Advice on setting up a 26 gallon for the first time

[Twigg]

Hi all, I'm just starting my setup for a new 26 gallon freshwater aquarium. I've owned 10 gallon aquariums before but, ashamedly, never really took the time to learn proper care. I'd like to be more serious about it for this tank, and I'd appreciate any advice you can offer about my setup.

Right now, in terms of what I own, all I have are the components which came with the 26 gallon bowfront Aqueon Deluxe Aquarium Kit (Quiet Flow 30 Power Filter, 15W T8 fluorescent light, 200W heater). Based on what I've read, I'm a bit worried about the filter not being strong enough; but I've started to cycle my tank anyway, with the plan to upgrade the filter if it appears to be inadequate.

I'm still mulling over fish stocking options, but I'm thinking of getting some fairly safe community fish. For example, this seems reasonable to me right now:

• 6 Neon Tetras
• 4 Panda Cories
• 1 Dwarf Gourami

I'd like for this to be a low-tech planted tank, as I like the idea of live plants, but I'm not looking for anything high maintenance. Here are some plants I am interested in:

• Amazon Sword
• Java Fern
• Anubias Nana
• Dwarf Sagittaria
• Dwarf Hairgrass

To support the plants, I'm thinking of laying down a 2.5"-3" bedding of Eco-complete, for any nutrients that those plants may need, and with room to grow in the future if I want plants with deeper roots. I'm also considering purchasing the Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Plus 6500K light as a replacement for the stock light, although I'm worried that it's too bright and will promote algae growth without additional CO2 (it's 28 PAR at my tank's height). I will probably add 1-2 pieces of driftwood for some verticality.

That's about as far as I've come with planning, and since there is a lot of information that I'm trying to absorb, I wanted to just lay it out and see if this sounds like a reasonable setup. Thanks!

 

[sinibotia]

Sounds to me like you have a pretty good plan! Here's my comments:

As far as the filter goes, I think you'll be alright. Filtration is less important with smaller fish and smaller bioloads, so you can probably live with what you've got on a 26 gallon. That said, adding more filtration is always good so here's my advice: Add a sponge filter to the corner of the tank. With a sponge filter you get more filtration, more aeration, and you can set up a quarantine, hospital, or fry (if you're lucky!) tank quite literally on a moment's notice. Just swap the sponge filter into one of your old 10 gallons and voila, instantly matured tank for any emergency! I run sponge filters on most of my tanks on top of a regular power filter.

As far as stocking, you've got room to do waaaay more than what you've mentioned! You could up the number of neons by a significant amount- maybe 16 or so neons. Or you could choose to add some different fish! I would also have at least 5 corydoras for a good-sized school, or you could get more than that! Have you heard of aqadvisor? It's a pretty good resource for figuring out stocking plans.

As far as plants... I can't help you so much, and defer to other user's much wiser judgement (I've got 11 years of fish experience and about 1 week of plant experience). I do know that java fern and anubias are great choices for first plants and I think dwarf hairgrass not so much. I think you can also get by using a liquid carbon product like seachem excel, rather than CO2- that's what I'm doing with my planted 10 gallon dwarf puffer tank.

Oh, and welcome to AA! Great to have you here!

 

[Twigg]

Thanks for the feedback sinibotia! I'll definitely look into adding a sponge filter to the tank for that extra bit of aeration and as a go-to quarantine tank.

I'm glad to hear that my thoughts stocking are modest. I intentionally left room to grow since I'm going to build up the aquarium slowly. I didn't realize that 4 Cories is low though, so I can easily bump that up to 5 or 6. Assuming everything goes well with my initial stocking, I'll probably continue by adding another set of schooling fish into the mix (Zebra Danio comes to mind).

aqadvisor has been a great resource for me and it's nice to know that you recommend it. Thanks again for the help!

 

[sinibotia]

One more thing I forgot to mention- you may want to look into other kinds of tetras rather than neons. Oftentimes neons for sale nowadays are pretty bad stock and have a tendency to suddenly die for no apparent reason. Cardinal tetras are actually a better option if you want the same coloration as neons. If you don't mind a little less colorful fish, I personally recommend glowlight tetras because they're borderline-indestructible.

The 20 gallon tank in my signature dropped down to around 60 degrees from a power outage this winter and I only lost two out of nineteen glowlights; I lost two out of five corydoras and my ram cichlid in the same outage.

I also made a mistake in setting the temperature on the heater for my 10 gallon puffer tank so it was 90 degrees for around two days before I realized it. I had put 12 glowlight tetras to maintain the cycle on the sponge filter I had transfered from a different tank to filter this one. Every single one of them survived the 90 degree heat.

 

[Twigg]

Wow, those glowlight tetra do sound indestructible! There's definitely something to be said for having hardy fish. Neon was just the first tetra that came to mind; I'm actually fine with most kinds of tetras. I'll do more research before deciding exactly which one.

I've sometimes wondered if I should prepare my tank for power outages. They are fairly rare here but it would be so saddening to lose a tank to one. Luckily, during the last outage my last tank was just a goldfish and he was able to survive the cold water seemingly with no problems at all.

When it comes to buying fish, neons or otherwise, I'm not at all sure where the best place to get them is. I've always gone to my local pet stores (Pet Smart, Pet Co, etc.), but it's obvious that they don't always take good care of their fishes. I know with dogs you can go directly to a breeder to avoid the pet stores, but I have never heard of an equivalent for fish.

 

[sinibotia]

The best thing you can do to prepare for power outages is a battery powered pump. If you have a sponge filter, you can just plug the battery pump into the air house and you'll have filtration through the whole thing. (Another great reason to run a sponge filter!)

Depending on how you heat your house, heat may or may not be a problem in a power outage. Usually it isn't; for me it is because I live in Maine where it's stupid cold all winter, and we only keep the house at 60 degrees. Unless the house is already cold and you have a power outage that lasts like 24 hours, you shouldn't have to worry about it. Water flow is the critical thing to keep going.

There are definitely fish breeders; I am among them! That said, usually hobbyists who breed fish are breeding the kinds of fish you probably aren't looking for right now- mostly cichlids and livebearers. (I breed shelldwelling cichlids, guppies and platies). I would find out if there's an aquarium club near you. It's a great place to find local breeders of all kinds of fish, and it's also a resource for finding out from other hobbyists where the best places to buy fish are. Usually petsmart and petco are no good; I would try to find a local store and scope out the quality of their fish, and keep looking until you find a few you like.