish trash them immediately either eating them or swirling through them so they come loose. What I dream of is creating their own microclimate of flourishing plants, snails, a really good filter etc so it cleans itself. Is this dream possible?

How are you cleaning the filter sponges out atm. What filter is it. How many gallons is the tank. How often are you feeding the fish. How long are the lights on during the day (tank ones) how much water are you changing and how often? Sorry I know its alot of questions but I will be able to help if you answer them

Thanks for your reply. It's a 380 tank which I think is 34l.
The filter is www.aa-aquarium.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=144

Cleaning filter sponges under the tap.
Feeding the fish twice a day, two pinches of Aquarium fish flakes.
The lights are turned on around 7am and off at around 9pm.
We change all the water and only get round the tank once a month (shameful).
We add some drops of Stress coat in the new water.
One of the fish has a black Mark on its lip for a few weeks and we've been adding fungus, find it and bacteria drops.
Thanks so much for any help!

Argh autocorrect! The medicine is called fungus, finrot and bacteria treatment and we clean the tank replacing all the water once a month.

OK you should only change 30% once a week and clean the sponges from the filter in the old water you take out because they build up bacteria which you need in the tank for the fish to be healthy. Just feed them once a day will be fine. Cut down the amount of hours the light is on for as this will be causing the algae build up.

The water will go through changes which needs to happen to become mature and changing all the water once a month and using tap water to clean the sponges will stop it happening. Small amount once a week is much better.
Can you post a pic of the black mark please as you may not need to treat it just might be a pigment change which happens as fish age. Fungus is normally like cotton wool white and fluffy looking

Thanks so much for your reply, really helpful! What about plants? Any you recommend that the fish won't trash? Here's a pic of the comet with the black spot. S/he had one a couple of years ago and we added the fungal medicine to the water and it disappeared. We also got rid of the water snails that we'd added recently prior to that but maybe they weren't to blame?

Goldfish will eat most plants but they don't normally like the taste of anubias plants or onion plants. With the black spot it's hard to tell tbh from the pic but if the treatment worked before then keep up with the plan. Snails wouldn't have caused it though.

34 litres?

I suggest you google goldfish more thoroughly before 'loathing' cleaning the tank and complaining they are eating the live plants.

A brief google will tell you that 34 litres isn't even close to what comet goldfish need, let alone two.

And that as herbivorous carp they eat plants, pretty much 24/7....