My setup for comments and advice

[Fish_Tank]

Hi all, I am establishing a new aquarium and would like some feed back as to what I am doing. I have spoken to the aquarium guy I use and he seems to know what he is on about but hey I'm open to opinions.

I have:

36"Lx14"Wx16"H Tank
Under gravel filter coving the entire bottom of the tank.
125W heater

I am now establishing the tank with 10 neon tetras and 2 corydoras. I will be adding:

2 x 4" Whiptail Catfish
2 x 2" Bristlenose Catfish
5 x Glass Catfish (mid level feeders and swimmers)
3 x Black Tail Sharks

ALL of the Catfish have been chosen by the wife and I think it can be done. I have one large piece of driftwood in at the moment and will add a couple more pieces to help all the bottom feeders. The Sharks I'm told are placid and the ground cover should protect the Whiptails if any "nippers" should be found.

Any comments are welcome.

 

[meegosh]

First off I would ditch the under gravel filter (UGF). They were all the rage years ago but now there have been advancements in filtration. Most people use either Hang-on-back (HOB) filters like the AquaClear brand, or canister filters. UGF's are hard to clean and don't really do a good job of filtering. It also limits you as you cannot grow live plants with roots. They will get tangled in the plates and make it even harder to clean.

I'm not sure how big those sharks will get but I think they might be too big for a 30g long. If you just started the tank up and added the neons and corys, you are going to have to do a lot of water changes since your tank is not cycled. I would suggest clicking the articles link at the top of the page and reading about the Nitrogen Cycle.

 

[missileman]

My opinions:
Undergravel filters are less efficient and harder to clean than other types.
Neons and cory's are not the best choices for cycling a tank IMO.
Test the water at least every other day, do partial water changes if amonia or nitrite get near 1ppm and don't add any more fish until your tank is fully cycled (google "aquarium cycling")
Too many fish.
Your tank is about 30 gallons based on your measurements, using the 1" per gallon general rule using adult size of the fish. I even used the low end adult size, the numbers should be higher (in particular the BN pleco and whiptail are messier fish and should count even more than I did )

neon @ 1" ea. x10 =10"
Cory @ 3" ea. X2 =6" (up to 5" ea. depending on species)
Whiptail @ 4" ea. X2 = 8" (6" but subtrated tail)
Bristlenose @ 4" ea. X2 =8" (up to 5")
Glass cat @ 2" ea. X5 = 10" (I went by the size of mine but they get up to 6" ea.)
Shark @ 4" ea. X3 =12" (could not find black tail but redtail and rainbow get up to 6")
Total = 54" at the low end.
PS: I just read your other posts, keeping fish for 6 years I guess you should already know all this.
If you haven't already you can take old filter media from your existing tanks to jumpstart this one with enough bacteria from your other tanks you can get through your cycle with this one with not alot of problems at all.