New tank - Cycling and shopping list?

[Ponyosmama]

Heya ladies and gents.

I have just purchased a tetra starting tank 54l I have washed it and the gravel and decorating throughly, no soap!

Set it up and have the light on and the filter running.

I've added the correct amount of aqua safe and added a small pinch of food to get the cycle started.

This was the best set up I could afford atm as I had a larger tank but the sell fell through.

I'm happy to save for a larger tank over the next year or so and upgrade all the components.

Until then what is the best way to get this tank ready? Any steps I've missed?

I'm not planning on buying any fish at the moment as I'm deathly scared of killing them by mistake and my kid getting upset! So I'm still open to which type to buy.

Any recommendations on fish suitable for this tank?

Also best and cheapest, (longterm) water testing kits?

Thank you! I'm totally open to any and all advice.

 

[Essjay]

Hi, welcome to fish keeping, and the forum.

The best way to start a tank is by following the instructions here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ This method is better than using fish food as you cannot be sure how much ammonia the food is making, so you cannot know how many bacteria have grown.

Do you intend having live plants in the tank? If you do, and you plan on having more than juts one or two, they would help set up the tank more easily.

For testing kits, most of use use the API master test kit which contains liquid reagents for testing pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. A tip - one of the two bottles in the nitrate test contains a reagent that settles on the bottom of the bottle. The instruction tell you to shake this bottle well. This is important - in fact, shake the bottle more than it says.

You also need to know how hard your tap water is. It can be anywhere between very soft and very hard, and it is important to keep fish that evolved to live in the same hardness as your tap water. Your water company's website should have your hardness somewhere. Tell us the number and the units (they could use any one of half a dozen units). If you can't find it, tell us the name of the company and we'll have a look.
Once we know the hardness we can suggest fish that would suit your water.

Is the tank by any chance the Tetra Starter Line 54? We have another member who has just set up this tank.

 

[Ponyosmama]

It was that tank indeed. I'm now a little dubious as to whether it's going to provide a good quality of life for a little fish.

I will do the appropriate research once the kids are in bed and come back to this thread.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Essjay]

I used to have an Eheim tank with the same dimenions (60 x 30 x 30 cm). Provided you stick with small fish that suit your tap water it can make a nice tank. As an example, I have soft water and kept pygmy cories, Boraras maculatus and red cherry shrimps in the tank.

You have plenty time while the tank is cycling to decide on fish.


One thing I must warn you about - don't believe anyhthing a shop worker says till you have researched it for yourself. There are some good shop workers but they are few and far between. The rest will tell you any rubbish to make a sale.

 

[Ponyosmama]

Ahah I'm not one for chain stores anyway so hopefully will get all my info from here!

This is a SS of my water hardness.

Is there a testing kit I can buy that is reusable or what's the most cost effective way of testing?

I wanted a fancy goldfish but I've heard betta fish might be better suited to the tank I have?

 

[Ponyosmama]

It said it was moderately soft.

 

[Essjay]

That's great. There are 2 units used in fish keeping. Fish profiles will give you hardness ranges in one or the other. These two are ppm - which is the same as CaCO3 mg/l - and German degrees, also called just degrees or dH in fish profiles.

The figures you need are 94 ppm and 5.27 dH. This is just a tiny bit harder than mine. The majority of soft water fish will be fine in your water.

The best website for looking up fish is Seriously Fish. Unlike other sites this is written by experts not people who just keep fish.
You need to look at the hardness the fish need, the size of tank they need, and the temperature range they need to make sure you choose fish that need the same temp. The easiest way to start is to visit your local shops and see what they sell. Make a note of the fish that catch your eye and look them up on Seriously Fish. But don't let them tell you that you don't need to cycle a tank, just buy this miracle product and fish

Once you have a list of fish you like, post them here and the members will help you fine tune your wishlist.

