I Need A Lot Of Help On My Fish Tank Please!?!?

[KieranBoyne]

Part 1- My current set up:
Ok, so.... At the moment In my 60 litre tank I have:
A bristlenose pleco
2 red phantom tetras
3 glowlight tetras
3 neon tetras
3 harlequin rasboras
4 pearl danios
1 male platy

I know that it is overstocked majorly, but I am not getting rid of any of my fish. My ammonia is 0, Nitrite 0 and nitrate just below 10. What I want to know about the stocking is are they all compatabile? And are the water levels ok? My ph is 7.2.

Part 2- My future set up:
I know that almost all of the fish are schooling fish and need more than 2-3 in a group but I am planning a tank restructure sort of thing when these lot of fish sadly pass away. What I mean by that is when all of these fish die, I want to have a clearout of all of my décor. I know that this sounds silly but i want to have it all planned out. I want to remove all of my plastic plants, and get all new live plants. Now what I want to know about that is:
I know that I need a fertilizer substrate for the bottom of my tank but what is the best one to use?? I am thinking of using seachem flourite sand in black. Now can I put another layer of black gravel or sand on top of that? And if I don't, will the pleco be alright with just the seachem fluorite?
Also, what plants are the toughest and hardest to kill off. As mentioned in another of my posts, what wattage bulb do I need for live plants to thrive and grow really well??

Thanks.

My hand is dead after all of that typing.

 

[McCool]

Fish can live for years and years. Plecs even longer. I wouldn't be planning ahead to "when they die ." Why don't you upgrade to a bigger tank? If you went with that, you could completely redo it and add your live plants and cycle,and then move your fish over and get them to the proper group numbers. You'll have a beautiful tank and your fish will be much better off  

 

[KieranBoyne]

I really want to upgrade yo a bigger tank, but i just cant for many reasons:
1- I cant afford it. I had £100 in my bank, i spent most of it, my mum doesn't know and i need to put some money back in there.

2- My mum wont let me upgrade, she says there is no space, and that's true, my tank is in between a computer desk and a door in my living room. Its tucked just behind the door. The door cant actually open the whole way because of the tank. So if i was to get anything bigger, the door wouldn't open half way even. And in my bedroom my brother has a 40 litre tank in the only space that hasn't got some sort of storage or something.

So do you see my problems?? I know if i upgrade my tank then it would be better for the fish but i just cant. Thanks for the reply by the way. And any more help about my initial post is greatly appreciated.
Oh yeah, and i have £25 in my wallet soo.... Yeah.

 

[McCool]

I know this isn't the answer you wanted, but why don't you take your current fish back to the store and then set your tank up with the plants? Then you can go and pick out some species that'll actually work in your tank? I completely understand not being able to upgrade, but you should really take the fish into consideration here. This way you won't have to wait on making the tank how you want it.
Java fern, java moss, a number of big swords and many vals are usually pretty hardy. I'm not sure on the other things though , although I'm sure someone will step in to help.   

 

[KieranBoyne]

Take them t..t..to the.. Sto...store? No way man. I love them too much. They all seem to be doing great, so i don't see any reason to give them to a store. Thanks for the advice on plants. I'm thinking that my brother may give me his 40 litre because all his fish died.... I could use that for some of my fish right? Its my birthday in a month so....
These fish are like my brothers and sisters, i wont lose them. Thanks anyway though. Sorry if it sounded rude. I get defensive sometimes.

 

[Ninjouzata]

If you really loved them you'd re-home them so that they can be kept in proper numbers and in the case of the pleco, a proper sized tank.

 

[McCool]

If you really loved them you'd re-home them so that they can be kept in proper numbers and in the case of the pleco, a proper sized tank.

 
+1 on this

 

[AeonMapa]

If your fish are healthy they'll be alive for about 5 years more at least. Now I know you love them but they really will be happier with a proper stocking. Can you tell us the length and width of your tank? This will help us help you.
 
For the plants and substrate . There is a very cheap and effective way to set up a planted tank called the walstad method. It involved using soil as a substrate. Look it up.

 

[Wildbetta]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you are not going to be able to keep them healthy for very long in that type of setup.  The fact that you know that you are overstocked and yet will not even think about doing the one thing that would benefit the fish that you say you love is very troubling to hear. It does not matter that you stated right off the bat that you will not get rid of them, that is the only option to help them. 
 
In your size tank, you could probably get rid of all but one type of fish and then add more of that one type and have your tank under control and your fish in a healthy atmosphere.
 
