Welcome to Goldfish Wonderland's FAQ page

Here is where I paste up any questions people ask me, my solutions to them and others solutions to them, if you do not believe another comment, feel free to email a better solution, you can fine contact info at the bottom of the page.

A. This has been a long and drawn out debate, and still no answer is in concrete. Undergravel filters are good, as long as you do not turn off their air supply, as then the bacteria dies and is toxic to fish. Other filters using filter media are good for shear ease of cleaning, you just pull out the medium and replace it. Undergravel filters I have found to be a hassle as by the time you have siphoned all the plate, your fish are flopping on the dry gravel, but many have over come this problem. I think it is mainly a choice of preference. I have found a corner filter very effective and easy to maintain.

Q. Do water snails effect goldfish? And if they don't all, which one should I keep and which should I loose?

A. There are a couple parasites that spend part of their life on snails then migrate to the fish as their new host. So most goldfish keepers shy away from snails.

I have one tank that has cornucopia snails from plants and have had no problems.

A. Welcome to the world of fish keeping, There is no hard and fast solution to that problem (none that I've found) but what may help is sticking to the golden rules of Algae Control.

1. No more than 11 hours of light. No direct sunlight. If your plants need more light, give them brighter lamps (measured in lumens) not longer hours of lighting.

2. Keep phosphates and nitrates at a minimum. Do this through water changes and never feed fish or fertilize plants with anything that contains phosphates.

3. Don't over-fertilize plants or overfeed fish.

Live plants can keep algae down as they use the substances algae need, leaving nothing for algae to grow with.

Another answer is to take and old credit card and scrape it between the glass (if it is a glass tank) and the gravel.

Q. Which type of tank is better, glass or acrylic?

A.

Glass				Acrylic

Cheaper per gallon.		More expensive per gallon.

Hard to scratch			Scratches easily (e.g. scraping algae
				    with razor blade)

Scratches permanent		Scratches can be buffed out (Although
				    not easily)

Higher index of refraction	Lower IOR (tank distorts less when
				    viewed from angle)

Empty tank heavy 		Same sized tank weighs less (empty)
    
Tank stand only needs to	Special stand needed that can support
    support edges		    entire base of tank (not just edges)

More easily broken		Harder to break

A2. I would advise getting a glass tank, but it is actually just a personal prefernce, they are about equal, if not glass is a little bit better.