Stocking a 60L

[snowwolf1313]

Im looking for suggestions for stocking my 60L tank, im worried theres not enough room for schooling fish, ive kept betas when i was younger so i was wondering if anyone has some cool fish that would live happily ^^

 

[Essjay]

How long is the tank (my old 60 litre was 60 cm), and do you have hard or soft water? You should be able to find your hardness on your water supplier's website - you need a number and the unit of measurement (they could use any one of half a dozen units).

There are many small fish suitable, once we know the details we can narrow things down a bit.



Edit - if you are in the UK and can't find your hardness, tell us the name of the water company and we'll look.

 

[snowwolf1313]

58cm L and 30cm W im looking at the water and i have no idea haha i do live in the uk and im with severn trent

 

[Essjay]

58 cm is a good length for a 60 litre tank, now we just need your hardness.

Check my water quality | Water Quality | My Supply | Severn Trent Water

Find out more about your water, what's in it and even dishwasher settings by searching with your postcode.

www.stwater.co.uk

About half way down the page in the link is a box to enter your postcode. When you 'check my water' the page will then provide info for your postcode. The first item is hardness, you need the number on the 'hardness German' line.
Fish profiles use one of two units, dH is the same as German degrees, so when we have the number we can convert it into the other unit, ppm (there's a hardness converter in the calculator on here).


It's worth scrolling a bit further down the page to the table, and look for your nitrate level. Nitrate is the most difficult to measure of our testers so knowing what your tap water is to compare to the test kit is useful.

 

[snowwolf1313]

It says the value is 9.41 on hardness German cant see anything on nitrate

 

[Essjay]

Go further down the page below hardness and there should be a table with a lot of parameters, starting dichlorethane, aldrin, aluminium, ammonium, down to nickel, nitrite, nitrate......

9.41 dH is at the top end of soft going on to middling. It converts to 168 ppm. Those are the two numbers you need when looking at fish profiles. There are many fish which will be OK in this level, as long as you avoid hard water fish and those species which must have very soft water.
Many of the smaller tetras would be OK as would fish such as harlequin rasboras. Are they any species you particularly like? Since shops won't be open for a few days now, you could spend your time looking at Seriously Fish https://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/. The profiles on there give the hardness, pH and temperature needed by species, together with the size tank they need, what food they eat, any quirks they have such as needing a group etc.

 

[snowwolf1313]

Thanks for the help ^^ ill have a look though and see what i like best ^^