Hi Marty,

Most water conditioners work pretty quickly, so you can add your goldfish to conditioned water pretty much right away. If you’re worried, you can always swirl the water around a bit to ensure the water conditioner has conditioned all areas of the aquarium, before placing your goldfish in the tank.

However, two goldfish won’t be very happy in a 3.5-gallon bowl. Ideally, you’ll want a minimum of 30 gallons for the goldfish to thrive. Read more about this in my goldfish tank guide.

If you can’t afford a larger tank right now, you’ll need to be very diligent about water changes and testing. Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate frequently – high levels of any of these water parameters can be very damaging to your goldfish. Keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm (parts per million) and nitrate below 40ppm. Make sure you have a filter in the aquarium! Your goldfish won’t survive without one.

And if a 30-gallon tank isn’t possible in the near future, get the largest size you can afford. Even a 20 or 10 gallon is better than a 3.5-gallon bowl. Eventually, you will want to upgrade to a 30-gallon tank though.

You’re welcome, Samuel! Glad the information was useful. 🙂