New member

[Melmar2060]

Hi everyone,I joined up today and I'm looking forward to chatting and seeking advice. I kept tropical fish many years ago and then had a break. I'm ready to start again and have set up a tank. I'm going to start with fish that are suitable for a novice any suggestions please. My tank is 68 litres and I've been told I can have about 20 small fish.
I've been reading about the setting up cycle and was thinking of starting with 4 zebra danios.
Can anyone tell me whether I should add salt to the water? I never did with my previous tank, but have been reading that it should be added. Any feedback on anything to do with setting up a tank would be gratefully received.
Many thanks.

 

[mistersprinkles]

The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling - Aquarium Advice

Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

^You have three options to start your tank out. Fishless cycling, fish in cycling, and media transfer. Fishless and fish in cycling are described in the links above. Please give them a read.

Media transfer is the easiest option as you just take a significant amout of biomedia out of somebody else's tank (a fellow fishkeeper, the store, etc) and put it in your filter. Done deal. Now you can add a small number of fish and start ammonia and nitrite free.

As far as adding salt is concerned, there are species that can tolerate some salt in the water and species that can not. Generally, salt is not needed except for brackish water fish. And that's marine salt (ie, instant ocean), not kosher/table/sea salt.

As far as keeping about 20 small fish, that's accurate, but very small fish, like chili rasboras or mosquito fish or celestial pearl danios. You only have a 15 US Gal tank.

You can keep slightly larger (but still small) fish as well as a centerpiece.

You could keep, for example,

1 honey gourami
10 celestial pearl danios
15 cherry shrimp

 

[Melmar2060]

Thank you for your reply and the links, you have given me some very useful info. I am going to try fish in cycling and have read up on how to go about this. Thanks for your suggestions for stocking the tank, I was hoping to have one slightly larger fish as a centrepiece as you suggest.
Thanks again for the advice.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[Melmar2060]

Thank you for your message. I'm enjoying being a member already.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Thank you for your reply and the links, you have given me some very useful info. I am going to try fish in cycling and have read up on how to go about this. Thanks for your suggestions for stocking the tank, I was hoping to have one slightly larger fish as a centrepiece as you suggest.
Thanks again for the advice.

Just remember that fish-in cycling requires a tremendous amount of work on your part, with constant water changes and constant water testing. It'll cost you more money too as you'll go through a whole bottle of water conditioner and almost a whole bottle of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate liquid tests.

You sure you can't do media transfer? My local fish store happily hands over cycled media. Yours might too.

 

[Melmar2060]

Just remember that fish-in cycling requires a tremendous amount of work on your part, with constant water changes and constant water testing. It'll cost you more money too as you'll go through a whole bottle of water conditioner and almost a whole bottle of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate liquid tests. You sure you can't do media transfer? My local fish store happily hands over cycled media. Yours might too.

I will be visiting them at the end of the week, I'll ask if they would do this, they seemed helpful when I last visited them. It's worth a try.

 

[mistersprinkles]

I will be visiting them at the end of the week, I'll ask if they would do this, they seemed helpful when I last visited them. It's worth a try.

You can pick up the used media and some fish at the same time. When you get home just put the used media in your filter.

Don't get too many fish. Try to go by the amount of filter media you get and how many fish that filter media was supporting.

(Example: The last time I did it, I took a sponge filter out of a Mbuna tank that had 2 sponge filters and housed about 20 medium fish (3") so I went with about 1/4 that amount of fish.)

And remember, when you get fish, you can't just dump them in the tank. Float the bag for a while for the temperature to get the same, then open the bag, pour a bit of water in from your tank, and wait. Repeat this a few times until the fish is in mostly your water, then release it.