My 43gallon tank

[Fishy monkey]

Figured I should start a thread for my tank, since I'm going to have lots of questions as it matures.
It's a 165 litre bow front, about 43 us gallons I'm told, been set up for about 3 weeks. I've had to do a fish in cycle because of a virus in my other tank, so currently have 5 pearl danios.
I'm planning a stocklist of:

7 x pearl danios
10 x harlequin rasboras
6 x Congo tetra
5 x dwarf rainbowfish
1 x kribensis
4 x Panda cories

I'm unsure on what order to stock them to avoid territory issues or things like that, and also how best to ensure a good diet that means they all get fed (I currently use flakes, but the danios are so fast and greedy it never looked like any other fish were getting a look in!), so any advice would be appreciated.

I have no experience with live plants, so decided on plastic ones which I mainly have to the sides of the tank. I have a piece of driftwood and live rock which I got from a LFS, I only soaked them in dechlorinated water for 24 hours before putting it in the tank, but I've just read that live rock can have parasites and alter the pH of the water so now I'm a bit concerned about it. It was only sold in a cardboard box, looked like it had been sat in the LFS for a while judging by the dust, but I thought it looked pretty so bought it, do I need to be concerned?

I'm also setting up my other tank, a 60litre, as a quarantine. No gravel or sand, just a heater and filter. Currently on a fish less cycle with that one. I've read that you shouldn't use the same net for quarantine as for the main tank, so I'm wondering how you go about transferring fish from one to the other.

I'm planning on QTing new fish for 4 weeks before adding them to the main tank, but during the times when the QT tank isn't in use is there anything I need to do to ensure the water in it stays cycled or will it be ok?

Wow that's long! But that's where I'm upto right now

 

[meegosh]

None of those, other than the kribs are really territorial. When your tank is cycled you could probably just add them all and watch your parameters. You say you have another tank though, could you use some of the filter media from that tank to seed this tank and your QT?

I'm not sure what live rock would do in a freshwater aquarium.. If it was truly live you will have a bacteria die off and probably a spike.

As far as keeping the filter on the QT seeded, just run the filter on your 43g tank and move it over to the QT when needed. Once you are done with the QT, drain it, bleach it and throw the filter media out. Clean the filter and move it back over to your 43g with new media. You'll always have cycled media that way.

I have two nets, one for main and one for QT. They are cheap and you can always use another.

 

[Fishy monkey]

Thanks for your reply meegosh, the other tank I referred to was the one I'm now using for quarantine. It was my only tank then I got a couple of gbr's that had a bug, and wiped out all my fish apart from the danios. I used methylene blue to counter it but then decided on a new set up, so I have no cycled tank anywhere.

That bug/virus is the reason why I've set up the QT, I don't want to risk losing them all again so I'll just buy some at a time and QT them before they go in the main. I'll get the krib last, thanks for letting me know about them being territorial

Thanks for your suggestion with the filter

I do have 2 nets, but I'm unsure which to use when transferring from the main tank to QT and vice versa if they shouldn't be mixed. I'm probably over thinking it all but should I put the fish into a bucket midway between the transfer and swap nets?

 

[Fishy monkey]

Just a couple of pics to compare lighting.I thought the 3 bulbs that came with the tank were all the same, but noticed the other day that one of them gives a redder tint. I can't find anything to say what colour it actually is so will probably struggle to replace it when I need to.
The tanks an AquaOne Aquastyle 850, does anyone know?

 

[Fishy monkey]

Still curious about my unanswered questions, but don't want to start yet another thread for them.

I've decided now that once my QT is cycled I'm gonna transfer my danios into it then complete the cycle in the main tank fishless, I figure that should give my fish the best start (thanks to jlk for their help with that).

I'm also now questioning the decor in my main tank. I like it but I'm a minimalist type of person. Occurred to me that maybe fish aren't minimalists so any advice on making my tank more fish friendly would be gratefully received. I am, however, very reluctant to go the live plant route. This is my 3rd attempt at a successful aquarium so I don't want to complicate matters!

 

[reefdiver]

What unanswerd questions. Plant you can add are anubias and java fern. They are very low maintanace. I would suggest you just follow trough with you fish in cycle.

 

[Fishy monkey]

What unanswerd questions. Plant you can add are anubias and java fern. They are very low maintanace. I would suggest you just follow trough with you fish in cycle.

