actually it depends on the gold fish...

some breeds are naturally smaller.

Koi need decently large tanks

One option is a Hydroponic garden for the filter that would let you grow some Kale and herbs.

I had molle's and tetras growing up

Tetras are Really vibrant colorful also interestingly there are pirranids which is just plane coooooooolllll in away

Actually, the majority of all goldfish are all "pondfish" and have the capacity to grow into the size of a koi (Check out this picture http://www.myaquariumclub.com/a-vis.....size-4923.html )

The reason goldfish stay small is that the body stops growing due to the tank size and they become "stunted" The insides keep growing crushing the fish from the inside. That's why most goldfish only live a few years. The big one in the picture is 15 years old and still healthy. Also too, goldfish are very messy/dirty and can easily throw off the tank balance with ammonia. I'm just going to steer clear of them.

But I'm almost certain I will but some neon tetras in. Plus I found some nice plants that are lowlight and easy to take care of. :3 Can't wait to start this :D

Fish are amazing! :D I love fishies~ <3
I can't offer much in the way of advice because I'm still learning myself and anything I could tell you, you could easily look up yourself. haha, but I just wanted to share the fishy joy! :D

Yays! All the fishy joys :D I still need to pick whats going in the tank but I know some of the plants I want! Yay for live plants :3

Let me know what fish you pick! O:

start out with non aggressive fish, stay away from any cichlids with the exception of german dwarfs rams (golden, blue, electric). tiger barbs are also fairly agressive. Ive had the occasional sail fin balloon molly go psycho so buy at your own risk (i think it was due to inbreeding) I had a single male angle fish who grew up in the community and was never aggressive, though ive heard that a lot of people find angels to be aggressive (mostly in more than one in a tank)

get yourself a bottom feeder - i really enjoy kuli loaches and albino LF (Longfin) cory and panda cory. stay away from plecos as they eat algea and cucumbers more so than leftover food and get big. micky mouse & other platy are fun, phantom tetras, neon tetras, both need a school of 4-5. stay away from danios unless you got a 20 long. hatchet and swords like to jump so best to steer clear. guppies are okay but make sure you have enough females for all the male or else they'll stress the females to death. in fact make sure with phantom tetras and many other fish you gotta have the right ratio to get them to display and to not stress out. white tip clouds are real pretty need a small school though. i LOVE dwarf groumis like flame and blue though they tend to have more dominant personalities and stress easy if the personalities dont mesh.

make sure you do 30% weekly water changes and condition your water unless you plan on heavily planting and running expensive bulbs. also have plenty of hiding spaces and plants and drift wood or rocks for the fish. since its only a standard 20 i wouldnt get any fish bigger than (or that can grow bigger than) 2" and would limit the amount of fish to 20 max unless you pan on doing multiple water changes and have TONS of hiding spots

lastly i LOVE the look of cichlids but because they're almost all aggressive i had to find the rare ones that werent.

Scarlet badis are beautiful and about 1/4" big. they are relatives to fighting fish but look like mini african cichlids. also the german dwarf rams are peaceful. ghost shrimp are fun too but you need a filter over your pump, they like to get sucked up

If you need any other advice just ask :)

tools you will want:

-vaccum with hand pump
- small fish net, big fish net
- 3-5 gallon bucket
- water treater
- floating plastic breeder's box with divider and slatted bottom (for sick fish and breeding guppies)

also stay away from gold fish and any other carps, dity dirty fish, will make a mess of your tank

also pick up a ups and an auto feeder

here's a pic of my old set up, sorry for the shitty qality ill have to look for my better video. just a note my tank was overstocked but balanced so I just had to make sure I kept up with my water changes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....1.jpg~original

Thank you! You reminded me of some thing I forgot about getting. Luckily nothing is set up yet.

I'm almost positive on Neon Tertas. But I want something else and then some bottom feeders? I've been trying to use AqAdvisor to help me plan. It's been useful to me so far X3 I love that it will give me recommended weekly water change amounts and warnings for compatibility. Just I don't know too many of the fish names so it's hard for me to pick :P

I think I want to stay away from the live-bearing fish. I much rather just watch them than have to worry about that :P Unless there is a way around it? I doubt it though.

My parents used to have angelfish that were mean, I think I'll just avoid them. Or any real aggressive fish.

Unfortunately my tank lights are LED's but I plan on getting some low-light plants. I'm going to try for a natural look with real wood and hopefully all real plants. Maybe even some rocks for hiding. It might be hard looking for longer ones but I'm determined :D I'll show you pictures of the tank set-up before the fish.

But before plants, I think I'll need water conditioner, liquid CO2, Aqua Plant Fertilizer, Test strips (For Ph. nitrates ect) and maybe an air hose? Is it important to have that in a tank? It would be better to set up before the plants and things I think.

