sweetnitanitro can you help please

[slushy06]

Hi I have had a problem with my fish a while back so wondered if you would please advise.

Firstly I have found a second hand 240litre tank is there any way I can disinfect the tank to ensure there are no germs. If not can you advise where I can buy a big tank cheaply.

Secondly I want to switch the fish asap so can I skip the cycle method by transferring all the water from my other tank and then just filling it up with un-chlorinated water matched in temperature. My other tank is a 50 litre. Because it really is getting quite urgent to get them in a bigger tank.

Don't worry, it's fairly simple

I would use either salt water or white vinegar and hot water to clean the new tank. That should kill off anything potentially nasty. Don't forget to fill it up with water outside to check for leaks!

You can transfer everything over in one go, if you take out all the water and the fish from the old tank and put them in a storage box or similar container with the filter running in there, then transfer over the gravel and anything else you want from the old tank.

Fill up the new tank with dechlorinated water, make sure the pH and temperature are the same as the old water and then move over everything else.

I would not feed for a couple of days because you might get a small ammonia spike. Keep a close eye on the water readings but it should go fairly smoothly and your fish will love it

Oh yeah and I forgot to say, when you have cleaned up the new tank make sure you rinse it really well because vinegar will mess with the pH.

sweetnitanitro, may i ask, are you just a very well-read fish keeper, or are you a professional of some sort????

I'm just a massive geek I would love to go pro one day and have my own aquarium designing business but there are many people geekier than me.

Thanks a lot I was hoping there would be enough bacteria in the tank to just change them over and I was a little worried about the tank being diseased as the owner was selling.

Before I buy the tank I want to get a sucker fish do they add to toxins or remove them.

Anything alive adds more ammonia, the only alive thing that removes the bad stuff is you when you do water changes

The sucker fish you mean is probably what is known as a hong kong plec or hillstream loach (Beaufortia sp). They are cold water fish but they come from very fast flowing rivers so they need a very high level of saturated oxygen in their water. You'd need to add extra powerheads for this and then your goldfish wouldn't cope so they're not really compatible.

If you want something that's going to eat some algae then nerite snails are probably your best bet. They won't breed in freshwater, they are small and pretty and they don't eat real plants. They do still add to the bioload though so don't add too many. 4 or 5 will be plenty. Hope that helps!

I was thinking of a cat fish but the snails sound really great I might look into them thanks.

There are about 5 billion* species of catfish, the only ones that are really compatible with goldfish are weather/dojo loaches and you'd need sand instead of gravel because they like to bury themselves and you'd need to get an even bigger tank because they get to 10 inches long and they need to be in a shoal. The snails really are wicked though, you can get some really mad looking ones with spikes, stripy ones, spotty ones etc.

*this may be an exaggeration.