35 gallon hex tank ideas?

[stuie25]

i have a 35 gallon hex tank that i would like to revive. I took it out of my parents basement and cleaned a few years of dust from it and have built a hood for it now.

I was leaning towards SW but i thought i would have flow issues with the hex tank so ive decided to stick with fresh water.

i would like to have some plants, i have a few nice pieces of drift wood i would like to put in. And i would like some schooling fish and possibly a shrimp. I have no idea if any of that with work with what i have.

The aquarium currently has a few inches of beach sand in it.

This is my first real fish tank so i am looking for all the advice i can get.

 

[Tropical boy]

Welcome to AA I see you are new.

I love the fact your going freshwater as they are my true passion and sw can be a very expensive hobby.

Firstly if this is your first tank and you have no experience, you need to read up on the cycling your tank and the beneficial bacterias you will need for fish to thrive.

Secondly, hunt around and find yourself a decent store to purchase your fish plants and hardware. This is a must as many of the large outlet stores have bad advise to give and in some cases poor quality fish.

You will need the right size filter and I can't say which I would get as I'm not sure if there are better ones for hex tanks, but you can ask that on here someone will know. You will also need a heater and it is down to you whether you have an air stone, I always do as it adds dissolved oxygen to your tank.

You will then have to decide on your fish and then the decor to suite( obviously adding this before your fish). You said you would like schooling fish which will probably sway you more toards a community setup and IMO the best schooling fish are tetras, you could get barbs but they can be very aggressive depending on what type you get ( however cherry barbs are great community fish and provided they are kept in schools as with all schooling fish, the fin nipping should be minimal if any. In the way of tetras there are many good fish for your size tank, you could have;
Neons/ cardinals 20+ in number
Black skirts 8- 10
Serpae 8- 10
White fin rosy 8
Lemon tetra 10- 12 and there are many more to take a look at. I would also have a centre piece like a dwarf cichlid, maybe a keyhole or a blue ram as both would be fine in this size tank. I would steer clear of angels in this size tank as they may get aggressive if they feel over crowded, especially with neons ( some may say they go well together but I've had neons eaten by them in the past). Finally I'd go do a low level fish like some cory catfish which you could have a small group of or some kind of loach. One thing however, is that the clown loach is probably the best looking and is readily available and some lfs may try to sell you them but they will out grow your tank so beware.

Hopefully this will help in your setting up and stocking but is by no means any where near all you need to know so do as much research as possible. Any other questions you have, don't be afraid to ask.

Tropical boy

 

[stuie25]

my tank currently just has beach sand in it, i guess its more like gravel but its very small. Can i make this work for plants if i add nutrients and do the extra work, i dont have access to anything better from the local pet stores, and i dont want to have to order 40 pounds of stuff online.

 

[TraceyB4602]

You can do plants in sand. And planted tanks look beautiful. I however can't help you with that because I haven't planted my tank before but there are plenty of people on here to help with that. When do you plan on getting the filter and heater?

I agree with reading up on cycling. IMO I'd start a fishless cycle as soon as you get these items. You will also need ammonia (which you can find at ace hardware, shake it, if it doesn't foam its safe to use). Th cycle can take up to 8 weeks so the sooner you can start that the better. Then the fish you buy will have safe water to live in.

As for schooling fish neons are beautiful and you can have a bunch. I would do 10-15. Also tiger barbs are nice. They're fun and always moving around the tank. They are a little aggressive and nip fins in smaller groups so if you get them I wouldn't get less than 8-10. I also agree on having a larger center fish. Maybe a couple of kissing gourami's. You can have a couple combinations in your tank, and your shrimp will go well too.

Here's a comparability chart to help with that:
http://www.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/Compatibility/index.php

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium

 

[stuie25]

thanks , i picked up a filter today on sale. I dont like the look of all the cords and tubes running up the back so i chose an internal filter. I picked up a fuval U-3 which is supposed to be good for 40g.

Ive also made a hood last night which is a technical marvel even for me.
Ive integrated all the controls into the hood so that i have 1 power cord and the tube from the CO2 thing on the back and that's it. Nice and neat.

im going to monitor the water temp for a few days and see what the MH light put it up to and determine if i still need a heater.

This is what it looks like this afternoon

also throwing in a pic of the hood.

 

[TraceyB4602]

Looks good. I hate seeing wires too, well my fiancee cares more so he fixes it ha. You have a C02 machine that's really good for you seeing you want plants. How many watts is your light? I know that a lot of plants require high wattage. There are low light plants. We need a plant expert in here.

 

[stuie25]

the light is a 150w MH, Came from a retail store track light i tore apart.

my co2 system is just the diy kind, pop bottle and tubeing and what not, and im thinking i might have messed up the mix since it hasn't done much for the past few hours il have to check on that.

 

[andreww88]

I know this thread is old, but I just saw it from Google. I have a 35 gallon hex tank as well. It is already setup, but I'm going to have to move it soon because we are moving in a new house. It needs some work because I've been busy and haven't had much time to do maintenance.

I have a canister filter for the filtration and it works wonders. It is a community take. I have two plecos, 3 giant danios, 3 rosy barbs, 1 cherry barb and I think thats it for now. I have one large piece of driftwood that I love and the Adonis pleco loves it. I also have two pieces of dead coral from the store.

I have sand for the bottom. I have tried plants, but they never make it. I've tried fertilizer as well. I replaced the light that came with the tank with a LED light to try to get more wattage, but no luck. I've been told its because it is so tall and its harder for plants to get the light they need from taller tanks.

I like the fish suggestions by Tropical Boy. I might try tetras soon after I get it moved and stable again. I'm new to the forum now so I'm going to look around and get some advice on how to spice up the tank again.