39G Set-up

[GloGuy]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the hobby, and totally hooked! I've had all the standard problems I've read about here, and reading everyones advice really helped. I started with a 5G desktop tank, with 3 danios and a tropica fern. After reading all the great advice here, I decided to bump up to a 10G tank a couple weeks ago. I've built that to 6 neons, 2 danios, 8 ghost shrimp, 2 ottos, an apple snail, and another tropica fern. I do 10% WC every 3-4 days right now, and everything has been testing great. Last night I purchased a 39G tank on craigslist. I'm not sure what the proper term is, but it's deep rather than long. I set it up last night and added stress coat and start zyme. I'd like to build a community tank with small-medium sized shoaling fish. Being a beginner, I thought about starting with 12 neons. Being such a deep tank to me, seems perfect to be able to have top, middle, and bottom swimmers. I also want to have a couple live plants. There's my hopes and dreams. Now, I turn to you all for some advice, helpful tips for this set-up, etc. Thanks!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Look into crypts for plants they are easy to care for. For fish i like rasbora because they have red in them to give some color along with their black markings.

 

[GloGuy]

Look into crypts for plants they are easy to care for. For fish like rasbora because they have red in them to give some color along with their black markings.

Thanks man!

 

[GloGuy]

Should I be using any fertilizer?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Should I be using any fertilizer?

Yes use root tabs and excel

 

[GloGuy]

So far, so good. I've progressively added: 12 neons, 5 black neons, 4 glowlight tetras, 5 zebra danios (3 regular, 2 glofish), 4 ottos, and 5 ghost shrimp. Everything has continued to test well. The ammonia was slightly elevated yesterday, so I added AmQuel Plus (Kordon). The tank is planted with 2 ferns, swords, and anubias. I added some Leaf Zone (API) a couple of days ago too. Knock on wood, but I've only lost 1 Otto . The other 3 have been perfectly happy, and the pet store replaced the 4th. I'm using algae discs every few days, split into fourths. Should I get a piece of driftwood for the ottos? How often should I be using the algae discs? They don't seem to jump on the discs, at least not that I've seen.