Starting Up, Few Questions (if anyone has a minute. :D)

[aveldina]

Hey all,
Friend recommended this site and I've been reading through posts. The advice has been great for me getting started. I'm running a 36 G bow front aquarium, about 21" high, not heavy planted (5 fake, 3 plants live.) I have a couple of things to ask that I still wondering. Any advice would be awesome.

a) I'm giving fishless cycling a try. I've got filter media from my roommate's established aquarium. So far I've just been adding food get it going (been running about 5 days) but I'm wondering if I should switch to some kind of actual ammonia source instead of food? Would that make a big time difference? Are there any issues with cycling using food as a source? I've seen guides listing both but with no comparison between the two options.

b) I've added a couple of plants to the tank I picked up locally after doing a bit of reading. I didn't realize however that I needed to change my tank's light fixture to increase my wattage (not just the bulb), so I'm running a ~6700K 20W on 36G. That's not enough I realize. However I don't know if I can afford to get something bigger quite yet, will my plants survive on that much light until I can pay for something bigger? Could anyone identify my plants if I posted a picture.. I can't seem to match them up to online images. (Sorry I'm not much of a bio person..) My driftwood is also growing fuzz like crazy, should I be brushing it off right away or just leaving it?

c) Finally, here's what I'm thinking for fish:
1 Angel
2 Drawf Gourami
6 Red Eye Tetra
2 Cory Cats
This adds up to 35" of adult fish size (I realize it's just a guide..). Comments on this list?

Thanks so much!!

[thominil]

Scratch the dwarf gourmi they have some kind of disease and just die off also, angels get aggresive I've heard so if you get one add it last. As for the cories and tetras you can get more than that.

Plants, post pics in the planted tank section as you'll get alot of planted tank people helping you. If your current live plants are low light then you should be fine.

Fishless cylcling, I have not done this but, I think food will work, some people use janitorial ammonia. Also, if you didn't get one get an API master teset kit, very handy.

Driftwood, if you didn't boil it take it out and boil it in a pot, if it's to big then pour boiling water on it a few times.

Finally welcome to AA!! you'll get great advice on here.

[Sum22]

For the fishless cycling, you should test the water to see how many ppm of ammonia the food is providing to your tank. most people suggest a level of 4-5ppm, so that once the tank cycles you can support the entire population of fish you have planned for the tank. Using food would probably keep the ammonia level lower than the 4-5ppm, meaning you would have to add fish slowly and monitor the water quality to make sure there isn't an ammonia or nitrite spike that would be dangerous to the health of your fish.

Ace hardware has janitorial strength ammonia in a clear bottle with a red ace label. I used it in my tank and my fish are doing great!

[aveldina]

Well several weeks later my tank cycle will complete in the next couple of days, sooo I've been trying to make a for-sure fish decision.
Right now I'm considering..
- 1 Angel, really like these & only looking at one.
- 1 Ram (either german blue or bolivian), is two an option? Is my tank size too small for two? What is single ram/single angel compatibility like?
- 6-8 Red Eye (or similar size) Tetra
- (? fish) Cory Cats? Suggestions? Do I have room for anything else?

[bluerose]

Cories like to be in schools, so consider planning for at least 3 if not 5.

I don't know about angels or rams but I think they can both be territorial- you may have problems there.

Make sure to keep dosing ammonia after you're cycled until you have fish- otherwise the bacteria will start dying off.

Good luck!

[SpeedEuphoria]

Angels and Rams can be aggressive, but they will work together. Either way add those fish last, its best to add the most agressive fish last when the others are used to each other, then the new fish cannot be the top dog.

I think a pair of rams would be fine.

Give good cover/hiding spots and they should be fine.

So to start I would pick the schooling fish, tetras or whatever. Just watch as some can be more nippy then others. Wait a few weeks and add 3-5 cory's, wait a few weeks, then add the rams, then 2 more weeks and the Angel. This depends on how much ammonia you were dosing, if you were just using food and/or shrimp then try this, if you dose ammonia to 5ppm or so, then you can add more at 1st, like the Tetras and Corys, but I would wait a few weeks to add others.