This is unfortunately the option that everyone is going to tell you - whether you want to hear it or not- because in reality it is the only option that truly helps the fish.

 

[KieranBoyne]

My tank size:
Width 60
Depth 30
Height 35
How many would i have to get rid of? And i've kept all of them healthy for 4 years now. With only 2 losses, a black platy and a yellow platy. But i am sure platies have a shorter lifespan.... I think.
Its annoying i am in this situation because the guy in pets at home said that i could fit about 20 danio-sized fish. Give or take 1 or 2. Those were the exact words. And i have 17 now i think. And 4 years ago i was only 10 and this was my first tank and i was clueless. I didn't have time to do research because i woke up on my birthday and my 60 litre aquarium was just there, filled up... Memories... Yeah, so how many would i have to get rid of? All? Leave 2/3?

 

[Ninjouzata]

I would remove the red phantom tetras, glow light tetras, and bristlenose pleco as they should be kept in a 20g+. 
Then narrow it down to one school you'd like to keep, and bump their numbers. You could keep the platy as your centerpiece.
 
To answer one of your first questions, you don't -need- a plant substrate. At least not if you're doing hardy, low light stuff, which might be the best for you to start out with.
These would be hornwort, anacharis, vallisneria, watersprite, swords, cryptocorynes, anubias, java ferns.
 
The swords and crypts probably would like the plant substrate but it is not absolutely necessary. They'd appreciate root tabs.
The anubias and java ferns should be tied to driftwood or rocks. You can use fishing line for this.
 
Unfortunately I don't know what sort of wattage of bulbs you want. You may get more help on the plants in the planted section.

 

[snazy]

Ok, by a rough search this is the lifespan of your current load:

red phantom tetras-5 years
glowlight tetras-5 years
neon tetras-5-10 years
harlequin rasboras-6 years
pearl danios-3-5 years
platies-2-3 years(mine live 3-4 years so not sure about official lifespan)
bristlenose pleco-many,many years

If you've had those fish for around 4 years then you can make your own calculations about how much more some of them we'll live. It seems to me in a couple of years you'll have a lot less fish. To be honest based on these facts you've done pretty well. And in all fairness its a bit too late to get rid of some because they are nearly at the end of their life span. A sudden change is stressful to fish more.
Overstocked tanks sometimes work if you keep up with weekly sizeable water changes. You've been lucky and yours hasn't caused trouble. I still think it would be worth trying to find a good home for the pleco.

I understand you've got no funds to buy anything else but an overstocked tank works very well with extra filtration. Sponge filters can be very cheap or adding an external filter can be best as it will not take up valuable space inside the tank.

I think plastic plants are just taking up space in your tank and the fish don't appreciate plastics, especially if you have those rough on the touch ones. A lot of caves and hiding places will work way better. Coconut caves can look nice and you can set up some with some anubias or java fern attached to them. These plants don't like being planted in substrate and are very hardy surviving all conditions. I use superglue to attach them to the caves(superglue is non-toxic to fish).
If you ever decide changing your substrate, I highly recommend using normal "top soil" mixed with about 5% clay(powder if you find it), capped with small gravel or bigger grain sand. This has worked wonders with my plants and you won't need to spend money on fertilisers or anything else.

I uploaded a recent video of my old small tank setup like this if you want to see what you can achieve with plain soil from the garden centre(one that doesn't contain additives, manure, etc..) Mine has shrimp in it so is certainly not a risk to fish either.
The safest way is to "mineralize" the soil first before putting it in because some soils may contain excessive amounts of ammonia and other chemicals which you don't want with an already populated tank but I've setup a tank without mineralizing with no problems either. It depends on the soil you get. However, mineralizing prevents algae outbreaks.

Mineralizing means to soak/wash the soil in water, then drain it from the water and dry it by spreading it on a flat surface(I used bin bags). Repeat this about 4-5 times. It takes time and is messy but this way the minerals in the soil get processed while the soil is being dried becoming non-toxic to fish and also getting retained inside the soil so will not leak in the water column upon initial setup causing algae outbreak. The soil becomes like fine powder after this, almost looking like sand. Then mix it with the 5% clay and some water to become like cake mixture. Put it in the tank(max 1"), cap it with 2" sand or small gravel. Plant it, put the fish back in and wait for it to pick up.

This you can do while you still have fish but they will not like it. Any sort of major change can stress them and cause issues.

Here is the video of one of my tanks setup with soil:
 
[media]https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs63dM-R0hg&feature=gp-n-y[/media]