15 gallon build

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Hello everyone,

As the title says, I'm getting ready to set up a 15 gallon freshwater aquarium. This isn't just going to be used for putting a pet fish in though. I personally am dabbling in the metaphysical and I plan to use this as an experiment to combine the two hobbies

The tank is a 15 gallon tall, so I'll be building up when it comes to aquascaping. For gravel I intend to use small black pebbles and then large, black river stones on top of that. I also want to use slate to make a sort of shelf/pillar aquascape. On top of this pillar will be a stone gold dragon that is very sentimental. Along with this will be a few stones or crystals of accent colors. The colors will depend on the fish.

My real question for right now is what plants and which fish? I have right now a few bamboo plants. I know they shouldn't be fully submerged so I'm not sure how I'd get them into the tank. So perhaps some other kinds of plants?

For fish I just want very few that will go along with the black with bright color theme. I love the fancy goldfish but, I'm not sure if one will do ok. In the event that it wont, I will probably get a betta.

So, goldfish? betta? What color betta? maybe a group of female bettas instead of one male?

I'll post pictures in the thread as I go along.

 

[TotallyCoral]

Sounds very promising! Can't wait to see how this turns out! As for the fish, may I recommend a small school of tetras like neon tetras? With the black substrate, their colors will definitely pop. Not to mention that 15 gallons is plenty of room for them. And for the plants, how about some hardy anubias? I like the idea of bamboo too. Hmm. But I have no idea how you'd be able to keep it above the surface without some sort of support... Well I hope everything works out! Cause this sounds sweet. I'll be keeping an eye on this one. Good luck!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi and welcome to AA!
15g is too small for a goldfish. Fancy goldfish need 20g for the first fish and 10g for each fish after that. A 15 would make a great home for a Betta and (depending on his/her personality) some tank mates like shrimp, snails and nano fish. It is not recommended to keep more than one Betta per tank, male or female.

As for color it's totally up to you! There are some stunning bettas available online.

How are you planning on cycling your tank?

 

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I plan to do a fishless plant cycle. Much like how I did my saltwater tank. Took a month in a half with it though.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I plan to do a fishless plant cycle. Much like how I did my saltwater tank. Took a month in a half with it though.

I think cycling a salt water tank is different to a freshwater. I will post some links for you.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/fish-in-cycling-step-over-into-the-dark-side-176446.html

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

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awesome, thanks : D

 

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I'm so stumped : (, I can't tell if I want a yellow male betta to match my dragon statue OR if I want a red male betta. If he is red, he will match the crystal, if he is yellow he matches the statue. Any votes? O.O

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I'm so stumped : (, I can't tell if I want a yellow male betta to match my dragon statue OR if I want a red male betta. If he is red, he will match the crystal, if he is yellow he matches the statue. Any votes? O.O

Get an orange one! Lol. There's a pic of mine in my profile. you never know though. You might get to your LFS and fall in love with a purple one!

 

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purple is one of my favorite colors lol

A friend of mine suggested getting cory cats. But I've read they should be in groups of 3 or more. I don't think my tank is big enough for this : /, suggestions?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

purple is one of my favorite colors lol

A friend of mine suggested getting cory cats. But I've read they should be in groups of 3 or more. I don't think my tank is big enough for this : /, suggestions?

A 15g tall has the same foot print as a 10g so you could do a school of 4 pygmy cories. No other type of cories will work though. They get too big.

 

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Okey doke, I decided to skip the cories, wouldn't want them to be unhappy.

In other news, a friend decided to donate all the black gravel to me from his old tank he was getting rid of. So I'll get a kick started cycle of the sorts, hurray. Also, I found the betta I wanted today : D. He's a very pretty gold/bronze color with some red in his fins. Just what I was looking for. Hard choice though, they also had a mustard gas(bright blue with bright yellow fins), and a holy grail crowntail.

For tank mates, I think I'm going with neon tetras and/or red platies. Keep in mind, I'm not using the inch per gallon rule. I'm using the cubed inches rule. You take the length times the width and divide it by 12 for each inch of fish. This is a bit more accurate and can be adjusted to take into account a fish's body style. That being said, that rule allows me about 16 inches of fish, so I figured I could pull that off with the plants, bubbler and lots of water changes.

Along with that, I picked up 2 groups of anacharis plants, a banana plant, and some dwarf lily bulbs. I'm not sure if I'm going to have bamboo, I'm not sure how I'd care for them since they can't remain underwater. Also, I have some very pretty river stones that I found on a dive in a river. I've cleaned them and used 'holdfast' to mount them into a bit of a stand for my dragon statue.

I'll have pics up tomorrow most likely.