[aveldina]

So to start I would pick the schooling fish, tetras or whatever. Just watch as some can be more nippy then others. Wait a few weeks and add 3-5 cory's, wait a few weeks, then add the rams, then 2 more weeks and the Angel.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was thinking about doing, good to know I'm on the right track. Do I need to be careful that I have a male & female ram? Or try for two females?
I used ammonia to cycle and was at just over 4ppm peak so my plan was to add the tetra group first and go from there. I'm still adding small amounts every morning as I wait for my nitrite to finish dropping.

Any suggestions for the 4th fish other than cory's? I really like the corys, however my roommate's aquarium has them already so some variation between the two would be neat.

[aveldina]

I've been thinking about this a little more while sitting at work today. (Work is less than exciting today..)

Made myself a little excel spreadsheet to do quick number calc's
1 Angel
2 Rams
6 Red Eyes
4 Corys
= 39 inches of adult fish and 13 fish
this seems like a bit much, but since the last two need to be in groups, maybe i'd be better off going something like
1 Angel
2 Rams
8-9 Red Eyes
= 35-38 inches of adult fish, 11-12 fish

Opinions?

[Johnny Tuttle]

Yeah, that last one sounds good. You could always do a couple of apple snails for clean up crew, going down to 7-8 Red Eyes.

[Lager]

The first list will be fine. You have plenty of room for the corys too. I think it will be a nice tank full.

[OldMan]

You need to watch using apple snails / mystery snails and not including them in the bioload calculation. People who specialize in breeding and rearing pomacea usually figure 2 or 3 US gallons per adult snail. They are not a small, negligible, bioload.

[aveldina]

Ahh okay, interesting & makes sense. I don't have any apple snails right now, just 1 rams horn and 2 small trumpet. I had a red rams horn that was destroying my plants so my roommate offered to take it in his aquarium. The little sucker was going up and down the plants stripping the leaves off them. Yet the dark colored rams horn seems to leave them alone.. confusing!
The tank is fully cycled now and I picked up the tetras yesterday. They seem to alternate between swimming around as a group and chasing each other around. A couple of them look a bit rough (ripped up fins and such) but they're starting to calm down so I'm hoping they'll be alright.

Anyways, now that I have them I'm rethinking the full stock list again. I really would like to avoid being over stocked.. it's hard to tell using stuff like the 1" of fish rule.

There are seven red eye tetra right now. I really like them so I'm happy to work around that number. I would like to see one angel someday, and my boyfriend absolutely loves watching the cory cats. The more I look into the ram/angel combination the more it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth. I'd like to see a 4th type of fish but I realize that it might be too much. Are there any gourami I could add to bring some variety? Or maybe another set of smaller schooling type fish (and no or very few corys)?
I'd either go cory and no apple snails or apple snails and no corys.

I'd love to hear some suggestions..

[TheChards]

Not that I expect anyone else to agree with me but... I've had 4 Dwarf Gourami for about 6 weeks now and they're by far my favourite fish. They're very active and are beautiful to look at.

I know they're not bred especially carefully and are susceptible to Dwarf Gourami Disease (I expect it has a specific name that I'm not aware of!) but if I were in your shoes I'd still be tempted, even if you only buy one or two.

They're peaceful too (although they may bicker and argue amongst themselves if you get too many males in too small a tank as they are quite territorial) and relatively small so over-stocking by the inch rule shouldn't be a problem either...

[haykay]

Personally i would do the seven tetra you already have. 4-6 of the smaller species of corycats, and one angel OR one gourami... and then MAYBE one apple snail...

But thats just me

[aveldina]

Actually haykay, that's what I'm thinking about doing now. I think it might be more interesting to go with decent sized groups of my fish rather than many small groups.

Could I get away with 2 angels in this 36G aquarium? I'd stick with that and the 7 tetra and 4 cory cats.

[Lager]

Two angels will do fine in a 36 as long as they like each other. If they don't you will need to rehome one of them.

[aveldina]

Awesome, hopefully getting two from the same place will help?

I'm going to stick with the less is more strategy I guess and go with 3 types of fish. I love watching the cat fish so this seems like a good plan.