29 gallon stocking ideas?

[reun]

Ok, I'm looking for suggestions on stocking for a 29 gallon tank. I will list the tank hardware and also the water peramiters as well to help everyone make a educated guess on what to add.

Tank Hardware:
2 4w bulbs underhood on a timer to come on during the middle of the day
1 17w fluorescent hood light only used when cleaning or for display
1 Jager 100w heater
2 Whisper 30 Over-the-back-filters(each 150 GPH)
2 Airstones powered by a Elite 802 air pump

I also have several differant types of powerjets and submersible filters in case I get fish that prefer lots of current.

now, onto water peramiters:

Hardness: 9 Dh
KH: 120ppm
PH: 7.8

yeah, water is hard and ph is high, my tap water blows chunks. I treat it to remove the chlorine they dump in it, and then i use a PH buffer to drop it a little bit, but even after treatment its off my test kits scale its so high. I am using driftwood in the tank to help drop the PH, and it seems to work well, but I am still running a bit high on the scale for alot of fish preferances. I could put peat moss in the filters if I absolutely had to, but I would like to avoid that.

If the tank is fully stocked I am doing a 10gallon per week water change, if there are hardly any occupants as is the case right now, I run 5 gallon per week changes.

so, thats where I am at. there are no plants, nor do I want them, I still have junksnails from my last adventure with growing things. the tanks side gets almost direct light from a nearby window, and it gets soft light(from the small bulbs) during the middle of the day for the darker winter.

now, for stocking...the suggestion must include the tanks only occupants, a school of albino cories(6 total), and two cherry barbs. so basically I am wondering what I can add with those water conditions, filtering, and the maintanence listed. I was thinking a school of something small, but most of the tetras i looked either dont like the hardness or the ph of my water. I really dont need or want a centerpiece fish, they always seem to be aggressive and I end up taking them back to the LFS. I have also heard that smaller algae eaters like pleco's are very messy and a bad idea for a tank under 30 gallons, and I don't have too many algae problems due to not running bright lighting.

So, my options seem a bit limited. Ideas?

 

[Sum22]

Ph and hardness do not matter. Don't try to adjust the pH. most fish are tank bred and they are use to living in a higher pH than what is found in their "natural" habitats. compared to the 8.4 pH water I use in my tank, 7.8 is fantastic, so don't worry about the pH.

You have a lot of options. Any tetra you get will be fine in your water parameters. I like the black skirts, and von rio tetras. Serpae tetras are popular and the neons/cardinals are very briliant in color. You could add a few more cherry barbs, or even consider the rummy nose tetras.

I found some celebes rainbowfish that are pretty active shoalers. My harlequin Rasboras shoal very well. Glass catfish are my favorite fish, but they tend to hide. I've been seeing blue pearl danios around lately as well. They are very active, just like the zebras, but with more interesting coloring.

 

[reun]

yeah, i have aimed for consistency, i have not changed the way i treat the water in the 5 years i have been doing it, and i am using a buffer instead of a more harsh method, i add in a very small amount of the buffer to each 5 gallons of water i treat that comes from the tap. the buffers attempt to keep the water at a stable ph, which is a good thing, because there have been fluctuations in my tap water PH before.

i was considering Neons, but i have heard they get imbread quite a bit and are more prone to illness because of that. can anyone verify if that is true?

also, for a tetra under 2", if kept with corys and those two cherry barbs, whats a good number to get? any tetra or other schooling fish listed i would like to keep in a number of 7 or more...but unsure of how many my tank can handle.

 

[Sum22]

The cories are going to account for about 18" of fish in your tank. 2 cherry barbs are going to account for about 5" putting you at a total of 23" of fish. Your limit of two inch fish is going to be right at 3 fish. I honestly don't think you will do a lot of harm if you were to get 6 2" fish. You'd be right about 35" of fish in a 29 gallon, just a hair overstocked. If you keep up with the water changes, it won't be a big deal IMO.

Neons are inbred and prone to, mostly, neon tetra disease. I had neons before and a NTD outbreak wiped out all of them in my tank. You could go with cardinal tetras instead. As far as I've read they are imported because tank breeding is rare, so they are hardier than the neons and still look colorful.

 

[reun]

yeah, i figured a small fish like a neon tetra would allow me to get more of them in the school, as they are a bit smaller than cardinals...the last occupants of the tank were a school of ember tetras, but they mysteriously started dieing on me. i was unable to find any cause of illness in them, and the deaths started several weeks after i brought them home from the LFS, or i would have thought i did a poor job with the acclimation. so i am a bit wary of those. i suppose i will start looking at sizing of some of the other fish you mentioned.

p.s. the first occupants of my tanks for years was a school of lemon tetras. i really loved them, and had them for quite some time. they slowly passed away due to age, as they were full grown when i begged to get them from my local fish stores display tank. unfortunately, none of the fishstores around me can get lemons, so they are out of the question, but those were my first consideration.