Stocking 17 gallon

[colloquial penguin]

Hello, new to site & pretty new to keeping fish, so i'm hoping this isn't a stupid question....

Just got a 17 gallon tank and i am hoping to stock it with the following:

3 Lanceolate whiptail catfish

4/5 harlequin rasboras

According to aquariumwiki.com both require a 15 gallon tank, but i have no idea whether this many is pushing it..

Also tank will be heavily planted

Thanks for any help

 

[molliwopp]

That should be fine as the catfish would habbit the bottom and the harlis would be in the mid/top. I would recommend smooth gravel or sand so the catfish wont hurt their barbs. You could get away with increasing your harlis to 6.

Do you know about the nitrogen cycle?

 

[colloquial penguin]

Great, luckily i already have lots of aquarium sand so that works out nicely..

is the nitrogen cycle the ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate thing? I think i have a basic understanding of cycling a tank (although i cocked it up the first time on my 10 gallon due to taking advice from a pet store). Or is the nitrogen cycle something else?

 

[molliwopp]

Great, luckily i already have lots of aquarium sand so that works out nicely..

is the nitrogen cycle the ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate thing? I think i have a basic understanding of cycling a tank (although i cocked it up the first time on my 10 gallon due to taking advice from a pet store). Or is the nitrogen cycle something else?

Youre right yes. Are you going to cycle the tank first or do a fish in cycle?

 

[colloquial penguin]

i'm planning on doing a fish less cycle using fish food as this sounds pretty straightforward and way less stressful than the way i did my current tank - very nearly killed my betta within a week just doing what the store told me to do!

Thanks so much for replying - can't wait to set up the tank