I always save as much as possible of the old water when I move it, as long as the gravel and filters stay moist the bacteria should be fine inside though...

Nossie,
Can you guide me a bit?  I've been monitoring water quality every day. The ammonia level had a spike (1) otherwise its staying at .25. Every day I'm doing a 25% water change. I tested my tap water and there's no truce of ammonia. Should I be concerned that daily water changes are not impacting ammonia levels?  Bertie does seem bothered by it. Should I do bigger water changes?  What's your expert opinion?

Just on a side note....do goldfish play?  I caught Bertie bunting around his green pea with his nose. He did it for a bit before finishing it off.

Thanks a ton.

Sajacobs, with regards to the ammonia, may I ask what water conditioner you use? I only ask because there are one or two brands that can skew ammonia results.

As long as you keep up with your gravel cleaning and regular filter maintenance, it should go down by itself, cycling just takes time
Have you seen any nitrites yet?

I have used both conditioners when cycling the 30 liter tank... they should be fine
I think you should just be patient with it, if you already had both nitrite and nitrates showing, it's probably doing its best...

Sajacobs, Bertie will be okay

Water changes are the best thing to help with ammonia! So as long as you keep doing what your doing, he should be fine
I've used Stress Coat and Stress Zyme too, oh another question, I forget if this was mentioned, but your tapwater, does it have 0ppm in ammonia?

Ah that's okay, glad your battle is going well
I had issues with ammonia, only to discover it was in the tap water XD So I now use Prime water conditioner at 1.5x the dosage to try and get rid of it!

Maybe you should try feeding him a bit less? Say every second day or just once in the mornings? I don't actually know how big amounts or how often you feed him, but the constant presence of ammonia might be related to overfeeding

The newbie pest is back....

I'm excited and want to share with the group.....  When I went to petco and got my snail, I saw a panda goldfish. Gosh I couldn't get this little fish out of my mind. So I went back today and got him....and a moss ball.  So quarantine tank is back in fish action.  I think Bertie needs s friend and I did get the large tank so i could add another fish.  I hope the little clan will be disease free and together in two weeks.

Got another question:  I've noticed Bertie like to sit close to the surface. Always the same spot (facing the heater) and about .5 inch below the surface. He does a small bit of gulping air but he can sit for several minutes and does nothing. Just hanging out...then he swims around....and sits back in his spot again. If that's his fish thing....ok...no problem.  But of course I'm concerned about ammonia. I've cut way back on feeding (he got half a pea and one small blood worm today)and the ammonia levels are at .25 (I have a feeling the levels will go to zero after a couple of more days with less food).

He has no trouble swimming - so I don't think it's bladder issues. Plus I give him a varied diet.

Any thoughts or experiences? Quirky fish behavior?

I agree with scrivens, could also be that he's somewhat bothered by the ammonia. Hope that goes away soon.
And I definitely hope the tank will be cycled before you introduce the new fish to it, generally you want to wait a few weeks after the tank is cycled to be sure that you won't have to deal with another ammonia spike.

Maybe you should try putting the filter a bit higher, closer to the surface. That way the current will be more circular and better distributed in the tank.

Hurray! Progress! Really great to hear that, it'll easily be cycled within two weeks from now, I'd say

No problem Let us know if it helps!

Oh boy......help

So the fish saga continues.....and I'm not sure what I did.

Everyday I test my water.
The readings have been solid:
Ph 7.6
High ph. 8.4
Ammonia .25
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0

As you know yesterday I had ammonia 0 and nitrites .25. 

Did a 25% water change.

Today readings back to normal.  With ammonia being .25 and Bertie sticking close to the surface I did a 25 % water change. After emptying the tank a quarter of the way I decided to futz with the filter and see if I could raise it. Finally I put a piece a sponge between it and tank to raise it.  Check temp of water going into tank and proceeded to fill it.  Bertie started acting strange.  Sitting at the bottom of the tank, hiding behind a plant and shaking his fins.  I had to go out for moms day and came back 3 hours later.  He was doing the same thing.

So checked temp - no change.  Retested water.  Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates 0.  Ph stayed the same at 7.6. But high ph was 7.8. So I retested that again- still 7.8.  So I put a bit of stress enzyme in - I figured if anything maybe that would buffer things. Retested again...8.0.  Retested again - 8.0. I retested the water coming out of filter....8.4.

What changes high ph?

With all of that said the water circulation has changed since lifting filter. Being a piggy Bertie always comes when I lift the lid.  He's not coming up. I put some food in and when he came up, the circulating water current scared him off.

Should I be concerned about high ph? Or is it a change in the current?

I wouldn't meddle anymore with the filter. That fluctuating pH is sort of worrying... I'd perform a larger water change and see if that helps, also, try testing the pH in the buckets of fresh water before you add it, might be necessary to get something to lower it a bit and add that to the buckets before you pour it in the tank.

Thanks everyone

My water is well water that is very hard.  Our house is set up with a water softer to bring down hardness.

I'm assuming that stable ph levels are more important. But is there a range I should look for?

I retested the ph levels this morning.
Ph 7.6
High ph - a color between 8.0 and 8.2. I'm thinking it's stabilizing?

I've been thinking about how I do water changes.  I keep the water on gallon jugs to help me insure I'm going the proper amount of water change.  When the jug is empty I fill it three quarters of the way and add the API water conditioners. Then the next day I add hot water to fill the jug and balance out the temp.  Could this impact the water conditioners?  Thus then changing the high ph level?

It turns out my Neighbor is into fish. Has two tanks. So...here comes his idea.  What do you think?

He gave me benefital bacteria to add to the water.  He told me not to do any water changes -as long as ammonia is .25. When ammonia is .25 add prime water conditioner to neutralize the ammonia.  If nitrites or nitrates get high - water change. He thinks the daily water change is removing too much bacteria and not allowing the tank to cycle. Plus I got read the riot act - stop feeding the fish!  . He also though I was vacuuming too deeply into the gravel - once again removing good bacteria.

I didn't have the time to get into unstable ph levels.

Scrivens - I dont have kh test kit. Is this something I should add to my ever growing supplies?  I think it's a gret idea to have ph buffer on hand. I need a storage cabinet for all the stuff I have.

This hobby has a big learning curve. I have 5 dogs. Theyre less stressful then one fish.

I vacuum the heck out of my gravel once a week, you should see the amount of dirt I suck up!

As for Prime, this is what I use to deal with my ever so annoying tap water-ammonia situation. The only thing I find with Prime, is that it can skew your ammonia results, so I'm never sure if there is ammonia or not
Which is slightly un-nerving, but I trust the product as it's been highly recommended to me on different forums and Lucky is and has been fine for a while now, so it must be doing something!

If nitrites have appeared and gone, and you have a steady show of nitrates, I would assume your tank is cycled. But I've found with myself and one or two other members on here, sometimes that ammonia likes to stick around for a little while longer!