My 60 litre Tank

[.:Nikki:.]

I have a 60 litre tank that my brother gave me for my birthday two days ago, I finished setting it up yesterday. Here's what I did following my brothers instructions:

1. Wash the gravel around 5 times
2. Placed the gravel in my tank and spaced it out evenly
3. Filled the tank up with water
4. Put some water conditioning drops in, I think around 15 drops
5. Put in the filter and heater and turned them on.
6. Placed glass lid on top

I was hoping to add some fish i it today but my brother says I have to let is cycle first. When I asked what cycled ment he just told me it when you leave the tank running for around 5 weeks I know he knows more but just insn't bothered to tell me, can anyone tell me what cycling really is?
Also, what kind of fish can I add in my 60 litre tank?
One more question, whats a gallon?

Sorry if some of these questions sound silly

 

[corrosive]

You can go buy some fish after a couple of days, give your lfs(local fish shop) some of your water for testing, but say 6 (fish) at the max... make sure they are hardy fish though, then leave your tank going for a few weeks checking the water daily for ammonia and nitrite and nitrate.

If the levels get too high you can do water changes each day to get them down.

Thats about it for now (i think)

recommended fish:

Betta's 1 MALE ONLY , NEVER PUT TWO MALES TOGETHER.
Sword tails.
Platys.

There are loads more but the 3 above would do nicely, especially the betta.

 

[Link]

A gallon is roughly (and I say roughly) 2 1/2 litres. If you post the size of the tank in inches I'll tell you the gallonage.

Cycling is the Nitrogen cycle. It has three stages:
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Different bacteria convert one into the other and so on until your left with Nitrate, which are taken out with water changes and the plants absorb some. You cant do this as easily without fish as they start the process off. The tank is cycled when the 'process' is finished.

Like Corrosive said, start out with a few hardy fish. I'd wait till the weekend and then the tank will be sorted.
You could add 6 Danios, or a trio of Platies or Guppies.
After a week or better still two, go back and get a few more fish. Maybe a different species. Again just get a few.
Carry on with normal tank maintenance, water changes etc and feed lightly.

Any problems post on here and someone will sort you out

Be patient and dont panic

 

[littleme1969]

You can also try some Stress Zyme.. Some people on here says its useless but I have added to 3 of my tanks and never had any elevated readings that caused concern. Its no substitue for checks but I think it speeds things up and halpe reduce the problems of ammonia spikes which are not good for your fish.

Good luck and hope all goes well!

 

[schizo_fish]

One more question, whats a gallon?

Gallons are a measure of liquids.

A gallon is roughly (and I say roughly) 2 1/2 litres

I also have to correct Link and say that:
in the UK there are 4.5 litres in a gallon,
and in the US there is approximately 3.75 litres per gallon.
This means that a US gallon is smaller than a UK gallon, therefore there are more US gallons than UK gallons in any amount of water.

60 Litres would be approximately 13.3 UK gallons and 16 US gallons.

 

[Link]

I did say roughly )

I was gonna say 4.5 litres but forgot )

 

[sinistral]

Just to throw in my 2c, you might want to check out the pinned topic in this section of the forums titled "Avoiding and Treating New Tank Syndrome". Here is a link to that post. It's very helpful.

I'd also encourage you to buy and read a good beginner book on tropical fish. It's fun to read about your prospective hobbies. If the book is any good, it'll answer a lot of questions you have and can function as a reference as you get more interested in the hobby. Also, they inevitably have pictures of all the beautiful fish you can get (you'll most likely want to get them all-- but don't!).

I don't know what's available in Oz, but I like a book called "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums". I have it and still read it from time to time. HTH~

 

[.:Nikki:.]

Thanks everyone,
I've read the article on cycling and it said that if you cycle with fish there is a rare chance of them living through the process, I don't want to kill fish like this so I'm going to cycle the tank with out them.
My 60 litre tank is approximately 13.3 UK gallons and 16 US gallons, which one should I use? The UK or the US?
I'm going to the Fish Store today with my brother (my brother needs to buy some more betta food) so mabye I can get buy some Stress Zyme. My brother has a testing kit so I can use that to test my tank water, if he lets me use it
I went on this fish site http/www.aquahobby.com/e_gallery.php and found a list of all the different freshwater fish I was wondering if I could add some of these fish inside:

Platy (corrosive and Link did name these fish before)
Rummy-Nose Tetra
Gold Gourami
Albino Cory
Zebra Oto

I don't know how many of these fish I should get or even if I can have them in my tank... Can someone tell me if they are ok or not?
I don't want to have a betta because my brother has tonnes and well I want to have something different.

