Fish for Self-Sustaining Planted Tank?

[Ilikefishes]

All are good. I have them all. Drip Acclimation is the best way to go.

 

[becrac16]

Sorry, what is drip acclimation?

 

[bluerose]

Siamese algae eaters can get a bit aggressive I believe... otos are schooling fish. I have a small army of amano shrimp myself (7 in a 5gal tank) but they are a liiiittle on the lazy side. Fun to have, though.

No idea about bristlenoses.

 

[Ilikefishes]

Well, I'm not sure of any other ways to drip acclimate, first I float my bags for about 10 minutes, then I use my Fish - Only bucket and empty them into it. Then I take an extra piece of tubing for my airstones and put one end in the tank, and siphon into the bucket until it's half full, giving the fish slow adjustment to the water parameters of my tank from the store water. I've noticed great results in this fashion.

 

[mudraker]

I like amano shrimp for cleaning. Bristlenose plecos are very nice, they don't get too big or mean.

The chinese algae eaters do get big and mean. Mine got so mean it now lives with the turtles.

Otos are really neat, but you need to produce an aweful lot of algae to keep them healthy.

 

[becrac16]

I think I will go with the bristlenose pleco then. Strangely, oto cats are kind of hard to come by around here.

 

[mattrox]

I'd add oto's as well as bristlenose. They are small and cute and will occupy a slightly different nice than your bristlenoses.

 

[becrac16]

Mattrox, why do you say that? Would adding otos as well as bristlenose make the tank a little crowded?

 

[becrac16]

Crap, I found more little snails today, so it seems like they are breeding, even though they're still small. SO I guess I will have to get something that eats snails. The two kinds of fish that have been recommended to me are clown loaches (too big) and dwarf puffers (not good in a community tank?) Any suggestions?

 

[Fishguy2727]

Snails are usually good, I have never had them at levels that needed control. If you do need control almost any loaches will eat them, not just clowns. I prefer yoyo, angelicus, and histrionica. There are many other options of loaches too.

 

[mattrox]

Mattrox, why do you say that? Would adding otos as well as bristlenose make the tank a little crowded?

Otos are tiny and unless the tank is way overstocked they will add very little bio-load to the tank.

Bristlenoses are interesting, but Otos are just plain cute. LOL

 

[LostLoach]

hey fish guy i liked your comment especially the party about the Many fish give off growth inhibiting hormones.. that was something new i learned which shed some light to me and makes total sense in aquaria and the natural world i wish the guy setting up the aquarium luck anyway.. and yah only way people would have ravel is they like the look other than that sand is the way to go

 

[becrac16]

OK! I have my test results!!!!

nitrite and nitrate are at 0, pH is actually better than I thought at between 6.5 and 7.5, probably closer to 7 though. Alkalinity is around 120-180, Hardness was at about 150.

Does that sound ok for my choices of fish?

I picked up a tiny albino bristlenose today, he/she is so cute! Kind of creepy that I can see through the underside skin to his tummy....weird! But I'm excited for him to grow!

 

[Fishguy2727]

If you can't tell the difference between 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5 you need a new test kit. The test kit should have increments of around 0.2.

 

[becrac16]

The test has increments of .5, and it was 6.5 and 7. I waited too long to re-read it and by that time it had gone up to between 7 and 7.5

 

[Fishguy2727]

If you worry enough about pH to test it get a better kit.

 

[becrac16]

At this point, I'm not worried. I was before as I had no idea, and thought it was up to 8.

 

[mudraker]

Good for you for getting started on testing