# New Fish Tank!



## lukeandhisfish (Jan 14, 2014)

Hello all,

I've just gone and bought myself a 60L fish tank, planning on keeping cold water fish. At the moment it's just a tank, some stones and a filter, the water has had the chlorine removing stuff added to it.

Im going to start cycling the tank as soon as i get some ammonia and a water testing kit... but had a few questions that i couldn't easily find the answer to online, would love it if any of you could help...

1) when is i safe to add live plants to the fish tank? can this be done during cycling or will it have to wait till the nitrogen levels are at zero?

2) when it comes to growing live plants what kind of substrate do they need to grow on - obviously not soil but do i need to buy something else for the plants to grow on?

3) are there any particular 'rules' about what you can and can't put in the tank to decorate it? e.g. if i find a nice rock at the beach or sea shells can they go in the tank (after they've had a thorough clean), or a beer bottle - things like that which would make the tank look a bit more interesting?

4) anyone have any suggestions for starter fish! I'd also like some shrimp or something like that to go in too - for a 12 gallon tank assuming each fish is about 1 inch long then how many fish and shrimp can i have together??

5) does anyone have any other suggestions to make my first fish experience a smooth ride?

 bit long winded but I'm pretty excited and these things seem like things that would be easier to learn from someone who's done this all before rather than reading through a long book about it!

thans!


----------



## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Hi  Welcome to the world of fish keeping! And can I just say it's great to see someone who's done their research and is starting off with a fishless cycle :thumbsup:

1) Opinions vary on this, but the general consensus seems to be that it's fine to add plants during the cycle so long as you don't put the tem up too high - around 28 C should be fine for most plants. Without plants you can whack it up a bit higher which may speed the cycle a little, but I don't think it makes that much difference really. I know you're going for a coldwater tank, but it's still worth investing in a heater as it will speed the cycle, and also increases the variety of fish you can get as there are many temperate species that may just need the heater on occasionally during the winter so that the temp doesn't drop too far (see my answer to 4) below!)

2) Sand or gravel will be fine. You can get special planting substrates and put a layer of this beneath the sand/gravel, but they can be quite expensive and are not really necessary for the 'easier' plants. I buy substrate capsules instead and push them into the sand near the roots to give the plants a boost 

3) Someone else asked this question recently - I'll dig out the link to their thread in a minute 

4) There are very few true coldwater species that can live in a 60l - you're pretty much limited to white cloud mountain minnows, which are great little fish and come in normal (silvery) or gold varieties, but if you want more of a mixture of fish, consider adding a heater. If you set the heater to say 20 C, it will only come on when the temp falls below this, so will hardly use up any electricity, and there are several fish that thrice at these temperatures - some examples are gold barbs, zebra danios, peppered cory. Or set the temp a little higher (say 24 C) and there's a whole world of possibilities  I'm not so up on shrimp, but I believe most types require tropical temps too. In terms of how many fish to get, have a look at AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor, enter your tank dimensions and stocking ideas, and it should give you an idea of what sort of stocking levels you can fit 

5) You seem to have it pretty much covered - just be sure to research a species thoroughly before you buy; be patient with the fishless cycle (if you can get hold of a bit of mature media from a fishkeeping friend, this will speed things up a lot); and feel free to keep asking questions!


----------



## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Here's the link to the thread on tank decor: http://www.petforums.co.uk/fish-keeping-chat/343578-tank-decoration.html

And here's a link to a great article on fishless cycling, that you may find useful: Tropical Fish Forums UK - Setting up your new Aquarium


----------



## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

Hi there. Firstly great news that you have a new tank, and better so that you are going to do a full fishless cycle!

You can have plants in for the cycle - I certainly did - but just be aware that a fishless cycle is best performed at between 25-30C which, if you plan on using this as a cold water set up, will be too hot for plants that are happy at lower temps. So you might want to consider what plants you want to put in, and whether they can survive the high temps and be happy at the low temperature you keep the tank at later.

As for growing them in the tank - you can get special substrates for plants, but they will take root within sand or gravel substrate. Again, knowing what kind of plants you can have in a cool tank will help you decide what you need for them. Someone else will better be able to answer your questions on what they need. (there's a website/shop called 'aquarium gardens' and on another fish forum I am on has someone from it who will answer any plant questions - I will find the link for you).

Debris or objects from the beach may contain contaminants that may leach into your water, and if not toxic may simply swing the pH in an undesirable way! Seashells for example will make the water very hard and alkaline because they are made of calcium carbonate. It is better to stick with decor that is designed for aquariums to be on the safe side. I added a few bits of ceramic pottery to my tank, the kind that aquarium plants actually came sold in. But everything else I got in a shop.

You can get bogwood and coconut shells and such like which have living plants growing on them, they make very attractive natural-looking decor that your fish will look really good against.

As for fish - depends on the temperature of the tank. Completely unheated but kept in a room that doesn't get too cold: white cloud mountain minnows are the obvious choice. You can also get danios for cool water. But beyond that the other species I know of either need a bigger tank, or need a heater just to make sure the temp doesn't drop too low. Your options include a few cory species (sand or very smooth gravel substrate only),odessa and golden barbs, rainbow shiners, a couple of loach species. Bigger again there's the rosy barb, goldfish, and something else I forgot - but these need BIG tanks, and 60L not even close to big enough. 

If you are willing to buy a heater your optinos for small fish that will be happy in a 60L tank increase dramatically. You could go for a sub-tropical setup and get some tetra species that are ok down to 20C. There's more species but I can't remember them all.

My 100L temperate tank has golden and odessa barbs, white clouds and rainbow shiners. I also kept green fire tetras and panda cory at 20-22C.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about inverts, but someone else might.


----------



## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

Naomi you beat me to it, lol.

Here's the two links I said:

Aquarium Gardens| Aquarium Plants UK Specialist| Live Tropical Aquatic Plants

The Planted Aquarium.


----------



## lukeandhisfish (Jan 14, 2014)

thanks a bunch for replying you guys, really helpful information! wish me luck! :biggrin:


----------



## HenryJordan (Jan 7, 2014)

Hey lukeandhisfish! Good luck and have a nice time with your fishes.


----------



## Meezey (Jan 29, 2013)

Slightly different but I'm hopefully *fingers crossed* a fishless cycle on a planted tropical tank and had no issues but maybe totally different as your doing a cold water tank lol


----------

