70l tank

[mistboi]

I was wanting to know what kind of fish you could have in a 70 litre tank and how many i could have, im interested in some tetras but dont know how many i can have without it being too stressful on the fish

Any help appreciated !

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

 

[Essjay]

The reason Colin asked those questions is:
Some fish need more swimming room than others, so they need a longer tank. Tanks vary in shape from shallow and long to tall and narrow, and we need to know which yours is.
Freshwater fish come from water which is hard or soft or in between. We need to choose fish which come from water with similar hardness to our tap water.

 

[mistboi]

the dimensions of the tank are 58cm x 30cm x 45cm

 

[Barry Tetra]

the dimensions of the tank are 58cm x 30cm x 45cm

What about your KH GH? Is the tank fully cycled?

 

[mistboi]

What about your KH GH? Is the tank fully cycled?

i dont have the tank yet but planning on getting it sometime in the future

 

[Colin_T]

If you don't have the tank yet, look for a bigger tank and see what is available. A 2 foot tank is small and limits you to what you can keep. If you go to a 3 foot tank, it gives you a much bigger choice of fish to keep.

 

[Barry Tetra]

First, you need a tank and you need to cycle a tank first, cycle a tank is when you put ammonia and nitrite down to 0 by using nitrosomonas bacteria to "eat" ammonia and turn them to nitrite then another bacteria name nitrobacter and nitro spira will "eat" nitrite and turn them to nitrate. You could also buy this bacteria in the bottle at fish store. Secondly you need to test GH and KH of your water or let your LFS (local fish store) test it for you. And then you can buy fishes.

 

[mistboi]

If you don't have the tank yet, look for a bigger tank and see what is available. A 2 foot tank is small and limits you to what you can keep. If you go to a 3 foot tank, it gives you a much bigger choice of fish to keep.

ok thanks for the advice

 

[Essjay]

This is how to cycle a tank

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

You can also use Tetra Safe Start to make the cycle go faster. Fish shops will not tell you about cycling, but I would read that link to see why it is important.

We do need to know the hardness of your tap water. Look on your water company's website for hardness. If they give it, you need a number rather than some vague words, and the unit of measurement as UK water companies use some odd units. Hardness varies considerably in the UK, form very hard in the south east to very soft in most of Scotland.

 

[mistboi]

This is how to cycle a tank

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

You can also use Tetra Safe Start to make the cycle go faster. Fish shops will not tell you about cycling, but I would read that link to see why it is important.

We do need to know the hardness of your tap water. Look on your water company's website for hardness. If they give it, you need a number rather than some vague words, and the unit of measurement as UK water companies use some odd units. Hardness varies considerably in the UK, form very hard in the south east to very soft in most of Scotland.

this all seems confusing but i get how it all works but once you understand it all is it really that hard or is it second nature at that point

 

[Essjay]

It's not really hard. The main point to understand is that you need to have 2 colonies of bacteria in the tank before getting fish. Tetra Safe Start contains these bacteria but you need to allow them to settle in and grow more of them. The way to get them to grow is to feed them - the first bacteria feed on ammonia, so we add that from a bottle. They turn the ammonia into nitrite, and the second bacteria eat that. When you have enough bacteria to eat a certain amount of ammonia, and the nitrite made from it, in 24 hours you know there are enough bacteria to support a tank of fish.
The link contains a step by step 'how to' method for doing this. As long as you follow the instructions you don't actually need to understand what it all means.
Once the tank is cycled and there are fish in it, fish waste provides the ammonia to feed the bacteria.


There is an alternative - lots of live plants in the tank. They use ammonia as fertiliser so they use it instead of the bacteria. But this method depends on whether you want to have live plants or fake ones.

 

[mistboi]

It's not really hard. The main point to understand is that you need to have 2 colonies of bacteria in the tank before getting fish. Tetra Safe Start contains these bacteria but you need to allow them to settle in and grow more of them. The way to get them to grow is to feed them - the first bacteria feed on ammonia, so we add that from a bottle. They turn the ammonia into nitrite, and the second bacteria eat that. When you have enough bacteria to eat a certain amount of ammonia, and the nitrite made from it, in 24 hours you know there are enough bacteria to support a tank of fish.
The link contains a step by step 'how to' method for doing this. As long as you follow the instructions you don't actually need to understand what it all means.
Once the tank is cycled and there are fish in it, fish waste provides the ammonia to feed the bacteria.


There is an alternative - lots of live plants in the tank. They use ammonia as fertiliser so they use it instead of the bacteria. But this method depends on whether you want to have live plants or fake ones.

i plan on getting some living plants so will i still need to do this method or can i skip it or can i do them both ?

 

[Essjay]

It depends on how many plants you plan on getting. If it's just 2 or 3, you need to cycle the tank before planting them, but if you intend a fair number, just plant the tank, wait until you are sure the plants are growing and not about to die, then get fish a few at a time. Monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels every day until you are sure they remain at zero, then add the next batch of fish.
Floating plants are particularly good; they live on the surface of the water so they are very near the lights and they can get carbon dioxide from the air, these are the other things plants need besides ammonia to grow well.