 

[corrosive]

Oto's and corys are a definite NO.

Get them when your tank is more mature.

 

[.:Nikki:.]

I don't plan to get any of these fish now or anytime soon. I just wanted to know if they would be ok in my tank

 

[Guppylover]

I think you could get:

#3 Platy
#7 Rummy-Nose Tetra
#2 Gold Gourami
#3 Albino Cory
#2 Zebra Oto

That seems ok to me

 

[razberri]

One more question, whats a gallon?

Gallons are a measure of liquids.

A gallon is roughly (and I say roughly) 2 1/2 litres

I also have to correct Link and say that:
in the UK there are 4.5 litres in a gallon,
and in the US there is approximately 3.75 litres per gallon.
This means that a US gallon is smaller than a UK gallon, therefore there are more US gallons than UK gallons in any amount of water.

60 Litres would be approximately 13.3 UK gallons and 16 US gallons.

My water conditioner bottle says how much to use, and says "... per 1 gallon (3.8L)". That's what I've been going by with everything! Inc. how many fish to stock, how many water additives to use, etc. I had no idea a gallon could be two different amounts of water. Why can't people just go metric? sigh...

Platy (corrosive and Link did name these fish before)
Rummy-Nose Tetra
Gold Gourami
Albino Cory
Zebra Oto

Just a note of ccaution: I once thought I'd give rummy nosed tetras a go - they're such pretty fish! They were the first fish I was trying with my Betta so I had no idea what his temperament was. I figured I'd get 2 now, and if all goes well, 2 more later. My betta never touched them but they did start swimming funny by the evening and by morning were dead I had researched them before I bought them a fair bit but after they died I thought I'd research even more. I came across stories of people creating drip systems into a buckt so that the tank water and pet shop water mixes drop by drop. Apparently they take tank changes very hard and have a high death rate. I also read you should never buy any less than 4 at ONCE, or they could die. Lesson learnt. So if you do get them, be very, very careful!

 

[rabbut]

OK, cycling, as above is the establishment of the nitrogen cycle that converts ammonia to nitrate via nitrite. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish above 0.25ppm, and hence why few fish survive the cycling process IMHO, cycling with fish, even with hardy ones, equates to cruelty to animals, and thus I rate the majority of the advise given so far in this thread very poorly. I'm glad the OP is amongst the few whom bothered to do the leg-work of researching how to set-up properly. Fishless cycling using liquid ammonia from the chemists is the humane way of cycling a tank, as it does not pose any risk to any fish Ammonia poisoning will do permanant damage to any fish subjected to it, thus why any fish that do make it through a fish-in cycle usualy die prematurely at a later date. Good on the OP for doing their homework

Rummynose tetras aren't the hardiest of fish, so they need a mature tank (6months or more old). In a mature tank, they will do well, with few people experiencing problems Same with ottos. From your list, here is what I'd add to the tank;

3 Platy (all males or a male and two female to avoid pestering stresses on the females. Each female will kick out 30 fry a month with a male though, and though most won't survive in a community tank, you will quickly become over-run with them in a 60l, so I'd personally get all males. Females can drop up-to 4 lots of fry from one mating and will likely be pregnant upon purcahse)
6 Rummy-Nose Tetra
0 Gold Gourami at 6 inches full grown, they are too big. In that size tank they will also be agressive
[6 Albino Cory or
6 Zebra Oto]

I'd add the zebora ottos and the tetras after 6 months. Filtration will have to be good for that though, as that is a heavy stocking. Also, larger or more regular waterchanges may be needed, say 50% weekly or two 30%'s weekly after adding the ottos and tetras

HTH
Rabbut

 

[alysonpeaches]

Does your brother have a tank? You can speed up the process by having some of his mature filter media, this puts the bacteria in place in your tank to convert the nitrites to nitrates.

If you cycle with fish, zebra danios are very hardy.

 

[Nick16]

Nikki: 1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres. so there you go. are you a newbie to fish keeping? if so start off with hardy easy to keep fish such as tetras, platies, white clouds. anything else dont be afraid to ask!