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Thread: [IMPT] Water Parameters for Goldfish Tank

  1. #1
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    [IMPT] Water Parameters for Goldfish Tank

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    Hi everyone,

    Would like to share my experience on goldfish tank on the importance of water parameter, to avoid sick fishes and any fish death.

    My 2ft fish tank is currently overstocked with 4pcs of 2" goldfish.

    This put the water parameters out of whack easily with overfeeding (not me btw haha) and lack of additional water change (usual w.c. is once per week @ 70-80%).

    I did not owned any water test kits previously as my tank was okay-stocked (2pcs of 2" goldfish) before and everything was all fine.

    Some of the telltale signs that your water is out of whack is as follows:

    - goldfish start to flick against objects, sand (gill fluke)
    - swim bladder disease (buoyancy problems)
    - excessive smile coat (pH crash)
    - cloudy eyes (poor water quality)
    - strong yellow tint of aquarium water (high nitrate)
    - red streaks at fins (poor water quality)

    What puzzles me initially was the excessive slime coat, as they look all fine once the water was changed.

    I narrowed down to the pH crash as my tap water dKH is very low (2.0dKH).

    As more waste get produced in the tank, the nitrate increases and the dKH will gradually drop to 0.

    This causes the pH to crash rapidly as no water change goes by each day until water is changed.

    pH is logarithmic scale, so if pH drops by 1.0, the water becomes 10x more acidic, not good for goldfish.

    Imagine if the pH crash from 7.0 to 6.0... 10x more acidic, that explains the excessive slime coat and other problems faced.

    Hence, the best way to tackle the issue is to raise the dKH by adding baking soda during water change to increase the dKH to at least 5 dKH (good pH buffer for goldfish).

    It is important to keep up with water changes for goldfish and especially for overstocked tanks.


    Below are some water parameters I took if any of you are interested to know more:

    Tap water:
    pH: 7.2
    dKH: 2.0
    dGH: 3.0
    NO3: 5

    After 1 week, before water change:
    pH: >=7.6 (only using pH test kit, no high range pH test kit)
    dKH: 4.0 (added baking soda at water change interval)
    dGH: 5.0 (added equilibrium, but not required)
    NO3: 40ppm

    After 70-80% water change:
    NO3: 10ppm


    All of my the goldfish are doing well right now

    Hope this post helps anyone out there facing similar issues.

    Cheers!
    Last edited by vipered; 25th Jan 2021 at 18:52.

  2. #2
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    Re: [IMPT] Water Parameters for Goldfish Tank

    Good to know your fishes are doing well now. pH crash can be fatal to livestocks and it good to buffer your water. Thanks for sharing your experience.

    Cheers,
    I have dwarf cichlids in my tanks! Do you?

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