Newbie Aquarist

[deanoce]

Hey guys , I have just setup a new tank and im unsure about my tank size
and if it is suitable for fish to live in.I have bought a 24 liter tank and i am
planning to have such fish as danios, tetras, guppies and possibly mollies
(but i dont think the size of mollies is appropriate for that tank. Its my first
tank and i have recently purchased, setup, put in a volcano with an aerator,
setup filter, added a 2 large shelters, put heater to 20-21 degrees and also
my water has gone cloudy (and its only been two days)but i still have no fish
in it , anyway helpful comments will be much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Piltdownpaul]

24 litre is pretty small for fish like danios. These fish like to dart around and use a lot of oxygen. You could have an amount of endlers or a fewer amount of guppies-forget the mollies they will get too big i think.



Welcome to the forum.

 

[Harlequins]

Hi and welcome

Your tank is fairly small,probably be able to house a few small fish at the most.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Deanoce.

Have a read through of the pinned topics at the top of this forum section. You will especially want to try to understand the threads about cycling a tank in a method called "fishless". Once you have a cycled tank, you will be able to add a few very small fish or maybe some shrimp to a tank that size. For small fish I would look for something like Heterandria formosa. They can be a bit hard to find but both the males and females stay under an inch long and they will do fine in a small tank like that.

 

[deanoce]

I think i have decided that i am going to have 1 male betta i am not entirely sure how well they are solo
but i love the look and if my math is correct i divided the size of my tank by 4 ( my tank being 24 which
came to 6 i looked up betta's on the internet and found out the size of them comes to 6 can someone
please tell me if that is correct.

thanks for all the posts guys you have made me feel very welcome to this forum

 

[Marve99]

Male Beta love to be by themselves and 24Litre is more than enough space.

 

[Rediahs]

Well I'd say 24 litres (about 6 gallons) is about right, not "more than enough space"... it's perfectly fine, don't get me wrong!! But "more than enough space" would be more like 15 gallons (56 litres) or something.

 

[indigoj]

A single male betta would be fine one the tank has cycled, do you have a filter? You'll need one if not.

 

[swordtailz]

Some little guppies would do great.

 

[deanoce]

yeah I have a filter and I have added something called filter-start to the sponge to give it the good bacteria
it needs to start off. I have set the heater to about 24 degrees and I have been cycling for 5 days so I am
probably getting it in 2 days but I just need to adjust the ph because it is 8.5 and I want it at 7. I think I have fixed
the cloudiness (just gave it a 25% water change) and it seems to be clearing up and i will take a water sample to the
fish shop today to see what else it needs. It's not more than enough space but its so much better than the tiny little bowls the pet-shop keep them in. Thanks alot for your support guys, has been really helpful
(p.s. Any tips on introducing a betta to the tank or just generally keeping a betta?) Thanks guys

 

[Marve99]

Well I'd say 24 litres (about 6 gallons) is about right, not "more than enough space"... it's perfectly fine, don't get me wrong!! But "more than enough space" would be more like 15 gallons (56 litres) or something.

Just took the information from the species index from this site where 1.5-2G is stated as the minimum size. 6 gallon being 4 times that minimum led me to believe that it would be "more than enough space".

 

[OldMan47]

While you are cycling, the 8.5 pH is a good thing. the ideal fishless cycle is done with a pH of about 8.4, a temperature of about 27C and an ammonia starting concentration of close to 5.0 ppm. Most people here, me included, will tell you that the bacterial additive is a total waste of your hard earned money. I don't know what you think you are getting n 2 days but the absolutely wrong answer would be fish.
For future stocking, a male Betta splendens makes a great peaceful, IME, community fish. A 6 gallon, 24 litre, tank is a bit small for him to have many tank mates besides a snail or two. Yopu could probably get by with 3 or 4 pygmy corydoras catfish but that would be about all if you add them to a Betta, what they call fighters in the UK. .

 

[deanoce]

While you are cycling, the 8.5 pH is a good thing. the ideal fishless cycle is done with a pH of about 8.4, a temperature of about 27C and an ammonia starting concentration of close to 5.0 ppm. Most people here, me included, will tell you that the bacterial additive is a total waste of your hard earned money. I don't know what you think you are getting n 2 days but the absolutely wrong answer would be fish.
For future stocking, a male Betta splendens makes a great peaceful, IME, community fish. A 6 gallon, 24 litre, tank is a bit small for him to have many tank mates besides a snail or two. Yopu could probably get by with 3 or 4 pygmy corydoras catfish but that would be about all if you add them to a Betta, what they call fighters in the UK. .

Im not adding anything else to the tank so i think 6 gals is enough and the filter start came free with the tank so i just thought it would
be worth adding it. Also how much ammonia should be in the tank when starting or shouldn't there be any?

 

[jmkgreen]

Use the calculator.

The bottle of bacteria you bought was probably full of dead bacteria. The bottles tend to advertise themselves with funny wording like can help start your tank, or aids in adding fish. Key words are "can" and "aids". They guarantee nothing and in most cases deliver little noticable effect.

Thing to do is add ammonia at 2ppm every day until both ammonia and nitrite levels are consitently reducing to nil inside of 12 hours. This may take several weeks (two-three months if nature takes a long time). As others have properly stated, check out the guides on this site.

 

[deanoce]

ummm sorry but whats ppm ? haha