Help me stock my tank

[ZxC]

As the title states, I am at a loss and can't figure out a direction I want to take when stocking my newest setup, so I'm looking for some ideas.

The tank: 30 gallon long, 36x12x18
The plan: High light, CO2, EI dosing, lots of plants
The parameters: pH 7.2, kH 3-5, gH 5-8, temp wherever in needs to be.

Criteria:
1) Something new that I have not kept before
--> I have kept: Celestial pearl danios, Chili rasboras, orange glowlight danios, common rainbowfish, all tetras, blue neo shrimp, orange neo shrimp.

2) I am not interested in guppies/mollies/platys/swordtails/tetras/corys or any of the "mainstream" fish species. I'm looking for 2 maybe 3 species, not a mix of 8 species.

3) I am possibly interested in:
Upping my chili rasbora school
A pair of dwarf cichlids (either electric blue German ram/appisto of some sort)
dwarf rainbowfish (depending on availability, fish are sometimes hard to track down in Canada)
A species only killifish tank.


What else is out there??

 

[agrasyuk]

blue german rams are adorable but I had no luck with them, they are really picky as far as conditions. I used to have a ghostknife but your tank is much to small for that one. not interested in Swordtails? why, I think those red buggers look amazing against dense green veg. would love to get a healthy school of those.
for smaller stuff pencilfish comes to mind, love these. and then again that chili rasbora of yours really picked my interest, the reddishness looks awesome

 

[ZxC]

blue german rams are adorable but I had no luck with them, they are really picky as far as conditions. I used to have a ghostknife but your tank is much to small for that one. not interested in Swordtails? why, I think those red buggers look amazing against dense green veg. would love to get a healthy school of those.
for smaller stuff pencilfish comes to mind, love these. and then again that chili rasbora of yours really picked my interest, the reddishness looks awesome

I really want to pick up some of those rams, I think my lfs has had the same shipment for a year or so now, slowly selling them off... and they are tank bred from czech republic, not a farm, and are accustomed to harder water. Might be worth a shot.

As for the swords, just not my "style". I have kept and bred them in the past, I think I'm over them for now.... Maybe set up a different tank for them

The chilis are in a 5.5, 7 as of now, I will likely transfer them over, increase their school size, but they aren't a fan of my bright lights... floating plants help I guess.

 

[John Franzwa]

I really want to pick up some of those rams, I think my lfs has had the same shipment for a year or so now, slowly selling them off... and they are tank bred from czech republic, not a farm, and are accustomed to harder water. Might be worth a shot.



As for the swords, just not my "style". I have kept and bred them in the past, I think I'm over them for now.... Maybe set up a different tank for them



The chilis are in a 5.5, 7 as of now, I will likely transfer them over, increase their school size, but they aren't a fan of my bright lights... floating plants help I guess.

A giant group of chilis would be super cool!

 

[FinsandFeathers]

Personally, I would go with rams or Apistos, but then, admittedly, I'm biased towards cichlids.
If you haven't had cichlids before, you may find Bolivian rams easier and hardier than German, but just as beautiful in their own way.

 

[ZxC]

Personally, I would go with rams or Apistos, but then, admittedly, I'm biased towards cichlids.
If you haven't had cichlids before, you may find Bolivian rams easier and hardier than German, but just as beautiful in their own way.

I ended up picking up a dozen celestial pearl danios, my other half insisted I have to have these in the tank. I like them too. I will likely add these first, followed by the chilis, up the chili school over the month to come, and then I'll start looking for a quality breeder of dwarf cichlids and pick up a pair. Now I need to decide which ones....

 

[Fresh2o]

I ended up picking up a dozen celestial pearl danios, my other half insisted I have to have these in the tank. I like them too. I will likely add these first, followed by the chilis, up the chili school over the month to come, and then I'll start looking for a quality breeder of dwarf cichlids and pick up a pair. Now I need to decide which ones....

That’s a nice plan you’ve got there. Keep us updated with this.

 

[John Franzwa]

I ended up picking up a dozen celestial pearl danios, my other half insisted I have to have these in the tank. I like them too. I will likely add these first, followed by the chilis, up the chili school over the month to come, and then I'll start looking for a quality breeder of dwarf cichlids and pick up a pair. Now I need to decide which ones....

Nice pick! Please do keep us updated on the progress!

 

[ZxC]

Okay, I'll go ahead and set up a build thread and link it to this post when I'm done.

It will be picture heavy, and probably text heavy (my brain runs at a million miles an hour) just fair warning you all.

 

[John Franzwa]

Okay, I'll go ahead and set up a build thread and link it to this post when I'm done.

It will be picture heavy, and probably text heavy (my brain runs at a million miles an hour) just fair warning you all.

More to read when I'm bored in class lol, I'm very excited to see how this turns out!

 

[ZxC]

Build thread found here:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/zxcs-30-long-high-tech-journey-363568.html

 

[John Franzwa]

Build thread found here:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/zxcs-30-long-high-tech-journey-363568.html

Thanks!