My first tank!

[Annakhil]

Ok let me go do that but I think the rest looks fine what do you think?

 

[Annakhil]

Alright it is .25 so I'm going to do another water change tomorrow

 

[Aquavic]

I think you're almost there. In a week or so your cycling will be done

 

[Annakhil]

So I plan on doing a few more PwC, shockingly the glass shrimp seem to be loving their new home, the three goldfish I have are good too, i plan on selling them back to my LFS for some platies. I know a lot of ppl don't agree with that but I didn't plan on getting a larger tank till later and I know it's not nice to keep the danios in a tank that is to small. I think to help cut the ammonia from .25 to 0 I will cut the feeding down too, even though I got nipped at when trying to get water to test. Lol

 

[Aquavic]

So I plan on doing a few more PwC, shockingly the glass shrimp seem to be loving their new home, the three goldfish I have are good too, i plan on selling them back to my LFS for some platies. I know a lot of ppl don't agree with that but I didn't plan on getting a larger tank till later and I know it's not nice to keep the danios in a tank that is to small. I think to help cut the ammonia from .25 to 0 I will cut the feeding down too, even though I got nipped at when trying to get water to test. Lol

Honestly I think trading it for some platies is a good idea. I have two myself an they're really awesome.

 

[Annakhil]

I went to my LFS and the guy that works there breeds rcs and has a few live plant tanks. So I'm going to get some driftwood with some java fern on it and a few of the shrimp and he is going to trade it for the glow fish, I think the only thing. I will add is the platies later after the shrimp acclimate.

 

[hcourts]

+1 to the driftwood!! It always looks awsome. And you can dose your plants you have with excel. That will help and you shouldn't have to worry about DIY co2. I have a planted 55 and my plants do awsome with root tabs and the excel and I think what you are wantting to do fish wise is good. The ghost shrimp are scavengers though...and there isn't a lot of overpopulation with snails if you do things right if you got one mystery snail it would be fine but the have a big bio load.

 

[Annakhil]

I decided against the snail cause no one around here has assassin snails and that's what I want, but I think shrimp mostly and a few platies will be the only thing I'll keep plus the plants, I seriously am contemplating putting one of the Anubis plants cause all of these are low light and slow growing and are very beneficial to any tank

 

[Aquavic]

I decided against the snail cause no one around here has assassin snails and that's what I want, but I think shrimp mostly and a few platies will be the only thing I'll keep plus the plants, I seriously am contemplating putting one of the Anubis plants cause all of these are low light and slow growing and are very beneficial to any tank

I think I might get a ghost shrimp. My fish like to torture me and let the food go down so I can clean it up :face palm:

 

[hcourts]

That's a good lowlight plant I have one in my 10g and it is huge!! That sounds like a great stock/plant list

 

[emerald76]

The glofish need a twenty long, seeing as they are just glorified zebra danios.

 

[Annakhil]

I think I might get a ghost shrimp. My fish like to torture me and let the food go down so I can clean it up :face palm:

Trust me it's a good $0.36 investment since they keep the tank clean and are fun to watch, one of mine has eggs and I keep watching her to see what she's doing and when will they hatch

 

[ejaramillo01]

Will they survive in gravel? Thank yall soo much!

I will start with fake plants at the beginning, you want first to master the maintenance and proper cycle of the tank for the fish. Adding plants now in my opinion will add a variable that you don't need to deal with it right now.
Besides, plastic plants will allow you to try different landscapes easier, so you can realize better what you like to see in your tank later on.
Just my opinion.

 

[TangoTank]

What should I plant and are you talking live or fake? If live, would they survive in gravel rather than sand?

Live plants would be fine in gravel w/ good light & liquid fertilizers (like Leaf Zone). Depends on the plants. I have Amazon Swords, Anacharis & Wisteria in gravel. It's all much simpler than it seems when you start reading about. And like another poster said, when you want tons of growth, you need CO2 & when there's more CO2 they need much more light.

Plants really help w/ your bio filter & they cost the same as plastic plants. The fish love the real plants & plastic plants can actually cause damage to the fish, silk would be a better alternative. Good luck!

PS--I just got Eco-complete which is like gravel, root friendly & sensitive fish friendly (I have Corys). Sand you'd have to stir often or have special snails that stir it up so you don't get dead pockets plus it compacts on the plants' roots. I think gravel is probably better than sand from a maintenance point of view although some would say sand is better b/c easier to vac! Depends on what your prefer to deal w/!

 

[Annakhil]

I found a type of substrate that's like what you said its specific for live plants and soft for fish, I will eventually switch out my gravel for that but maybe in a few months after I get everything settled, I will jus slowly switch it out to not disturb my shrimp