Thanks for the reply

I'm still unsure how to make sure all the fish get fed, since in my last tank the danios were so energetic and quick it never looked like the other fish got anything.

Using separate nets for main and QT- do I transfer the fish into a bucket then swap nets or am I over thinking things?

I've done several Internet searches and can't seem to find what colour the 3 bulbs are that came with the tank, 2 of them seem to be the same colour, the other gives the tank a redder hue. All I can find is natural and golden, nothing that suggests a red tint.

Thanks for the plant suggestions but I really don't want to try live plants till I know I can manage the tank basics. I've been looking at threads on here about plants and its a bit unnerving seeing the problems people can have with them. I'm just wondering if I need to provide more hiding places/fake plants for cover?

Re the fish in cycle- would that not risk new fish causing a mini cycle with their additional bioload?

 

[reefdiver]

I would say divids the food at both ends of the tank. For your nets use a bowl to transfer fish . You dint want to contaminate your net. You also dont want to get water from one tank to the other. I would simply use what ever net you ttaking the fish out from and the put him in a bowl or even in your hand and then put him in the tank

 

[reefdiver]

If you not going to have plants i would not worry to much about the light.

 

[Fishy monkey]

Thanks for the info, I just like the way the red light shows my danios colours. My last tank had a moonlight blue bulb and they looked stunning under that. The normal lights make them seem dull in comparison.

 

[Fishy monkey]

Current stock- 5 pearl danios, 2 congo tetras (will be adding more, just going slowly so as not to start a mini cycle) and a panda cory (did have 4 but I think the other 3 were too weak for a newish tank).

Added new fake plants yesterday, bought some driftwood but I can't work out how to make it sink so ordered another piece off eBay that has silk plants on it. Also ordered a plant air stone. Really looking forward to it all being done how I imagine it





This was before I rearranged it all





This is how it looks now

 

[Fishy monkey]

This isn't going well at all, added 4 young congo tetras, a few days later my last panda cory died. Once again it was following a water change (my previous 3 all died after water changes- temp matched, treated with aquasafe and left to stand for a minimum of 5 minutes before adding to the tank).

All water parameters fine-
Ammonia- 0
NitrItes- 0
NitrAtes- 5-10
PH- a steady 7.6

My congos and pearl danios are all swimming happily, but they don't seem to have any colour. The danios only look "pearly" when they're in a specific part of the tank with a specific light on, and the congos are just grey, nothing like the yellow/blue in pictures.

I'm feeding them 2 different varieties of food, one is flakes and the other pellets, both are the mid range price so not cheap and nasty stuff. I also gave them live Daphnia earlier this week (hoping to do that weekly, just was waiting for the tank to finish cycle and be settled before I started). Would appreciate any advice on how else I can improve their colour.

I love the pandas but really think I'm too inexperienced to care for them properly, there's gotta be summat I'm doing wrong with them so I'm hoping for a little advice on other cories I may be able to keep, preferably tougher and hardier than pandas so my rookie errors don't kill them.

TLDR- how can I improve the fish colouring and are there any hardy cories that I can have in a 43 gallon?

 

[Fishy monkey]

Bump. Anyone?

 

[Cynic]

Bronze cories are little tanks! Sadly pandas are known to be far less sturdy

 

[Fishy monkey]

Bronze cories are little tanks! Sadly pandas are known to be far less sturdy

Thanks for your input, I've been researching the bronze cories since you posted and most sites say they need to be in a group of 6. Will my tank be fully stocked if I add those?

Whilst researching I read a few pages on other bottom feeders, like Otos, khuli loaches and shrimp, would any of these be more suited to my tank (gravel substrate)? And if they are how many would I need to get so they'd be happy?

 

[Cynic]

Your tank would be fully stocked with 6 bronze cories.

Otos are good little fish at cleaning algae but they also need to be in groups of around 4+, are not bottom feeders and suffer the same flaw of sturdiness as Pandas in new tanks.

Kuhli loaches would be a good addition, they'll have a lower bio load than the cories and will still require at least 6 of them but they're just as good cleaners and as much fun as cories.

 

[Fishy monkey]

Thanks cynic, I was just about decided on Otos but then saw a post about South American bumblebee catfish. I think I'm going to get 2 of these, just hope my LFS doesn't get them mixed up with the Asian one cos I doubt my pearl danios would survive! Ooh it's exciting!