72 gallon bowfront stocking

[missmonday]

Hello all,

This Saturday I'll be picking up a 72 gallon bowfront with a lovely stand and I'm very excited to stock it! However, due to space and the possibility of me moving out within the next few years, actually stocking it will be put on hold.

However, I'm the type of person that enjoys planning ahead, so having a good idea of what I want will definitely help me think!

I'm looking to keep a planted tank, mainly with plants on both ends and an open swimming space in the middle. I'd also like to put some bigger rocks or driftwood or maybe both as I've never used either in a tank, and really like the way they look. (This will hopefully be my first true experience planning the look of the tank!) Not sure what I'll put in the tank, but I've had great success with wisteria, green hygrophila, amazon sword, rotala indica and hornwort.

As far as actual stock, I'm looking at:
6-8 boesemani rainbowfish
6 or so zebra loaches
6 or so corys (maybe panda, metae or false julii)
Maybe amano shrimp if they won't get eaten

I don't have any prior experience with any of these fish, I'll be putting panda corys in my 29, and if they do very well, I'll probably change the stocking to pandas. I love my amano shrimp in my 29 and would love to have more in a big tank too, but don't want anyone to eat them would rainbows?

Not sure if I can add another little school, maybe medium sized tetras or something. But as far as I'm aware, the main listing is very active and so shy fish are out ofthe question.

The tank/stand deal doesn't come with a filter, so any filter recommendations are appreciated as well, so far I've been looking into the fluval c4, aquaclear 70 and a sunsun canister filter.

Any advice and suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

 

[sinibotia]

The loaches will LOVE the driftwood! If you can, get some with lots of nooks and crannies. They'll lodge themselves in there quite comfortably. I wouldn't trust the loaches with the shrimp though. It's not a combination I have tried but loaches are natural predators of invertebrates of all kinds.

 

[tartarsauce]

Could try Kuhli Loaches, I have a school of them in a tank with a Cherry Shrimp colony, haven't had any issues. Shrimp are breeding and the Kuhlis are happy.

 

[missmonday]

Oh that's great to hear about the driftwood! But depressing about the shrimp haha. I was afraid SOMETHING might eat them, but they're completely left alone in my 29. I guess that'll be the only place I can keep them. I've gotten kind of attached to my Amanos and would hate for anything to happen to them!

I've also heard loaches are pretty useful for keeping snail populations low so hopefully a little group would be good at keeping pond/bladder snails at bay.

How prone are zebra loaches/corys to disease? I've heard they're very susceptible to ich because they're bottom dwellers. Are they pretty hardy? I've heard zebras are very good beginner loaches.

 

[missmonday]

Could try Kuhli Loaches, I have a school of them in a tank with a Cherry Shrimp colony, haven't had any issues. Shrimp are breeding and the Kuhlis are happy.

I plan on adding 5 kuhlis to my 29 gallon community! That's good to hear they won't hurt shrimp either but I've also heard they're notorious hiders, so I suppose I'll see how they do in my 29 whenever I get them. That's a consideration I'll keep in mind, but I just think the zebras are so cute and active I wanna try and broaden my fish keeping experience.

 

[sinibotia]

Zebras are arguably the best beginner botia loach! Another option you could try is angelicus loaches, which are also very good for beginners. They just get a little bigger. Zebra loaches are susceptible to external parasites like ich and internal parasites like worms. But those are generally only issues when you first add them to the tank. Loaches are very hardy once they have settled in and any issues they brought with them have been addressed. They are all wild-caught, so they are prone to bringing diseases with them, but otherwise they are very sturdy!

 

[missmonday]

Being scaleless fish like corys, what's the best sort of "preventative bath" I could give them to make sure they don't have any icky things in/on their system? I've got methylene blue, paraguard, prazi pro, kanamycin, furan 2, aquarium and epsom salts on hand and that won't expire for like 3 years.

I also plan on quarantining any purchases for either the 29 or the 72 for a month

 

[sinibotia]

I would treat with paraguard or prazipro immediately in quarantine. I always feed prazipro-soaked food to my new loaches. Aside from that, I would just wait and see. Loaches are sensitive to medications so watch closely while treating and don't use anything unless you have a reasonable suspicion of an illness.

