Overstocked or no?

[esoxlucius]

If your friend is new to the hobby it would be nice to keep him interested in it. But i'm afraid once he gets his liquid test kit and establishes what his water change schedule is going to be on that size tank with that stocking, he may run a mile once he discovers the frequency and volume of water changes needed to keep that tank healthy. That bacterial bloom speaks volumes.

Either go way bigger in tank size, which probably isn't going to happen if he's just got this one, or, as mentioned, thin out those goldfish considerably.

He'll probably be relying on you to make the right decisions for him. No pressure then eh?

 

[Gpdriftwood]

I doubt your friend is this committed yet but, a sump filtration system with an overflow, and a constant trickle water system can handle anything till they outgrow the tank. Which will be soon. With that amount of fish in a 55, he might as well do 50% water change everyday for the meantime. (Way overstocked. )

 

[Eclipse390]

+1 to what everyone else has said. But on a side note - shame on whoever sold your friend this set up

 

[Evankeirce]

Start with 75% water changes every day... don't wait for a test kit. After a couple months he can probably change that to every other day. There really isn't any way to filter an overstocked tank to safety the best you can do is remove the water with the nitrogen compounds and replace it with fresh water.

Who sold that setup to your friend?

Yes, the liquid test kits are considerably more acurate than the test strips. I consider the test strips pretty much useless.

The setup was from already having a couple goldfish then getting a bigger tank already fully stocked and combining the two.

 

[Oughtsix]

The setup was from already having a couple goldfish then getting a bigger tank already fully stocked and combining the two.

How is the tank progressing? Is he doing daily water changes? Has he tested the water parameters yet? Just curious.

 

[Evankeirce]

How is the tank progressing? Is he doing daily water changes? Has he tested the water parameters yet? Just curious.

He is doing water changes around every 2.5 days, all 9 fish are still in there. It’s not as cloudy as it was in the first picture. I need to go over there and test his water because he hasn’t got a kit yet (think it’s a money issue for him). Unfortunately it may take a couple fish deaths to motivate him to get everything under control.