Upgrading to a bigger tank

[Pleco1st]

Hello all,
So I'm new to the site as a member but I have read through many posts while searching questions online and I'd thought I'd try a more direct method so any advice is appreciated.

We currently have a 10 gal freshwater tank that the current inhabitants are: 1 common pleco about 7in long and a blue dwarf gourami. We use a 50 watt heater and a simple over the back Aqueon quiet flow filter. We use standard aquarium gravel and mostly fake plants. We have 1 live plant which grows from a piece of wood that we got for our pleco to chew on. We also have a 1.5 gal betta tank that we use for 2 African dwarf frogs with sand substrate and a silk plant with a curved rock they hide under.

We recently bought a 40 gal breeder tank from Petco during their dollar per gallon sale because our pleco is rapidly out growing this 10 gal. We are interested in transferring the pleco, gourami and dwarf frogs into this new tank and then possibly getting a betta as well. We want to do a planted tank but we're not really sure where to start.

I've read that some pleco's destroy and up root the plants and we don't want that but he is going to have plenty of hiding places and we feed him algae wafers, seaweed and zucchini so, should he be fine? He's never done any digging in the current tank. We want to do low/medium light/maintenance plants but we're not sure what type of lighting we are going to need or even what is recommended? (We have not purchased anything besides the tank and stand, no lights hood filter or anything)

Also going forward what type of substrate do we need to keep plants healthy in? What type of filter should we use? We were looking into fully submersible fluval filer, the under-gravel filters and/or a canister filter and were wondering what you would recommend? What are the pros and cons of each? How do the canister filters work? We want one that does not have much current for the frogs and possibly a betta or one that we can adjust the current.

Should we use our current heater and just buy one more and put one on each side of the 40 gal or would it be better/easier to just buy a bigger heater and use one?

I'm sure I've forgotten some of our questions but for now that's all I have. Please add information on anything I may be overlooking/forgot. Any and all advice and comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks so much

 

[vanimal]

Well the Pleco will outgrow the 40 gallon breeder. For plants the best substrate is Flourite IMO or you can use normal gravel/sand with root tabs and ferts. For a filter I would use a HOB because IMO a canister is pointless on a tank smaller than 75 gallons. Under gravel filters are horrible and I think if you want low current filter you should use a few sponge filters. Most consider them bad filters but in reality they do an excellent job with biological filtration and a good job with mechanical as well (a lot more water flows through them than you would think). They are also pretty cheap, but you have to make sure the powerhead or bubbler you're using is adequate for your tank size. Plecos usually don't do well in planted tanks unless they're Bristlenoses or Rubberlips.