Stocking and Setting up 44 Gallon Pentagon Corner Planted with Molly tankmates

[VictoriaC]

I am purchasing a used corner tank : corner 2 sides are 22 each, front 3 sides are 13 inches each. Height is 25"
Thanks to craigslist - affordable price for tight space living room!

So i would love to explore what would be good options for tankmates for:

4-5 mollies ( i'm thinking same sex to avoid breeding)
3 ottos
2 shrimp
I have 1 oto, 2 shrimp, adult molly and molly fry right now - so they will be moving to this bigger tank.
After this runs smooth for a month or so >>

Can i add an angel fish? Or any other center piece?
What school can i add to them?
Can i add rubber nose pleco?
School of cory's?
What other cool fish would be fine with fish i have now?

As for cycling - would it work if i add beads/filter media from my filter ( in 10 gal tank) to the filter i get with the tank ( currently running with brackish water setup) - do you think it will still go thru a cycle?
I was thinking of using sand as substrate, but tank comes with gravel - so i think i will keep it.

Thanks everyone!!!
Oh also i saw some plants for sale on craigslist - like $20 for a nice starter set. The seller said they need CO2 injections - do any of you know if that is necessary to have a good looking plants?

 

[librarygirl]

The Mollys and Otos should be fine. The Pleco too I think as long as it's not a larger variety like a Common. You could also add some Corys (4-6 depending on size) and a school of small fish maybe like Cardinal Tetra (just tossed out the first one that came to mind lol). An Angel should be OK as a centerpiece I *think* but not sure what the minimum tank height is needed for them so you might want to check that first.

Plants will depend on your lighting, mostly. If you have more than 2 watts per gallon then you probably would need CO2 to avoid algae issues. If your lighting isn't that strong then you probably won't need the CO2 but you might need to dose some fertilizers. It depends on the plants too; some need higher light than others. If you want to stay low tech you could stick with some low-light plants: most mosses, java fern, anubias, hornwort, etc tend to grow well in standard aquarium lights. Search Google for "low light aquarium plant list" and you'll find some good info.

Not sure about using media from a brackish tank to cycle a freshwater, so I don't want to say one way or the other and then be wrong.

 

[VictoriaC]

SOO i got the tank on sunday and have few questions...

One is i noticed tiny cracks in two of the corners of the top rim - they are hair thin and seem to be holding tank fine... do i need to worry?

Two is upon ariving home it turned out that the tank is half inch larger than the stand... so in order for the back corner to be flat on the stand - the front panel ( its a pentagon remember) hangs off about halfinch - to an inch...

DO i need to modify it? do i need to replace the rim? is there any way to build another frame around the top?

Not sure what to do...
the stand is sanded and painted with one coat of wood stain, the tank - i resealed two edges with a silicon because there were chips.
Will post some pics of before and after

 

[VictoriaC]

Oh i also got a package of plants from craigslist - will these require lots of light?

Tank currently has one halogen bulb ( 18 ") i'm sure it wont be enough so i would need to get another one ( there is a space on the cover for the same one)
Plants:

4x Bacopa Caroliana
3x Bacopa Monnieri
5x Ambulia
2x Ludwigia sp RED
4x Ludwigia x Arcuata
2x Acmella Repens (not regularly sold)
2x Cabomba Purple
1x Ludwigia Glandulosa (big stem)
7x Neasea Trifolia
2x Hygrophila polysperma Sunset

THey are just floating in my 10 gal for now...

 

[VictoriaC]

I decided on sand substrate - bought a bag of pool sand at the local store. Washed most of it. DO you think i need to put whole 50 lbs of sand?

I'm also planing a piece of driftwood ( its soaking in a bucket for almost a week now)

The filter i got with tank is aquaclear 50 - took out all old media and will place media from my old filter. I am also currently keeping new filter cartriges in a 10 gal - will it be enough to seed a new tank????
Is it ok if i run the new tank with seeded filter media w/o fish for a day? will bacteria die off in this short time without ammonia source?

 

[VictoriaC]

Would this be overstocked?

1 Angelfish ( or two? but i heard they do better if its either one or more than 3)
9 hatchetfish or other school?
5 mollies
4 corries
2 ottos
1 rubber lip pleco

 

[Samzter]

Would this be overstocked?

1 Angelfish ( or two? but i heard they do better if its either one or more than 3)
9 hatchetfish or other school?
5 mollies
4 corries
2 ottos
1 rubber lip pleco

That sounds okay, what about the shrimp ? The angelfish will most likely eat them.

 

[VictoriaC]

Shrimp i can keep in a 10 gal, and maybe move my betta there if he gets better. and keep my 5 neons there as well.
For now when i move all fish to the bigger tank - i want to use a 10 gal as a quarantine for any new fish i will be getting.
But since the tank will be planted with driftwood - i'm sure there will be enough hiding places for shrimp. And they have small bioload + clean leftover food. If they get eaten - not a big loss since these can be purchased for .33 each...

 

[VictoriaC]

Sooo i got it up and runing 1.5 weeks ago and now it went into cycle.. for some reason i thought if i add more than half of media from my cycled tank - i can avoid that...

What i did was run it for 24 hrs empty, then added filter media and adult molly with 4 molly fry ( 4 months old or so)
week later my readings where fine with nitrates at almost 5.0 so i thought it was safe and added a cory and 2 ottos. Now 2 days later i took a reading and i got

Ammonia .25
Nitrite .25-.5
Nitrate 5.0

Decided to do a water change of 15%
Today ( did water change on thursday)
my readings:

Ammonia .5
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 5.0

Thinking about moving cory and ottos back to 10 gal... and doing another water change of like 50%

Fish is all alive and swimming all over - cory darting up and down ( can it be due to not enough oxygen?)

i have some live plants in this tank and a piece of driftwood.
Did a sand for substrate.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!

 

[VictoriaC]

 

[tamtam]

Would this be overstocked?

1 Angelfish ( or two? but i heard they do better if its either one or more than 3)
9 hatchetfish or other school?
5 mollies
4 corries
2 ottos
1 rubber lip pleco

Personally I would forgo the pleco and up the otos to 5 or 6.

eta - what a nice tank. Really love the stand

 

[VictoriaC]

Thank you!!1
Or we spend like 2 -3 days getting this stand to look like it does )
sanded old black paint off of it, stained it ( 2 coats) and clear coated. All the knobs and hinges were spray painted.
Rim of the aquarium was spray painted, front seals - resealed with silicone.

So it took a good week to make it look like it does and i love it...
now just need to get my parameters under control...

oh i allways loved plecos! and since i have not planned for an upgrade - i got an otto ( who lives for over 6 months now) - so i wanted to still keep him and got him one for company... he is very fun to watch - esp. when he eats flaces off the bottom ))