 

[Ponyosmama]

Thanks so much! I am buying my ammonia tomorrow and will try to get the cycle going properly.

 

[Essjay]

Sorry, I missed the last part of your post other post

The API master test kit does many tests per bottle. This is the one I mean http://www.apifishcare.com/product.php?sectionid=1&catid=18&subcatid=0&id=580 Just wash and dry the test tubes after each use. There will be plenty of each reagent bottle for cycling.

The tank is far too small for goldfish, I'm afraid. One fancy goldfish needs a minimum of 100 litres.

Bettas are not really community fish. They are best kept on their own. Yes, your tank would be fine for a betta, as would your tap water, but not with any other fish. However, I know that the heater which comes with your tank is pre-set to 25 degrees C and can't be turned up or down, and bettas like water a bit warmer than 25 deg. You mentioned upgrading equipment in your first post, and a new adjustable heater would be the first thing I would upgrade when you start to do it.

 

[Ponyosmama]

No worries you've been extremely helpful!

I will 100% look to upgrade the heater sharpish! I think just the one fish would be lovely especially if they prefer to be alone. Betta fish sound like the ideal option!

I will purchase that kit too!

Thank you!!

 

[Essjay]

When you buy ammonia, you may find it hard to locate. Fish shops don't sell it. Homebase used to but I don't know if they still do. I got mine - Jeyes Kleen Off Household Ammonia - from my local DIY shop. If you can't find any in a real shop, I know that Ebay sells it - and they sell the Kleen Off one - as does Amazon. Be careful that whatever you get does not have perfume or detergent in it. Kleen Off doesn't.
In the How To Tips at the top of the page is a calculator, and the last item in the calculator is an ammonia dosage calculator. For just one betta in a 54 litre tank you would only need to add 1 ppm ammonia rather than 3 as in the fishless cycling method. And if you had live plants you wouldn't need to cycle it at all if you had just a betta.

 

[Ponyosmama]

I've got both in my amazon basket lol

Which plants would you recommend for a novice? I'd love to introduce some the plants we have atm are lumo plastic and very meh to my sensibilities

As an aside are most heaters standard size in length I have one in my basket too but can't figure out if it will fit inside the housing of my filter atm or will it have to sit outside of it?

 

[Essjay]

Heaters - it doesn't matter whether they are inside the filter casing or not, but one thing I would suggest with a betta is that if it is outside the filter, get one with a guard. My last betta liked sleeping on the suckers that hold the filter to the glass and his long tail draped down next to the element and he burned his tail. It regrew, though to a paler shade, and I put a guard round the element. This is the only one of all my bettas over the years that has done this but it is a consideration.

Plastic plants are best avoided with bettas as they tend to have sharp edges which can cut a betta's fins. Silk plants are much better for synthetic ones.
Live plants are not too difficult if you stick with 'easy' ones to start with. My betta's tank is smaller than yours, so I can't fit as many plants in as you could, but I have a piece of wood with java fern at one end and an anubias at the other. A second piece of wood is covered with bolbitis. And I have strands of hornwort, some weighted down and others floating on the surface.
Java fern, anubias and bolbitis are not grown rooted in the substrate as their rhizomes rot if they are covered. They are grown attached to decor. They have to be tried on a first but as they grow they cling by themselves. I use dark green sewing thread to tie them with. You can also buy wood with java fern already attached.
Bettas do like floating plants. In my main tank I have water sprite but this does not do well in the bettas tank which is why I let some of the hornwort float.

If you decide to go with live plants, get them as soon as possible, wait till you are sure they are not going to die off, then get a betta. 1 betta on his own doesn't make that much ammonia and with 54 litres to dilute it, several plants will use the ammonia as fast as the betta can excrete it. The few days checking on the plants will allow you to find out which shop stocks the nicest bettas They do vary from shop to shop. For example, my next to nearest Maidenhead Aquatics stocks only blue veitails but my nearest stocks a wide range of colours and fin types.