And then before getting any fish I'll get the nets, 3-5 Gallon bucket, food, any other tank conditioner I missed :P, and a vacuum.

What is an ups? And how important is an autofeeder? I might get them one as it sounds like a good idea, but I'll look into it first.

Anything else you think I need?

mm i guess the question is how self sufficient are you trying to go with this? how many plants and what sort of soil and how many fish all affects how much you need to change, though generally its going to be about 30%. if this is your first time id suggest against a full planted tank. All real plants is good and all but getting them to grow and grow enough to give sufficient coverage (depending on how many fish you have) will be hard without sufficient lighting. but if you really want planted tank, by all means try it, just be warned its not easy. if you're putting in drift wood make sure you soak it to release the tannins and impurities before hand or else you'll end up with murky water. as for rocks aquarium stores usually have good hiding rocks that provide a lot of different nooks and crannies.

idt you'll need a vacuum if you are using aqua soil, you just have to get the balance right so you give enough food for your mids and uppers without starving the bottom feeders (usually your filter will push some of the flakes down). its like a really big balancing act and having plants and real soil just adds more variables to it.

live bearing fish really dont need special care unless you plan on keeping the babies, if not let them give birth and the babies will either survive or get eaten. the breeder's floating tank is more for sick or injured fish. when my baloon molly went off the deep end he only attacked my angel fish, who for whatever reason was not aggressive and wouldnt fight back so he got tore up pretty bad. I didnt have room for a sick tank so I had to isolate him in my main tank. I also placed the birthing guppies in there so it would be less stressful.

the water conditioners and plant food of course and test strips are good too. you'll need a thermometer as well. air hoses are good for gravel non planted tanks because it puts o2 into the water, but i would think the agitation would cause your soil to get kicked up or break down. not sure as i never used an air hose in aqua soil. ideally in a planted tank your filter and plants should provide enough o2 to support the system. again its just a giant balancing act.

A UPS is a battery back up source commonly used for computers, but will be good for if the power goes out. I lived in the city and the power hardly ever went out but the once or twice it did it put a lot of stress on the tank because the filter provides a lot of aeration. i lost some fish because of it. a decent one will run about $50. will keep your filter running for hours if the power cuts out.

auto feeders are good if you have to go on vacation and dont have anyone to feed your fish. but realistically you cant go on vacation for more than 5-13 days anyways (unless you have a self sufficient tank - really hard to achieve) because you have to do weekly water changes and most people will feed your fish, but they wont do a full water change, nor would i trust them.

While you might not need a vacuum you will need a thick hose to make water changes easier (siphon water from the tank into the bucket via gravity). also i use the hose to put water back in because dumping it in can often displace the aquascape or uproot plants.

I'm definitely not trying to go self sufficient by any means. I'd just like a more natural tank. I have no issue with the weekly and monthly water changes and cleaning required. I just thought live plants would help benefit the fish opposed to fake ones. I might still have some fake ones though depending on how well the real plants do :P I know of two low light plants that can attach themselves and grow off the drift wood itself. I don't plan on using soil but a small to medium gravel and choosing plants that can thrive in it. I'll definitely make sure to have enough plants (real or fake) before adding any fish. I'd hate to stress them out.

That's good to know about those fish but I still don't think I'd want any this time ^-^' I'll get one of the "hospital" tanks though in case something happens to any of the fish. Better safe than sorry.

I have a thermometer, 2 actually as my heater has a thermometer built in. I can also adjust the temperature by degrees so keeping temp should be pretty easy. Again with using gravel, I think I might try to add an air hose. I'm still working on figuring it all out myself but I think I have an idea.

That does sound like a good idea. That's one thing I'm worried about with getting this tank so I'll definitely check those out. I never even though of it so I'm glad for that advice. I rarely go on vacation. The longest I leave is 3 days for a convention and I have someone who could check my pets anyways. I wouldn't trust anyone changing the water either :P I plan on putting alot of work into this and don't need anyone else messing it up on me.

True. I'll definitely find myself a good hose for water changes then. Since it will be a weekly cleaning, I'll be sure to find a good one. I might just siphon it as well and upgrade later... I'll once I get the tank up and running how much I enjoy doing the water changes XD if The vacuum is a lot easier/efficient, I may just have to get one :P

sorry short post running to bed, but vacuuming is a pain especially if you aquascape since you gotta churn the gravel to suck up all the decaying food.

also i had the unfortunate fortune of having red worm parasites in which the only way to get rid of them was to get cattle dewormer ($15 for a little dime bag) and treat the entire tank. was a big pain and lost plenty fish. a side tanke used for keeping fish in for a month before placing in your main tank is ideal, though if you're like me and dont have the space then keeping meds on hand to treat ick, fin rot, parasites, etc is key so you can react quick rather than wait for the meds in the mail or from the store