Hardy fish for planted tank

[khua]

Im trying to start a 55 gallon planted tank and want to know what hardy fish I can keep in it. Ive seen tetras in planted and they look great but I read that they like soft water and I have hard water where I live. Can someone please tell me what kind of fish I can put in there? Thanks

My water parameters

Ph: 8.2
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Ammonia: 0
GH and KH: 140-200 ppm

 

[Autumnsky]

There are many Tetras.

What other types of fish have caught your eye? That is a good sized tank and you can do a number of different things with its stocking.

It is good to build for the fish you want the most minding your water parameters so you don't need to stress over the water conditions for the fish.

So guessing you would like a school of something?

 

[Autumnsky]

Buenos Aires, Gold Priscilla Tetra, Penguin and Emperor Tetras, and use a bunch of DW to naturally lower pH.

 

[khua]

I might go with the emperor and Priscilla tetra. Are there any other plant friendly schooling fish that can survive in my tank?

 

[sc166]

Tetras are very hardy fish and beautiful to watch in the tank. I have neon tetra and gold neon tetra in my tank and I've never had and problem with them. I highly recommend them!


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[ArtistGardener]

I have hard water too from a city well (varies from 8.0 to 8.4). I keep all kinds of soft water fish in my planted tanks and they are fine: glowlight tetras, neon tetras, harlequin rasboras, ember tetras..... ) Live plants and driftwood both help soften the water, but you would be surprised at how well fish can adapt. Many local fishkeepers are now even breeding some soft water fish in our hard water. You can check at your fish store (assuming they are reputable and good stewards of their stock) if they keep their fish in tapwater or if it is a mix of R.O. and tap. My local store only keep the most sensitive in mixed water (discus, for example).

 

[khua]

I didn't know live plants softens water. If I had known I would've started planted tanks years ago. Thank you

 

[ArtistGardener]

Plant decomposition can reduce pH but of course can also create ammonia. The living plants themselves probably don't do much in the way of lowering pH. In a heavily planted tank with proper light, the plants use up the ammonia formed by decomposition. In a sparsely planted tank too many dead leaves are a problem. In really hard water like ours, even driftwood doesn't lower the pH significantly because the carbonates buffer the water. Regardless, many plants and fish can adapt to hard, alkaline water. Your tank might not look like those tanks with more acidic water, but it can still look great. Good luck!

 

[khua]

I can setup a spare 10 and mix RO and tap water then slowly transition them to harder water . I had neon tetras in the past but they didn't survive, so I'm hoping this can help.

 

[RackinRocky]

I was also going to suggest harlequin rasboras. Very nice schooling fish. Attractive, don't cause trouble, and are tough as nails.

 

[khua]

Thanks for the help. I'll pick up some emperor and harlequins this weekend

 

[CowMoo]

Platies

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[khua]

I have livebearers in my other tanks and want to try something new in this tank. They breed way to often lol

 

[Autumnsky]

FYI - Emperors come in regular and black (I ended up getting the black ones, by accident because they were so pale, to go with my regular ones, I didn't know there were black ones too, oops)

Harlequins Trigonostigma Heteromorpha... come in regular and purple or black and Golden, then there are the others, T. espei - aka Lambchop, T. Hengeli have an orange stripe with the black and these last 2 sort of look similar to traditional Harlequins. So you can be sure to know what you are getting!