10 Gallon

Question
Hey there,

I have a 10 gallon fish tank. I was the proud owner of 5 gold fish. I had heard that each fish needed about 2 gallons of water. The tank is not lit but sits in a room that receives moderate sunlight. It doesn't have a heater, either. It is aerated with a neat volcanic air bubbler and has a Bio-Wheel filter. When I had the goldies, the tank did not have the filter. The water began to look green, even though I had been removing about 2 gallons of water from the tank for cleaning every week. I decided to buy the filter and revamp the environment. I placed the fish in a small 2 1/2 gallon tank leftover from my girlfriend's fish days. The water in the 2 1/2 gallon was conditioned and aerated. By the time I had setup the filter and conditioned the water in my 10 gallon, the fish had all died. Perhaps it was shock? I am still stunned. They had all been looking great and were very responsive, active, and bright in color.

I am now considering buying a few Tropical fish. I would appreciate a few tips. How can I avoid the fate of my 5 goldies? I would also like a recommendation for an economical yet effective heater. I would also like to buy a light for my fish, to help with visibility. Also, what sort of fish would you recommend? I would prefer hardy fish that are not incredibly sensitive, like my goldies.

Anything else you can think of to help me would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Answer
After having the goldfish in the tank, it will probably require a very thorough cleaning. You can achieve this with some good old fashioned bleach and water. Regarding fish I would start off with some healthy looking platties and mollies. They are very hardy and really some of the best fish to condition a tank with. Have you considered if you are going to keep the tank freshwater or brackish? Platties and Mollies will be fine either way so while they're cycling the tank for you, you can learn about the different fish and in a couple weeks start adding others to the tank. I tend to lean towards brackish because the salt helps ward off many infections, parasites, etc. without the use of chemicals.
For your light and heater, if your just going to keep the hardier varieties of fish you could probably pick a more than effective one of each up at your local Walmart. If you decide to get into the harder to keep species, you would probably want to consider several things including a larger tank, more efficient filtration system, more reliable heater and depending if you wanted to keep live plants... a better light. For general use, you don't usually have to "go all out".