Newbie, Some Questions.

[cramman]

Hello,

First post so go gentle.
Just set up my first tank at the weekend so it’s cycleing away as we speak. Possibly slowed down by the lack of lights and a heater, heater turned up smashed to sh1t in the post.
So then, a few questions.

The tanks is only a small one, all I could fit really. 2 foot, by 1 foot, by 1 foot (so, 50 litres I believe)
FISH
I have been told to research what I want, so I’m here for ideas.
My PH is around 7.5, from memory, and that was before I added the chemicals, tap safe (which has turned my water blue) and ammonia (don’t smell that, I thought I was going to die).
I’m thinking that I want a small group of little fish, tetras or similar.
Then a couple of brightly coloured bigger fish, I love the look of the Siamese fighting fish, Betta’s I believe?
After that, something to clean some of the algae, snails, loach etc.
Then finally, I’d love some shrimps, crabs or something to wonder around the bottom.
Would this be possible or would I have too much in a small tank?

TANK HOOD
I have plastic one at the minute and really don’t like the look of it. Are there any other options?

LIGHTS
What do I need? I’d prefer something that is underwater but LED lights seem expensive. Then, if I go for the standard strip light idea, I need a big wide hood, which I don’t like. Any option?

And finally, PLANTS
When can I add some plants, I’m guessing that the ammonia spike may cause them problems at the minute

Sorry, bit long, I appreciate any advice.

 

[glolite]

Hello,

Hi and welcome to the forums

First post so go gentle.
Just set up my first tank at the weekend so it’s cycleing away as we speak. Possibly slowed down by the lack of lights and a heater, heater turned up smashed to sh1t in the post.
So then, a few questions.

The tanks is only a small one, all I could fit really. 2 foot, by 1 foot, by 1 foot (so, 50 litres I believe)

Do you know how many gallons it holds?


FISH
I have been told to research what I want, so I’m here for ideas.
My PH is around 7.5, from memory, and that was before I added the chemicals, tap safe (which has turned my water blue) and ammonia (don’t smell that, I thought I was going to die).
I’m thinking that I want a small group of little fish, tetras or similar.
Then a couple of brightly coloured bigger fish, I love the look of the Siamese fighting fish, Betta’s I believe?
After that, something to clean some of the algae, snails, loach etc.
Then finally, I’d love some shrimps, crabs or something to wonder around the bottom.
Would this be possible or would I have too much in a small tank?


Are you testing for ammonia and nitrites?
A group of tetras would be fine if you are doing fishless cycling. They like to shoal in a group of at least 6 or 7
Bettas may attack smaller fish (MAY) and are quite water sensitive, so you'd need to do plenty of water changes.
Crabs eat fish.
Some shrimps are ok with small fish but larger fish eat shrimps. How about ottos, they're sort of mini plecs and do a great job eating algae (ottocinclus)

The general rule for stocking is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water.


TANK HOOD
I have plastic one at the minute and really don’t like the look of it. Are there any other options?

Should be able to get a replacement. Ebay?

LIGHTS
What do I need? I’d prefer something that is underwater but LED lights seem expensive. Then, if I go for the standard strip light idea, I need a big wide hood, which I don’t like. Any option?

Strip lights are better for fish and plants.

And finally, PLANTS
When can I add some plants, I’m guessing that the ammonia spike may cause them problems at the minute

Some plants can utilise ammonia but better to wait till the tank has cycled, then u can add as many as you like, they keep the algae down.

Sorry, bit long, I appreciate any advice.

No probs. Glad to help.

 

[LauraFrog]

About the heater -not having the tank warm enough will really slow down your cycle and may stall it entirely. You definitely need to replace the one that got wrecked. Usually, either the company that sold it or the company that shipped it (and smashed it up) will replace it.
What sort of filtration are you using?

You can get wooden hoods made for most tanks. The tank you have is a very standard size, so you could probably buy one ready made (which would remove some of the expense.) You can paint them to match the room decor. Plain wood also looks very good. The combination of hood/stand made out of the same sort of wood or painted the same colour can look very effective, but with a tank that size most people would just put it on a desk or something.

If you intend to grow live plants, you're going to need strip lighting. Underwater lights can be bought and make great features (especially if you shine them on the flow of bubbles from an airstone) but they are not suitable for growing live plants because they are not bright enough, and don't shine directly down onto the plants (live plants require strong lighting from above.)
If you want live plants you'll have to decide if you want to go high or low tech. High tech typically involves very strong lighting, CO2 injection and a daily regime dosing fertilisers. It would also be very difficult to run in a tank that small and would reduce the number of fish you can stock (although it is possible.) I don't recommend it for your first tank.
Low tech is pretty easy. You choose easy to care for, slow growing plants like anubias, java fern, java moss and vallisneria species. You don't need as much light and most of the expensive equipment etc. is not needed.

