40G breeder upgrade

[Jason123]

I am finally taking the plunge into plants for my 40G FW Breeder. As of now the tank contains 2 fantail goldfish and 1 comet, which I will be selling. It also contains a basic floresent light and 1 Aqua Clear 50 filter, some drift wood, slate rocks, 2 anubis nana and colored gravel.

I want to have a large amount of plants that are not crazy hard to look after. A bit of a challange is ok! As for fish I want a selection of colorfull fish, and or schooling fish.

Below is my planned shopping list. I am looking for any suggestions that the community has to offer.

Lighting: (Leaning more towards LED)
- Marineland LED Double Bright Lights
Size: 24-36" or
- Coralife Freshwater Aqualight Deluxe Series Fixtures
Size: 36" Model: Single Linear Strip Light
Substrate
- Seachem Flourite Black or
- Carib Sea Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate
Fish: (how many of each for a 40G?)
-German blue Ram
-Harlequin rasbora ???
-Glowlight tetra (possibly a large school)
-Otocinclus (for cleanup)
-Red cherry shrimp (for cleanup)

Plants: (as of now I am not planning Co2, but if nessicary I will set it up)
Foreground/carpet:
-Sagittaria subulata or -Hemianthus callitrichoides
-Hygrophila difformis

Midtank:
-Alternanthera reineckii 'Lilacina'
-Cryptocoryne wendtii
-Cryptocoryne willisii
-Echinodorus vesuvius
-Hottonia palustris (not sure about this as it is a cool water plant)
-Microsorum pteropus v. ‘narrow’

Back tank:
-Aponogeton madagascariensis (Would love to have, but may be to difficult)
-Cryptocoryne balansae
-Cryptocoryne usteriana
-Hygrophila angustifolia
-Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig'

Once I get everything officially started I will start posting pics.

 

[meegosh]

Are you from Canada? I see you are at bigalsonline.ca. They have the same light for $99.99 on bigalsonline.com. I have the same light over my 30g long and absolutely love it. I believe you will need to inject CO2 at that light level, you may have algae issues otherwise.

Freshwater Aqualight Deluxe Series

 

[Jason123]

I am from Canada... It appears that every thing is much more expensive this side of the border.

 

[Jason123]

Would a 6 pack of German Blue Rams be to much for this tank? The reasion I ask is there is an auction online and you have to buy all 6
Changed my light choice to this Hagen Glo T5 High Output 36" Single Light Fixture - With Power-Glo 39 Watt T5 High Output Bulb or should I get the double light? Also bought 40lbs of Eco-Complete

 

[Jason123]

Update of my tank so far. I still need to add a few plants to the back wall of the tank and plant some hairgrass in the foreground.

YouTube - 40G Breeder Freshwater Aquarium

 

[JustOneMore20]

Looking good so far. I would get the double fixture, if you haven't bought one yet. That would give you plenty of light without having to use co2.

6 full grown Rams would be a little much for a 40g, but you could get the 6 (most likely juveniles) and raise them and keep 2-4 adults.

You could have 12-16 Harlequin Rasboras and the same number of Glowlights if you want that many. I would get 4-6 Otos. You can add a few at a time until you get enough for them to eat. They will eat algae wafers as well as algae in the tank. The Shrimp might be eaten by the Rams, but if you want to try them you could start with ~20.

That looks like Eco Complete, right? Looks good!

 

[BigJim]

How warm is your tank? Rams like it warm (78-82F) and I know my rams turn dark like the one in your picture when they're cold or stressed.

 

[Cobaltskyy]

I have wanted gbr's for about a year or two now....I wanted to make sure my tank was really well established first also am beginning to change over to live plants....slowly....

 

[Jason123]

As for the lighting ended up getting the single, will prob have to do diy co2or just bite the bullet and get the double fixture. After soon some research I am only going to have the 2 rams. Also the tank is set to 80f.

Thanks for the advice. This site has been very helpful.

As for fish I have 6 panda cories 9 glowlight and 2 rams. Also decided not to get shrimp do to them being a tasty treat for the rams.

 

[Aspencer]

Also decided not to get shrimp do to them being a tasty treat for the rams.

What are the advantages of having shrimp in an aquarium or is it they are just cool to look at?

 

[Fdsh5]

They do munch on the algae but they aren't much of a bioload. Just cool to watch IMO. Here's one of mine cleaning the java moss.

 

[JustOneMore20]

As for the lighting ended up getting the single, will prob have to do diy co2or just bite the bullet and get the double fixture. After soon some research I am only going to have the 2 rams. Also the tank is set to 80f.

Thanks for the advice. This site has been very helpful.

As for fish I have 6 panda cories 9 glowlight and 2 rams. Also decided not to get shrimp do to them being a tasty treat for the rams.

I realized after I posted that you had already made decisions about things...sorry we weren't fast enough!

I love Panda Cories! They are so darn cute. I hope I can find a tank for some of those guys soon. I haven't kept them in awhile. Good choice on the Rams.

 

[Aspencer]

They do munch on the algae but they aren't much of a bioload. Just cool to watch IMO. Here's one of mine cleaning the java moss.

Should one be waiting for algae before getting some shrimp? Sorry for the questions. I will do some research as soon as this is posted.

 

[Fdsh5]

I feed mine vegetable sticks with calcium. You can get them online from kensfish.com. That's what I was given from the breeder I got them from.

 

[Aspencer]

I feed mine vegetable sticks with calcium. You can get them online from kensfish.com. That's what I was given from the breeder I got them from.

Thank you!

 

[Jason123]

Update: More Plants!!!
The plants I have in the tank now are much different then what the original plan was due to local availability. I am still happy with what I have though. There are 2 different foreground plants I am trying out. Will see what turns out the best.
Also sorry about the video quality. I dont have the best camera yet

I am also looking for suggestions for more fish. I was thinking Harlequin rasbora. It is suggested that I could get 12-16 of them. Still if anyone has other ideas I am open to ideas.

edit: For some reason the video is double posting. Not sure why, as there is only one link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FG6yG3x4L4

 

[Jason123]

Tank update! Well my set up is less then 2 months old but a lot has happened. Was struggling with a huge hair algea out break. Almost have it gone with diy co2. Will end up with a proper setup when I find a good deal. Plants are also growing great.
Today I got home from work to find my German blue rams laid ~70-100 eggs. What a nice surprise. Unfortunately I am not set up to deal with kids. We will see what happens.

 

[Trail_Mix]

What are the advantages of having shrimp in an aquarium or is it they are just cool to look at?

They're cool to look at, and they will clean up the tank. Bamboo shrimp and amano shrimp are great for a community tank, however any species of dwarf shrimp (such as red cherry shrimps) should be kept in a shrimp only tank, or only with ottos. Trust me, I have a planted community tank, and even little tetras would nip at the shrimp until they died.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

They're cool to look at, and they will clean up the tank. Bamboo shrimp and amano shrimp are great for a community tank, however any species of dwarf shrimp (such as red cherry shrimps) should be kept in a shrimp only tank, or only with ottos. Trust me, I have a planted community tank, and even little tetras would nip at the shrimp until they died.

I have ghost and RCS with my Cardinal Tetras and don't have a problem. Only time I saw the Cards go after a ghostie, the little guy punched it in the nose and now the Cards stay away from all of them lol.

 

[Trail_Mix]

I have ghost and RCS with my Cardinal Tetras and don't have a problem. Only time I saw the Cards go after a ghostie, the little guy punched it in the nose and now the Cards stay away from all of them lol.

That's interesting! When I tried to put RCS in with my Cardinals it didn't work out well for the RCS