 

[missmonday]

Do you use prazi and paraguard together? They don't negatively impact the BB do they? Do you half the dose on both/either? Sorry for so many questions haha

 

[sinibotia]

Do you use prazi and paraguard together? They don't negatively impact the BB do they? Do you half the dose on both/either? Sorry for so many questions haha

I was mixing up something else with paraguard. I would hold off on the paraguard and if you do have a reason use it, half-dose. I would soak their food in prazipro- which doesn't hurt BB at all.

I don't mind all the questions! It's good to share information! And I love loaches!

 

[missmonday]

Oh what else? And I can soak food in prazi whenever I get the kuhlis and corys for my 29, thanks just a few drops right?

 

[sinibotia]

Yup! They may reject it so feed only a little and just keep trying until they eat some.

 

[cass95]

I would recommend SunSun canister instead of aquaclear 70. The Canister is so much more quiet and cheaper.

 

[missmonday]

I don't remember the model name off of the top of my head, but would the sunsun filter with 5 stages and uv sterilizer be enough filtration? As far as I am aware, rainbows, zebra loaches and corys don't have heavy bioloads.

 

[BANGAR]

Yeah I have a sunsun an that thing is silent... Just remembered. Left the uv sterilizer on!

So since you're doing rainbows and haven't picked any "long finned" species I would guess you can be pretty open with your choices of tetra since some species are nippy.

Are you thinking of adding a powerhead?

Also pumped to be following this thread!


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[missmonday]

I've heard that the uv sterilizer can be a pretty good benefit as it it xan kill some algae and keep disease down. I'll have to look at it again and see if it can handle 72 gallons.

I suppose I'm pretty open to what kind of tetra! Preferably not something too aggressive. I'd only think medium just because I've heard that rainbows and loaches are so active and boisterous that smaller fishes are intimidated. I'm interested in harlequin rasboras, but I'm afraid they'd be too scared by the rainbows and loaches.

What are some good tetra suggestions? I'd looked up head and tail light tetras and lemon tetras, they seemed pretty interesting. Pretty sure my lfs keeps both too. I'm trying to limit my stock to what I can get at The Wet Spot, as it's my lfs of choice

Sorry to be a little bit of the barer of bad news, but I don't think I'll be able to set up this 72 for quite some time...I'm still living with my parents while I'm in college, and I'm not sure if there's much available space or my dad would let me put it anywhere. I'll probably set it up whenever I move out, but since it'll be at least a year and a half until I graduate, and my boyfriend lives out of the country, it might be a little while :'3 which is a little upsetting...

How much of a pain is it to take down a tank and setting it up again for moving?

 

[BANGAR]

Literally just did it with a dirted 46g bowfront a week ago... Such a pain! I moved about two miles from old apartment to a new one. Luckily I didn't have to break down the entire tank, but it was still a project that took 1.5 hours to tear down and 3-5 hours to rescape and fill back up.
Either way a 72 bowfront sounds insanely awesome and like a rare opportunity. I might get it and figure out a plan to move out before setting it up. Plus that would give you time to build a custom stand and canopy for it, since it sounds like a sweet display tank!


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[missmonday]

Well, we drove out to go see the tank and it was beautiful! Needs a little bit of a scrub down, but both the tank and the stand seemed to be in really good shape and I'm excited! Unfortunately, it was too big to fit in my grandpa's car, so I'll have to wait a few days to a week to be able to use my grandma's minivan. Good thing I didn't go for the 125 or I'd never be able to get it home haha.

How would one go about building a custom canopy? I'm not much of a builder...and the stand it comes with is beautiful and seems really robust as well. It's a purchased stand. Not sure of the brand, but I've seen them for sale at the Wet Spot, so I feel like I can trust the stands they're always displaying.

The canister filters I'm looking at are sunsun 403b and 404b I believe? One is rated for 100 gallons and going for about 65 online, and the other is rated for 150 gallons but it's close to 90...not sure if I should drop nearly 100 on a filter when I don't have any canister experience :/ anyone recommend any good (preferably not too expensive) powerheads?

The tetras I'm looking at to add to the stock could be lemon tetras, black phantom tetras or black skirt tetras. Would adding a school of 7 or 8 tetras be too much? Everything in the tank would be schooling haha, I just don't want anyone to feel stressed or weak due to low numbers.

Instead of the tetras (since I'm open to stocking aside from the rainbows and loaches) would anyone recommend a single odd ball or interesting fish compatible? Not particularly interested in plecos.

Thanks for everyone's responses I won't be able to set up the 72 for at least a year or two, but this gives me plenty of time to research and assemble equipment/gear and carefully plan things out.

So excited for an active, colorful and beautiful tank!!