The problem with planting a tank that is cycling isn't the ammonia (plants handle this just fine) but the fluctuations in the water parameters, and also they can stuff up your readings. A tank that is undergoing a fishless cycle (ie. you're tipping in considerable quantities of basic ammonia every day) will have large fluctuations in pH, and often in temperature and currents as well as your equipment settles in. With tough plants this probably won't kill them (although it might cause them to look a bit ratty.) You would probably lose things like riccia or cryptocorynes (sensitive plants in other words) if you put them in a cycling tank.



And to the livestock... sorry about the longwindness.
You already know about pH, but have you heard of hardness? Basically this is a measure of how much dissolved calcium and magnesium (among other things) is in your water. Soft water has little. Hard water has lots.
These chemicals do a lot of things but one of their impacts is that they act as buffers, that is, they increase the ability of water to withstand a change in pH. This means that you'd have to add more acid or base to the tank to change the pH. Because acid is produced by a freshwater aquarium, soft water tends to become slightly acidic, whereas hard water usually remains around 7.4 to 8.
That doesn't mean your water is hard, because mine is 7.4 out of the tap and extremely soft.

What I'm getting at is that the hardness of the water is more important than the pH to the health of the fish, and it can be used to predict the final pH (because although my water is 7.4 out of the tap most of my tanks operate at around 6.6 pH.)
So if you could get your hardness tested it would be really good.

Generally if you're in a soft water area it's easier to stock. Tetras are ideal inhabitants for a tank that size, as are rasboras, small danios (like the celestial pearl and the zebra) and very small (cherry) barbs. I would not recommend any barbs except cherries as they need large schools (12+) to reduce their aggression and you can't fit that many in a small tank.
If you've got your heart set on a betta things get a bit more complicated. Bettas have long flowing fins. Most tetras and barbs, and a lot of danios and rasboras, really like to nibble on long flowing fins. Bettas like to chase and attack fish that nibble their fins.
Read as: don't keep bettas with most small schooling fish. If you really want a betta, you could consider harlequin rasboras and/or platys. No guppies, generally speaking no tetras, certainly no barbs.
You could consider a dwarf gourami. Related to a betta, similar in size, males very colourful but without those irresistible long fins. Dwarf gouramis can be kept with just about any gentle community fish, so your tetras, cherry barbs, danios, rasboras etc. are in.

Bottom dwellers: otocinclus usually get mentioned. They are very small, schooling catfish. Personally I don't recommend them to anybody without several years of experience keeping fish. They are among the most difficult of freshwater fish to keep alive. Pygmy corys are a better option. They are far more active and playful, easy to care for and adapt to a wide range of water conditions. The three true pymy cory species are Corydoras pygmaeus, C. hastatus and C. habrosus. My personal preferance is C. habrosus because of the beautiful markings but they're all easy. Loaches get too big for your tank. THere are a few (like the dwarf chained or khulii) that you could consider keeping in that size tank, but because they need to be kept in groups you wouldn't be able to have anything else. Shrimp are fine, a small group of shrimp in that tank would look fantastic just make sure you choose fish that wont' bother them.


If your water is medium hard, your best options are tougher tetras and rasboras (ie you'd get away with neons and harlequin rasboras, but probably not with, say, ember tetras and boraras brigittae.) You could still have pygmy corys and shrimp plus some of the hardwater species like guppies and platys. (Platys are fine in soft water, guppies might not be.)

If the water is really hard, stick with platys, mollies and shrimp, and maybe some glassfish.

 

[cramman]

Thanks for the replies. Excellent stuff. I'dd add it too my notes.

I'll try and answer the questions.

Filtration, I have a fluval plus 2. I thought it should be ok for the size of the tank. To be honest it was a recognised make.

I think, 50 litres is approx 13 gallon.

I'll have a look about for hoods. May have a pop at making one myself while the tank cycles.

No idea about the water hardness but I'll look into checking that. I have a API test kit by the way, so testing for everything I need to I think. Well, at the minute, just amonia really.

Good advice on the lights, I'll have a look around.
Heater is on it's way.

As for plants, think I'll stick with the simple plants as advised. i prefer the look of real plants but if it becomes a PITA they may have to go.

Thanks again.