Novice question for gravel cleaning

Boooourns

Have a 17 ltr tank and I've just done a gravel clean with jbl aqua ex. When it's pumping out the water it's going near half the tank out, I think I'm only supposed to take out near 1/3 of the water for the water change so this is too much? What can I do here, can I pour partial of the water back in and continue with the gravel clean? Cheers.

TheVoodoo

It's fine to go over 1/2 but not much more. Most important things are not washing sponge under the tap, and using dechlorinator. Try to aim for 1/3 for all subsequent changes.

Sleepy

With a 17l, the main thing is to watch your stocking. There's very little that's suitable for such a small tank!

fred funk }{

Small tanks are a lot more difficult to maintain than larger tanks as the parameters fluctuate a lot easier than lager tanks.

Boooourns

Sleepy wrote: »

With a 17l, the main thing is to watch your stocking. There's very little that's suitable for such a small tank!

I've just discovered this recently. My 4 year old was given a fish bowl with 2 goldfish as a present, they looked miserable in it so I thought I was doing the right thing to upgrade them to a bigger bowl, the 17l was a bargain so I went with it. Told Petmania the story that I had 2 and they said the 17l would do.
I've been cleaning and maintaining it but on further investigation it appears it's too small. It's a bloody joke shops can do this, 2 tanks later and it's still too small.

Sleepy

Yep, the sale of tanks below 60l should be tightly restricted and there's a solid argument for simply banning the sale of goldfish imo.

Re-home the goldfish to someone with a pond and bring back the tank demanding a full refund based on the bull**** they fed you (maybe no harm to print out something detailing proper care for goldfish as most pet-shops know jack-**** about caring for fish and put the money into a second hand tank from adverts and some live bearers or similarly easy-to-keep starter fish.

Boooourns

Sleepy wrote: »

Yep, the sale of tanks below 60l should be tightly restricted and there's a solid argument for simply banning the sale of goldfish imo.

Re-home the goldfish to someone with a pond and bring back the tank demanding a full refund based on the bull**** they fed you (maybe no harm to print out something detailing proper care for goldfish as most pet-shops know jack-**** about caring for fish and put the money into a second hand tank from adverts and some live bearers or similarly easy-to-keep starter fish.

Don't know anyone with a pond, I'll have to come up with something though. What would you recommend for the 17l ? don't really have the room for something bigger at the moment.

Berserker

Boooourns wrote: »

Don't know anyone with a pond, I'll have to come up with something though. What would you recommend for the 17l ? don't really have the room for something bigger at the moment.

17L is very small. I have a small tank, 35L and I keep amano shrimp in it. Have them in there for the last two years. Think a 17L tank would even be to small for them. I would do what Sleepy says and bring that tank back to the point of purchase.

goz83

Boooourns wrote: »

Don't know anyone with a pond, I'll have to come up with something though. What would you recommend for the 17l ? don't really have the room for something bigger at the moment.

I'm in north Dublin and I have a small pond if you want to give the gold fish a proper home, they're welcome. I already rescued a couple of larger ones from a boardsie here and they're doing great. PM me if you want to rehome them.

A good friend of mine moved his 2 gold fish into a 60L tank he was given. He keeps tropical fish in it too :eek: I did warn him that he is just asking to kill the whole tank off, but some people find it hard to take good advice.

The 17L tank is really far too tiny for pretty much any fish, other than minnows. If you want to get a bit more into fish keeping, you could use the small tank as an isolation/hospital tank. They can come in quite handy if you have a sick/injured fish who needs to be isolated for a while. You need to keep the tank cycling and could be used to grow aquarium plants too.

I keep a 380L AquaOne tropical tank and only stated to restock it after a good 19 months of not being able to take care of it. Even with little, to no care, the couple of fish I did have in there did great. They now have some new friends.

Jen Pigs Fly

goz83 wrote: »

I'm in north Dublin and I have a small pond if you want to give the gold fish a proper home, they're welcome. I already rescued a couple of larger ones from a boardsie here and they're doing great. PM me if you want to rehome them.

A good friend of mine moved his 2 gold fish into a 60L tank he was given. He keeps tropical fish in it too :eek: I did warn him that he is just asking to kill the whole tank off, but some people find it hard to take good advice.

The 17L tank is really far too tiny for pretty much any fish, other than minnows. If you want to get a bit more into fish keeping, you could use the small tank as an isolation/hospital tank. They can come in quite handy if you have a sick/injured fish who needs to be isolated for a while. You need to keep the tank cycling and could be used to grow aquarium plants too.

I keep a 380L AquaOne tropical tank and only stated to restock it after a good 19 months of not being able to take care of it. Even with little, to no care, the couple of fish I did have in there did great. They now have some new friends.

Hey derailing this thread a bit ... I know of someone with a 6/7 inch goldfish in a much too small tank for her. Would you be interested once it gets a bit warmer? Fish is 3 years old

Boooourns

goz83 wrote: »

I'm in north Dublin and I have a small pond if you want to give the gold fish a proper home, they're welcome. I already rescued a couple of larger ones from a boardsie here and they're doing great. PM me if you want to rehome them.

A good friend of mine moved his 2 gold fish into a 60L tank he was given. He keeps tropical fish in it too :eek: I did warn him that he is just asking to kill the whole tank off, but some people find it hard to take good advice.

The 17L tank is really far too tiny for pretty much any fish, other than minnows. If you want to get a bit more into fish keeping, you could use the small tank as an isolation/hospital tank. They can come in quite handy if you have a sick/injured fish who needs to be isolated for a while. You need to keep the tank cycling and could be used to grow aquarium plants too.

I keep a 380L AquaOne tropical tank and only stated to restock it after a good 19 months of not being able to take care of it. Even with little, to no care, the couple of fish I did have in there did great. They now have some new friends.

I'm living in the south unfortunately but thanks anyway.
What kind of minnows would you be talking about as I don't have much room for a bigger tanks at the moment and my little boy loves the tank.

Knine

White Cloud Mountain Minnow but you woud not fit many in a 17 litre.