My 29 gallon Community Tank

[MacabreGoblin]

This is my 29 gallon freshwater community tank. It's a Marineland tank, and I purchased in it in a kit which included LED lights which I intend to replace in the next month or two. It also included a Penguin 200 power filter and a 200w submersible heater. I installed an airstone and some decor, including gravel. There is a small java fern and a young moneywort plant.

Yesterday, which was a few days after the cycle completed, I added 3 albino cory catfish to the tank. I call them Bifur, Bofur and Bombur.

They're doing well. They play in the bubbles from the airstone a lot, which is adorable. I'm still testing the levels every day and they're looking good, always 0ppm ammonia and nitrites and never more than 5ppm nitrates. So far, so good.

This is going to be a community tank, but I'm not entirely sure what other fish I'm going to add. I'm considering adding another cory or two, and a mystery snail...but beyond that I have little idea. Maybe some cherry barbs, or scissortail rasboras? And I was thinking maybe silver hatchetfish to have some top swimmers. I'm far from certain yet. Although I'm so in love with my corys that I could happily just have a dozen of them!

 

[Cold Canadian]

Stocking ideas!!!
More Cory's ( I love Cory's too!), four Oto catfish, five hatchet fish, a school of tetras and three dwarf gourami. The snails would go good to.


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[MacabreGoblin]

Thanks so much for your suggestions! I looked more into different kinds of fish and fiddled around with ideas on aqadvisor, and I came to this tentative stocking idea:

-3 more corys (for a total of 6)
-5 cherry barbs
-5 silver hatchetfish
-1 mystery snail
-2 dwarf gourami
-1-2 freshwater clams

The only thing I'm totally sure of right now is 3 more corys and the mystery snail. But I think I like this arrangement.

 

[emerald76]

Clams are incredibly hard to keep alive from what I hear and once dead can kill the whole tank with ammonia spikes. Don't risk it IMO


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[emerald76]

Oh and two dwarf gourami is asking for trouble. Only do one, they are aggressive towards conspecifics.


Delivered via owl
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Delivered via owl
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[MacabreGoblin]

Hmm, maybe not in this tank then. I would still really like to try to keep clams at some point, but perhaps in a smaller tank with fewer fish (or none?) and sand instead of gravel. Thanks for the heads up!


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[MacabreGoblin]

I went to my LFS for the first time today, and it was a fantastic experience. The staff was so knowledgeable and comfortable with the fish; the selection was amazing; and all the fish looked healthy and the tanks were immaculately kept. I was impressed. They had a blue arowana and it was one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen. I want one someday!

I went in with my heart set on three albino corys and a mystery snail, but they were out of both. They had plenty of other snails and corys, though. In the end I took home two green corys, who I'm calling Fili and Kili:

It was hard to get a picture because they have been very active. They immediately fell in with my three albinos, which was a relief - I was a little worried that different corys might not school. But it looks like my fears were unfounded.

 

[MacabreGoblin]

I've been having unusually high levels of ammonia in my tank lately, so I've been doing 50% water changes daily. I don't know what's causing the high levels...my tank is clean, not many bits when I vacuum the gravel. There's no visible algae or anything. And yet my tank keeps reading 1 or 2 ppm for ammonia. Always 0 nitrites and usually 5-10ppm for NitrAtes. And then this morning I found one of my albino corys dead in the tank. I feel terrible.

 

[Tigerbarb12]

Love it, and love the greek/roman ruin theme

 

[tiger terror]

Sounds as if you've hit a mini-cycle...How did you cycle your tank? What do you do with the dirty cartridges&do you use tank(or treated)water for cleaning?

Getcha sleeves wet fish tank people!