Help starting a new 50 gallon freshwater planted tank, first tank ever?

[Orokahs]

I now have a 50 gallon tank that I want to use for a planted tank... Would this work? Can I add more fish/shrimp and plants? What light bar should I use?

TANK SUPPLIES:
What Light Bar Thing?
Black Sand
Plant Fertilizer
Fish Flakes (Smallest Size)
Blood worms (Smallest size)
Shrimp food (Smallest size)

PLANTS:
1 Plant on Driftwood
2 Myriophyllum simulans
2 Variegated Japanese Dwarf Rus
2 Anubias barteri var. barteri
3 Brazilian Waterweed
2 Java Fern

FISH:
5 Zebra Danios
6 Neon Tetras
4 Gold Barbs
4 (2 female, 2 male) Fancy Guppies
3 (1 male, 2 female) Swordtails
4 shrimp


I'm new at this, this'll be my first tank.

[josh7]

Alright first off you need to go through the cycling process. Someone will hopefully soon post a link to a good website to read up on cycling. I'm confused on what you mean by light bar thing? I would get omega one flakes for tropical fish but better yet would be omega one pellets. Shrimp will eat whatever scraps get down to the bottom or algae what type of shrimp were you looking into? As far as bloodworms go but frozen cubed ones brand really doesn't matter there.

I don't know a lot about plants but java ferns I know are easy to care for. Your fish choices are good except I wouldn't get swordtails breed way to much and add a lot to your bioload I would do a stocking list of
6- Neon tetras
6- gold barbs or cherry barbs
6- Zebra Danios
6 guppies- 2 Male 4 female.
10- Red Cherry Shrimo

You could probably also add 8 Panda cories

[Orokahs]

I was thinking glass/ghost shrimp. Also what I mean for the lighting is that I have no lighting yet, and I don't know which one to get. I have a wire grate on op right now with a waterfall filter, but otherwise nothing. It's been sitting there with water in it for a while, so all I need to do is add sand and stuff and plants...? And is the amount of plants enough to make it seem pretty densely planted?

[josh7]

I think once the plants grow out it will look nice Idk a ton about live plants though. As far as lighting goes I would go get get some nice glass tops and a 48 inch strip light. As far as stocking the shrimp goes you could easily get around 20 ghost shrimp with no problems and what type of filter do you have? Also you should go google how to fish less cycle an aquarium because this needs to be done before any fish can be added and what's your tanks dimensions?

[Orokahs]

I hve no idea what type of filter, if looks like a tube and then it goes up into a little water bucket thing. Then it pours back into the tank liek a waterfall. Could I keep two male swordtails? Or females?

[josh7]

Well can you post a pic of it on here? If you want swordtails to that will narrow your options down when stocking also expect tons of fry(babies) I would get 1 male and 2 females.

[Orokahs]

FISH:
5 Zebra Danios
6 Neon Tetras
5 Gold Barbs
6 (4 female, 2 male) Fancy Guppies
3 (1 male, 2 female) Swordtails OR 2 males/females (So no fry but not lonely either)
7 shrimp

I'm pretty happy with that, and that's only 27 fishies... I can't get a picture atm, but...
http://www.crayfishguy.com/eBay/CPF1-5/CPF1.jpg
it looks like that.

[josh7]

Ok I would reccomend buying another filter either another Hang On Back (HOB) filter like a marine land penguin 350 or aqua clear 70. I would get 1 male swordtail 2 females 2 makes will just fight. I would also bump up your zebra danio school to 7 and neon tetras to 8.

[Orokahs]

Won't the plants do that?

[josh7]

Well they help but honestly the more filtration you have the better. The plants and the filters together scream a healthy environment.

[SKB]

I have a link that will be under my post (signature) about the cycling process. It should have all of the links and information you need to cycle your tank. I recommend cycling the tank before you buy fish.

You can put your plants in before the cycling is over, pretty much when u set up the tank the plants are good to go.

Lighting and what you use as substrate depend on the type of plants you want, which I saw you posted above. Read up about those and whether or not they prefer soil or can live in sand or rock substrate. Java fern prefers to grow on driftwood so that could be your driftwood plant. Some plants like substrate, some like driftwood, some like root tabs and plant food is always a good idea. Depending on the plants you buy, depends on lighting. I have 2 watts per gallon on my 75 gallon tank. Most plants don't need more than that.

Sounds like you might have a canister filter. I am not familiar with those.

As stated above, the more filtration you have the better. I have a 75 gallon tank and a filter for a 350 gallon tank, some people may think that's over doing it but its worked for me. I also just have an HOB filter.

About the fish, the type of fish you want sound good to me. But, when buying male/female, you want more females to each male, prolly 2 females per 1 male.

[Orokahs]

Thank yoU! I don't understand the whole watts thing though, the one I wanted to get from pet store says itas 6 watts but it's a big huge strip.
http:
//www.
petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?
productId=12319439&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo67

[SKB]

I'm sorry it didn't work to a specific light it just went to PetSmart.com. I usually get my lighting off eBay. For a 50 gallon aquarium I'd say ud want atleast 80 watts. But I'd go for 100-120