Loads Of Questions

Firstly, good morning and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all

Rather than bother you with everything this morning, I have already done an internet search and I think I've sussed out one of my questions (New tank, fishless cycle + cloudy water ie bacteria started) That's good?

1) Now, to start this cycle off I added a scant  teaspoon of ammonia to my 21 litre tank yesterday, filter, pump and lights all working.
I have sent off for a testing kit but it won't be here much before Saturday.  Do I leave it today and add another 1/2 teaspoon tomorrow (bearing in mind that I cannot test the ammonia, nitrite levels yet?

2) Pets at Home say I can have one or two corries for bottom feeders but having read up on them it says they would be better without sharp gravel and I'm not sure if mine constitutes sharp. Grandson gave it to me when he presented us with the tank so I feel I ought to use it. If I add a finer gravel on top it will just sink through.
So could I push most of the original to the back of the tank, where I intend to put in plants and get a finer more rounded gravel (3mm) for the front since I read that gravel should be deeper at the back anyway and that most of the fish "doings" are more likely at the front.

3)  With the one or two corries could I also have a red cherry shrimp? (We will also be getting up to four  Endlers or minnows or similar)

4)  As for plants, again I have been scouring the net and have come up with  plants suitable for beginners like us. So, moss balls, Java fern, Dwarf sagitarria, Ludwiga ripens, Egeria Densa, Green Cabomba. Not all of them of course since it will displace too much water and the tank isn't that big. I just want the fish to be content.

5)  I am not happy with the air pump at the moment, it doesn't produce the "curtain" effect I assumed it would and not much bubble effect. I think because it's a basic pump and maybe not powerful enough.
If I empty out half the tank into a clean bucket, sort out the pump by changing it to a single and put in the plants, then put the water back in would that be OK or will it affect the cloudy bloom that has already started.

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to get it right first time.   

Best Wishes to everyone
Sandra

Happy New Year!

Just to expand on Richard's comment. Cories should ideally be kept in numbers of 6 or more, and I think a 21 litre tank is too small to accommodate this many cories (even the pygmy varieties).

If your water is on the hard side and alkaline then Endlers would be a fine choice for a tank that size. You may want to stick to males only as they breed readily.

Red Cherry Shrimp are fantastic additions to the tank, just remember to dechlorinate the water and not use any foods or treatments containing copper as they are extremely sensitive to both. Red Cherry Shrimp are also very social beings and are my favourite addition to my tank. I'd recommend getting six in a tank that size.

You may also want to consider some nerite snails to keep your glass clean. The horned bumblebee variety remain relatively small and are very attractive.

Good luck with your setup!

Hi Sanjo,

I have a 21 litre tank that I am about to set ip as a shrimpery. I have also had a look at which fish may be suitable. Here are some of the ones i have come up with. I'll be interested to see if any one else can think of reasons why these may not be suitable!!!!

Threadfin rainbow    
Ember tetra   
Galaxy rasbora   
Betta splendens -male
Cherry barb   

All of these are suitable for a tank 30 cm long and a temp of between 20 and 28* C and should be fine in hard water.

Hope that helps!!!!!

FC76

For point 1, the addition of ammonia:

You need to add enough ammonia to get 3.0ppm. If your tank holds 20 litres of water (it will always be less than the stated volume as the substrate, heater, filter etc displace some water) you would need 0.6ml of ammonia solution at 9.5%. A teaspoon, 2.5ml, is way too much I'm afraid.

The level of ammonia must be kept below 8ppm because the wrong species of ammonia eating bacteria grow at that level. And 1ppm ammonia is turned into ~2.5ppm nitrite, and the nitrite eaters are inhibited by nitrite levels over 15ppm. It takes only one addition of ammonia to 6ppm to go above that limit for nitrite. The method here was designed to keep ammonia below 8ppm and nitrite below 15ppm.

Until your test kit arrives, I would remove three quarters of the water from the tank and replace it with new, dechlorinated water - a teaspoonful of ammonia is around 4 times too much. Once you have the test kit, you can check the ammonia level, and either add a bit more to get 3ppm, or do another water change to lower it to 3ppm. It takes around 2 weeks on average to see a drop in ammonia and your test kit should arrive well before that.

As you've only just added the ammonia you won't have grown many bacteria of any species yet. A water change will get the ammonia down to a reasonable level and you can fine tune it once you have the test kit.

The method I've written up (the one in the link in my last post) was devised by a chap on another forum based on the research he's read. At one time, fishless cycling involved adding ammonia to 5ppm, and this was topped up to 5ppm every time the ammonia reading dropped to zero. This is still the method you'll find almost everywhere. But recent research has shown that a properly stocked tank of fish doesn't make anything near 5ppm, so we don't need to cycle using 5ppm.
Adding a lot of ammonia makes so much nitrite that it inhibits the nitrite eaters. Our test kits can't measure as high as 15ppm nitrite, the critical value; test kits just show the highest colour on the chart regardless of how high the level actually is. So we can't know by testing when we have hit that critical value. We have to keep it below 15ppm by limiting the amount of ammonia added.
Research has also shown that the filter bacteria do not die off within hours without food, as used to be thought. They can go for weeks without food, and they go dormant before dying. The longer they are dormant, the longer it takes them to 'wake up' once they have food again. A few days without adding ammonia, as in this method of cycling, will not harm the growth of the bacteria colonies. But other methods on line insist that ammonia must be topped up as soon as it drops.

Be vary wary of shop worker's advice.
Seriously Fish is one of the best websites to check with. They have more fish in their database than this site; they give the minimum tank size for each species and the water parameters the fish need (pH, hardness). And they also suggest tankmates for each species.