dskidmore
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have a 75 gallon aquarium sitting in the attic. I took it down because where I live now the tap water is perfect for breeding hair algae, and I've never been able to fight it in the 75 gallon. I have a little 10 gallon and a 2.5 gallon that I buy bottled water for, and use plants for nutrient export more than water changes. We're moving soon to a different water district, so I've got a good chance of getting rid of the hair algae problem, and even if I don't, this is where I want to live long term, so I'm willing to invest in an RO unit if that's what it takes.
Last time I had the tank set up, it was a home for cherry shrimp. I love watching large communities of small critters, but the shrimp pretty much only inhabit surfaces, and are hard to see as they hide among the plants. I'm thinking this time I want something more active, that will school around the tank. I'm thinking of something mundane like neons or cardinals. Any other suggestions for small colorful schooling fish?
The tank has a small particle filter, but depends on plants for the biological filtration. This has worked well in the past for me, but the tank is more susceptible to power outage issues than a tank that uses mostly bacteria to detoxify nitrogen compounds, requiring large water changes to stay ahead of things. The tank has a tempered bottom, but I may someday drill the back of it if I keep a species with high filtration requirements.
I've always enjoyed otocinclus catfish, but they are so fragile, and doing the extra emergency water changes in a large tank will be difficult. I'd rather stick to smaller colonies of them in smaller tanks.
And yes, I know about fishless cycling and building up stock slowly. I intend to fully plant the tank with fast growing stem plants and cycle it via the "feeding invisible fish" method, then add maybe 6 of those little guys to the 75 gallon tank at a time.
The 2.5 gallon currently holds a breeding colony of Red Cherry Shrimp, the 10 gallon holds a lonely tiger barb. I decided not to replace his fallen comrades until after the move. Keeping him and his new friends in the 10 gallon separate from the new smaller fish is definitely an option.
We don't move until January, and I will wait for warmer weather before trying to transport new fish to the house, so there is lots of time to plan...
Last time I had the tank set up, it was a home for cherry shrimp. I love watching large communities of small critters, but the shrimp pretty much only inhabit surfaces, and are hard to see as they hide among the plants. I'm thinking this time I want something more active, that will school around the tank. I'm thinking of something mundane like neons or cardinals. Any other suggestions for small colorful schooling fish?
The tank has a small particle filter, but depends on plants for the biological filtration. This has worked well in the past for me, but the tank is more susceptible to power outage issues than a tank that uses mostly bacteria to detoxify nitrogen compounds, requiring large water changes to stay ahead of things. The tank has a tempered bottom, but I may someday drill the back of it if I keep a species with high filtration requirements.
I've always enjoyed otocinclus catfish, but they are so fragile, and doing the extra emergency water changes in a large tank will be difficult. I'd rather stick to smaller colonies of them in smaller tanks.
And yes, I know about fishless cycling and building up stock slowly. I intend to fully plant the tank with fast growing stem plants and cycle it via the "feeding invisible fish" method, then add maybe 6 of those little guys to the 75 gallon tank at a time.
The 2.5 gallon currently holds a breeding colony of Red Cherry Shrimp, the 10 gallon holds a lonely tiger barb. I decided not to replace his fallen comrades until after the move. Keeping him and his new friends in the 10 gallon separate from the new smaller fish is definitely an option.
We don't move until January, and I will wait for warmer weather before trying to transport new fish to the house, so there is lots of time to plan...
