New tank with visitors

[Adognamedboo]

Iv read so much online my brain hurts so can anyone advise?
I'm just cycling our little tank, which seems to be going well.
I had planned to put one Betta in it, but now DD (whose tank it is officially) has asked for a small group of neon tetras.
The tank is only 28l, which iv read I can have 6 tetra in, does that seem right? As it's so small do I get all of them together or get 3 then 3 more later?
Also, we appear to have hitchhiker's from a plant ( Google seems to think they're bladder snails). Do I need to get rid of them now? I'm using fish flakes to cycle so surely stopping feeding the tank to starve the snails won't work???
Help

[mooseinthehoos]

I know it's a bit late in replying, what did you decide to do in the end?

A betta would probably be better in a 28l, and they are a good beginner fish and will eat the snails especially if you squish them against the glass first, tasty snack!

[Adognamedboo]

We got 3 guppies (boys) who have settled in well.
I read so much online my brain melted so stuck with something easy.
The snails haven't multiplied at all, but the man at the fish shop said an assassin snail will eat them if they get out of control.

[bunnygeek]

Monitor the Guppies carefully - they are quite active fish so a 28 litre is definitely on the small side for them, they're better in 60 litres plus. The very small volume also means you've got no margin for error with issues with water quality.

Cycling can be a bit mind boggling, but I see it as fishkeeping isn't fishkeeping, it's water keeping. Your job is to keep the water healthy, when the water is healthy it will look after your fish (apart from feeding of course!). What keeps the water healthy is teeny tiny bacteria in your filter media - those are the real animals you're keeping. It's that bacteria which eats up fish poop and turns it from toxic waste into something much more manageable for the fish.

The three main elements in cycling are ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites are deadly and will kill fish, and not immediately, they burn the fish from the inside out :( nitrates are far less toxic and normal in an established tank (although not at very high levels).

If you use a liquid test kit, such as the API master test kit, and test your water, a healthy tank will have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and between 10-40ppm of nitrates. ANY reading other than zero of ammonia or nitrites and you need to do a partial water change immediately, reduce feeding and monitor carefully.

[Adognamedboo]

The guppies are very active, they seem fine zipping around the tank in between the plants, but they're only tiny at the moment and I'm well aware they will grow.
I'm making plans for 100l in the lounge in the near future but we don't have the space at the moment.
I cycled the tank before and planted it well, but still testing the water daily as I don't want to lose them!

[Adognamedboo]

Tank pic