Hello everyone! My name is Sal and I must admit I have been lurking around this forum, attempting to gain some more knowledge before I completely return to this hobby.
Years ago I had many different set ups, from a 29
gal Oscar tank housing 2 very messy Oscars, to a wide range of community tanks which housed fish such as Angels, Kuhli loaches, Pictus Catfish (my absolute fav fish), an assortment of Tetras , Gouramis, Danios, Cory's, etc.
I recently aquired a 55gal tank for our living room for free (woohoo!) and plan to start a fishless cycle within the next few months. I also still have my 29gal which will accompany myself and gf in our bedroom, which will also get a fishless cycle soon.
We are looking for a new place to live and until that happens the tanks will not be started. However I am using the time to search this forum for information and gain much more knowledge and experience.
My plans for the 55gal is to be lightly planted, low-tech with a wide variety of fish...my fav catfish (Pictus aka Pimelodus Pictus) will be kept in here so I am going to need to know what can be kept with it. I would like to go with a sand substrate as I have never done it before.
My plans for the 29gal will also be a lightly planted, low-tech with an assortment of communtiy fish, mainly a school of Tetras, a Banjo Catfish, a group of about 4-5 Cory's, a group of about 6-8 Kuhli Loaches and possibly an Algae Eater or 2. For this tank the substrate will more than likely be a natural colored stone, such as river rock or something similar.
Any advice you have regarding these tanks will be greatly appreciated. Like I said it has been a while since I had a tank up and running and don't know what the best filtration systems are now-a-days so any help with that would be great. And as I said before I want to do all my research beforehand so the return to this hobby will be as smooth as when I first began it.