Help!? with tank setup?

Question

im setting up a 29 gallon tank right now to home 2 fancy goldfish,
i just bought some fake plants to put in it and a heater because that room gets colder in the winter time.
Heater question- its one that you have to adjust, if i get it set to keep my tank at a bout 70 degrees, will it heat the water if it goes below 70 degrees? any tips on these kind of heaters? the water fluctuates between 66degrees and 74degrees, i want it set at close to 70. any suggestions thanks?!
also heater place ment? does it really matter, i have it right next to my filter do spread out the heat. is this a good place?
one more question as far as fishless cycling...i know goldies are hardy and i just want to make it better for them. i have another well established tank up and running for several months, i was going to take the filter cartridge and put it in the new tank to speed it up. but the cartridge is for a 5-15 filter, can i just stick it in the 20-40 any ways? if not what can i do?

thanks

Answer 1

The fluctuations aren't enough to worry about. I know someone with a 55 gallon tank with goldfish. They use a 150 watt heater set to go off at 62°, because the building they are in gets down to 50-55° in the winter. The truth is that small heater can't maintain 62° when it gets down to 50°. At best, maybe 57°. What it does is slow the rate of cooling, giving the fish time to acclimate. Now we are at the point where the building only gets down to about 60° at night, so the heat is more constant, as it never is heated much beyond 65° during the daytime. In the summer, they don't even use the heater, but the building rarely gets over 75-80° even without AC.
As for the filter, the small one will probably plug up fast and not sufficiently clean the water. With goldies, I'd suggest a filter where the range is 30-60, not 10-30, let you tank be at the bottom of the range, not the top of it.

Answer 2

That tank will eventually be too small for the goldfish but should be OK for a while. You really don't need the heater. Temps between 66 and 74 will be fine for them. You can use it but it probably won't have to run much. A tank will generally run a couple degrees higher than the ambient temperature in the room because of the heat the lights create. Putting it beside the filter is fine.

As for the fishless cycle, check the link below. I wrote it about a year and a half ago and it is a pinned topic on that forum (great forum too with lots of friendly, knowledgeable people). To help kick start your new tank you can use the old filter cartridge but only if it fits the new one. Otherwise, simply take some of the filter media (carbon or whatever is in your filter pack) and add it to the new filter pack. Don't worry about using water from the existing tank. There are no bacteria in the water column so all you would be doing is adding dirty water to a new tank.

Answer 3

I'd skip the heater for goldfish, also. They like and live longer in cooler temps and your room temp of 66-74 degrees is just fine for them. It is one less thing to worry about - heaters can malfunction and cook your fish! Why risk it when your fish do not need it?

As far as cycling goes, you could set up a sponge filter for a week in a healthy tank and then move that for awhile into this new tank to get the bacteria going. Also, you could add some gravel from the established aquarium.

Answer 4

Dont worry about the heater goldfish like the cold water. If you have gravel and water from the old tank add it as well as the filter. All that will contain benificial bacteria. Just do a few water changes for the next few weeks and you should be fine - goldfish are tough as nails.