30 gallon long ideas.

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TJs

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Messages
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Hi all. Fairly new to the forum. There's a ton of knowledge here and I think I'm on here scrolling thru everything more than I work. Its most definitely my new favorite thing besides the actual hobby itself. Anyways, I'm just looking for advise as to what to do with a 30 long. It's just sitting around collecting dust and I actually bought it new about 2 years ago. Started a community tank with it, then quickly upgraded to a 75. Well now, I will be getting a 150 this weekend and slowly changing over my community to that. I already have plans to do a Lake Malawi Cichlid tank with the 75. The 30 sits in my garage and every time I walk by it, I can't help but wonder why I'm not putting it to use and what I would even stock it with since I already have a community and will slowly be building the cichlid setup. I don't have any experience with planted so I'm not sure I'd want to delve into that just yet but depending on the stock it would be a possibility. Any input, insight and advise is greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thank you all in advance ?
 
You could do a betta sorority.

I have some more ideas I can post later but I am busy, sorry!

Yeah I'd love to hear em. Dumb question I'm sure, but I'm assuming you mean all female? And ya know, I have about zero experience with Bettas other than the old, single betta in an old school gold fish bowl with no filtration, from years ago as a kid. Wow. Poor fish. But at least I do remember changing the water every week.
 
What's in the community tank now?

I have a gold and a blue ram, powder blue gorami, albino rainbow 7 tiger barbs, a pictus, 1 very small clown loach which I will be adding 2 more after this weekend when I get the 150 up and running ok. A common pleco, a small shoal of 10 neon tetras and 4 silver dollars. Which is why I am doubling the size of the aquarium.
 
I have a gold and a blue ram, powder blue gorami, albino rainbow 7 tiger barbs, a pictus, 1 very small clown loach which I will be adding 2 more after this weekend when I get the 150 up and running ok. A common pleco, a small shoal of 10 neon tetras and 4 silver dollars. Which is why I am doubling the size of the aquarium.

I realize how that sounds now, haha. The silver dollars aren't the only reason I'm upgrading, just the stock I have in general. I may add a few more fish eventually aside from the clowns.
 
Yes all female. And you want to do odd numbers also.

You could do:

1 Figure 8 Puffer

or

Killi Fish

or

6 Dwarf Puffers

or

Shrimp

What kind of tank are you interested in anyways?
 
Yes all female. And you want to do odd numbers also.

You could do:

1 Figure 8 Puffer

or

Killi Fish

or

6 Dwarf Puffers

or

Shrimp

What kind of tank are you interested in anyways?

You know honestly, I didn't have anything specific in mind. That's why I was seeing what everyone else's idea were. I like the puffer idea. I've always kinda wanted one just never had the right setup or stock for em. I also like the idea of a bunch of shrimp. But if I did that I'd want it planted and I don't know much about the lighting, types of plants ect.
 
Well you could always start out with low light plants. Crypts, Anubias, Java Moss, Java Fern, Onion Plant, Valls, etc. Those should be okay with basic lighting.

There's lots of cool rainbow fish and you could even do a brackish tank with Bumblebee Gobies.
 
Well you could always start out with low light plants. Crypts, Anubias, Java Moss, Java Fern, Onion Plant, Valls, etc. Those should be okay with basic lighting.

There's lots of cool rainbow fish and you could even do a brackish tank with Bumblebee Gobies.

Again, something else I have never done. Brackish. I have done saltwater briefly, and of course fresh for a few years now but how do you do brackish? Would you have to just mix it yourself? I mean some places do sell saltwater but I'd assume you'd have to make brackish yourself unless you got salt, then diluted it with RO. I think those bumble bees are cool though. And I think brackish would scare me to much not having any experience. What would be really cool but impossible is if I could do a couple colony's of different shrimp with one or two puffers. One can dream right? Haha!
 
Or....
You could do a shelldweller colony. Because a 30g long has a significant footprint you could do any nano type bottom dweller. Sky's the limit man! If it were me I'd do some lowlight plants like previously mentioned, a neocardinia shrimp species and some celestial pearl danio:)
 
Again, something else I have never done. Brackish. I have done saltwater briefly, and of course fresh for a few years now but how do you do brackish? Would you have to just mix it yourself? I mean some places do sell saltwater but I'd assume you'd have to make brackish yourself unless you got salt, then diluted it with RO. I think those bumble bees are cool though. And I think brackish would scare me to much not having any experience. What would be really cool but impossible is if I could do a couple colony's of different shrimp with one or two puffers. One can dream right? Haha!


Yes you just mix it. And you don't have to get it the exactly SG each time you do a PWC, because it is never the same in the wild! As long as it's close it's fine. IMHO I think Brackish would be a lot easier than SW. Usually it's half freshwater and half saltwater. I am going to set up a 10 gal for BB Gobies and buy a trio.

If you wanted to do the puffers and shrimp, you could divide the tank in half, 3 Dwarf Puffers on one side, a colony or two of shrimp on the other.
 
Or....
You could do a shelldweller colony. Because a 30g long has a significant footprint you could do any nano type bottom dweller. Sky's the limit man! If it were me I'd do some lowlight plants like previously mentioned, a neocardinia shrimp species and some celestial pearl danio:)

That would be really cool, especially in a ADA/AGA style tank, but that's not low light or easy :lol:
 
Another idea is a apistogramma trio, an angelfish, a big school of rumynose, some kuhlis and a bn pleco.
 
Yeah those are a lot of good options. The sky's the limit, I just needed some help getting the though process goin. I'm used to big tanks so I was drawing a blank with ideas. Definitely a lot of help. Thanks guys!!
 
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