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Hello! My name is Amanda! My husband and I recently purchased two different sized tanks, I'm guessing they are 10 and 20 gallon tanks (not certain) and we got some new fish for our baby girl for these tanks. Ok, so, I never had any fish growing up accept for goldfish and unfortunately I could kill these fish within 24 hours no matter what I did when I was younger. However, we have had 2 comet goldfish for over 3 years now and they are doing well, we got 2 more comets and these fish along with 2 small pleco algea eaters are in the smaller tank (4 goldfish and the 2 algea eaters). In the larger tank we have 14 fish total, 1 guppy, 2 sharpeas?, 3 plecos, 4 platties, 2 powder blue gouramies, and 2 mollies. Didn't know about the whole cycle your tank thing until recently, so I have now purchased water conditioner, quick start and accu clear drops. Any advice and help would be nice. I am a little ignorant to all of this. Need help with upkeep and cleaning and what else I can do so I don't accidentally kill our new investments. Thank You in advance!

Hi Amanda and Welcome to Fish Profiles.
It is great that you have read about and now know about the Nitrogen Cycle. You next need to look into how many fish can I keep in my tank?

You are way over stocked. The goldfish are cold water carp and require around 10 gallons of water PER FISH. They should not be kept with "tropical fish."

The number of fish that should be kept in a tank is determined by the surface area of the tank. To find that number measure the length and width of the tank and multiply the numbers. That will give you the surface area expressed in Square Inches. This is one of many sites that will help you with that question:

http://www.firsttankguide.net/capacity.php

You have not mentioned if you have any live plants in the tanks. As far as upkeep and cleaning, you will need to change the water regularly and in the process, also vacuum the gravel from the surface of the gravel down to the glass bottom. If you do a weekly change then clean 1/4 of the open (swimming area) of the tank. Don't vacuum the entire bottom with each water change. The gravel contains the bulk of the good bacteria that manages the Nitrogen Cycle.
Doing a quarter at a time will give the freshly vacuumed area time to recover before it is cleaned again.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Welcome Amanda! How are the tanks going?

- C. Smith



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