The plan for my new 29 gallon

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Homedog98

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My thirty gallon fish tank: Step 1. Buy tank and supplies. Supplies: 1 sixty gallon filter 1 thirty gallon heater 3-4 bags of natural looking gravel 5-6 fake plants of all sizes 1-2 med.-large pieces of driftwood 1 stick thermometer 1 gravel vacuum 1 bottle of prime 1 spare package of filter cartridges 1 thirty gallon fish tank from either petsmart or craigslist. 3-4 cave/rock structures to act as hiding places Step 2. Cycle tank, go to either ace or home depot and get ammonia with nothing in it Step 3. Add 6 more black skirt tetras from petco Step 4. Qt tetras for a month in ten gallon and add to thirty gallon Step 5. Add and qt 2 sexed fantail guppies from petsmart. Qt for a month Step 6. Add bristle nose from petco Step 7. Qt in ten gallon for a month and add to thirty gallon Step 8. Order 4 orange laser Cory catfish from www.liveaquaria.com. When they arrive, qt them for a month and add them to tank Step 9. Order 1 keyhole cichlid from www.liveaquaria.com. When it arrives, qt for a month and add it to tank. Step 10. Order 1 Bolivian ram from www.liveaquaria.com. When it arrives, qt it for a month and add it to tank. Step 11. Enjoy fish tank for years to come.

What'd ya think?
 
You cant just use '3-4' bags of gravel, but estimate how much is in each (really, it should be on the side) and how many you need (Looking around 1-1.5 pounds of gravel per gallon.)

Just a heads up (not sure if you know or not), Make sure to wait 2 weeks after adding fish to add new fish (If not done so, the bioload will not have enough time to catch up and possibly resulting in a mini-cycle.)

Im not sure how the Keyhole is going to do, might be able to eat the guppies....
 
Looks like you've got it all planned out well. A couple questions though. What kind of filter are you planning on getting? I'd go for an AC70, those are the best HOB filters IMO. Are you ordering all of your fish separately? They're going to break you in shipping if you do these all individually. I'd just order them all at once. If you use a good heavy dose of ammonia to cycle the tank (keep it right at 4ppm the whole way through), you'll be able to pretty much fully stock the tank as soon as the cycle finishes. Also, I would suggest you get 3-4 more cories. They do best in groups, and often die if they're not with others.
 
Not quite sure what filter I'll get, but I'll definitely look into that one! I understand the gravel situation, and the cycling situation, and that was just an estimate. I'm gonna get the fish a month a part to keep from cycling all over again and since I'm doing orders last, I'll just get all of them at the same time since they're on the same site. So does that help?
 
The Bolivian ram should do just fine in a community tank. If there is enough spots in the tank for both the ram and keyhole to claim as territory, it should be alright.
 
have you used liveaquaria.com before? I'm interested to know how they are and how the fish are through shipping. keep us posted! =)
 
I'm about to! But they seem to be very highly recommended, and a few people on here also had good results with it, so we'll see!
 
I don't see orange lasers in stock there. ;)

Last time I checked, when the orange lasers are in stock, they were very expensive. I guarantee I can get you some cheaper. I can also match or beat the price on keyholes if you're interested.

I've heard a lot of good things about liveaquaria, but at the same time they really aren't doing anything differently than most other online retailers (myself included). They're getting fish from wholesalers (albeit on a much larger scale), hopefully QTing them before sale, and selling them to customers.

FWIW, I think that black skirt tetras will shred the guppies. You may want to consider another species. :)
 
I'll give the tetras a chance to redeem themselves with the guppies, but if it doesn't work out, I have a spare ten gallon I can keep them in. And I would love to order from you when i get everything set up! But it could be a few months since I have to get moved first. That's why I'm getting it all planned out now. To make minimal mistakes and have minimal unhappy/healthy fish. And I was wondering, is there anyone here that knows a good place to find a starlight bristle nose pleco? If I could find one I'd love to get one of those instead of the regular bristle nose. And to solve the schooling Cory problem, I added two more to my list, so now I'll have four in there.
 
Our little shop isn't going anywhere. We'll be ready when you are, just give us some warning so we can make sure to have what you want in stock. We'll ship them to you much cheaper too.

Do you know the L number on that starlight bristlenose? I'm betting that you can find one on Aquabid. Just check the seller's feedback before you bid.
 
I've done my research on them, but I've never used aquabid, and I don't really know what the L number is. What does it mean?
 
The L numbers are for species that have been identified as distinct species, but are still undescribed. To make things more confusing, some undescribed species have been given an LDA number.

Cories are the same way. Taxonomy isn't able to keep up with new species being collected for the hobby. A lot of the undescribed cories have a C number. Others have a CW number. The orange lasers you want are actually undescribed, CW014. Corydoras sp. (Cw014) • Callichthyidae • Cat-eLog • PlanetCatfish
 
Hmm... I think I'll go with the regular bristle nose for now, and if one pops up somewhere when I'm ready I'll jump on it, and I'll either order the lasers from you or liveaquaria. Final question,(for now) a year or two back I went to the beach and found some awesome shells. All underwater. I wanted to add them to my tank. One had a dead hermit crab, which I pulled out, another with a dead snail, and another just underwater, with no signs of life in it. To keep the shells from smelling, and getting me sick, I rinsed them under hot water, and thoroughly scrubbed them with rubbing alcohol. I rinsed it again with cold water and let them sit in warm water overnight. Can I add them now? Do I need to do anything else?
 
I think I figured out how to keep the peace between the guppies and the black skirts! Tell me what you think.

In the ten gallon I currently own with my 1 lonely little black skirt, I'm going to add 2 more black skirts and 2 guppies. This way they'll be just a bit confused with all the change, and in the confusion won't mind each other. I then let them settle for a month or so and see what happens. A month or so later, I'll add 3 more black skirts, and since the guppies will be already established (hopefully!) and they'll get along with each other. After that, I'm not really adding any more nippy fish after that, so hopefully I'll be in the clear.
 
Cool plan. Ive had blackskirts (Only 3; 2 longfin, 1 short) they never nipped at my angel. I guess it depends on the individual fish in the school that nips. Maybe my angelfish was big enough to intimidate them......
 
Ok, to my ten gallon I added the two guppies and two black skirts. Everything went fine, but now the tetras are nipping each other! How do I stop this?
 
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