newbie owner. help!

[darkhorse532]

Hi! My husband gave me 3 adorable goldies in a 10 gallon tank for Valentine's day. They're all only about an inch long. I'm planning to get a 40 gallon tank in a year, but for right now, that's not a possibility.

So I'm trying to find out how to get my bacteria count up and my ammonia level down. Ammonia level is ridiculously high. The nitrate and nitrite levels are nonexistent which means no bacteria. I've been adding ammo-lock and Biozyte regularly. Doesn't seem to be doing much good. I would greatly appreciate any info on how to manage this tank. The fish act in good health now, but I'm afraid the uncontrollable ammonia level is slowly killing them.

[goldfishees]

Do you have a filter in there with carbon? If you don't you must get one soon! What kind of gold fishes are they?

[mermaid]

You need a good filter as Goldfish are quite messy, you also need to have your tank well oxygenated. the best thing to do is get this set up first and then do a 10% water change everyday till the ammonia settles down. Without oxygen your Ammonia level will rise quite high, water changes often do the trick for me if I have had water problems in the past, and its alot cheaper.

[Hoover the Goldfish]

Hie Darkhorse,

I don't know why everybody is going bannanas about amonia and nitrates. Bubbles for oxygen are great and so are charcoal filters and other filters. I personally think that the chemicals added may cause the little healthy fish more harm than good. I have a normal filter at home and over the aquarium I have a sieve with a hankerchief (rinsed to contain no washing detergent, Very Important!) and a small plastic basket containing carcoal inside the sieve. Then I attach the tube to the filter outlet and put the other end of the tube over the charcoal filter and stabilise the tube with two pegs attached to the sieve. This is very economical and effective for reducing water impurities.
Cheers

Hoover the Goldfish