Upgrading Tank Size

[Danio8]

I have had a 20 gallon tank for about a year and a half and I have decided to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder. The filter I would be using is a Marineland Penguin 200, which has a filter rate of 200gph. The substate would be black gravel. My ph is around 8.2. I do plan on having plenty of live plants. The current stock in my 20 gallon is 4 glofish tetras (I know they are supposed to be in a larger school, but this group has been doing fine for a while now so I've just decided to leave them), 3 female platys, 1 platy fry with an unknown gender, and a pair of zebra danios (I am aware they are also supposed to be in a school but it has just been the two of them for months now and they seem fine...), and 5 ember tetras. I would move these current fish to the 40 gallon as well as adding a few new fish.

So the fish I'm thinking of adding are:
3-4 pearl gouramis
5 more ember tetras (so the total amount would be 10)
2-5 Female Platys (My friend is looking to rehome her full grown girls as well as possibly some fry)
1-2 bristlenose plecos (I do plan to have plenty of driftwood in the tank, and I wouldn't add them until the tank had grown some stuff.)

So I have a few questions.. Is the filter and adequate size? Is the stock ok? Is my ph too high for the pearl gouramis? And I would love some beginner plant suggestions that do not have a need for Co2, as well as a good fertilizer. Thanks!

 

[Andy Sager]

I have had a 20 gallon tank for about a year and a half and I have decided to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder. The filter I would be using is a Marineland Penguin 200, which has a filter rate of 200gph. The substate would be black gravel. My ph is around 8.2. I do plan on having plenty of live plants. The current stock in my 20 gallon is 4 glofish tetras (I know they are supposed to be in a larger school, but this group has been doing fine for a while now so I've just decided to leave them), 3 female platys, 1 platy fry with an unknown gender, and a pair of zebra danios (I am aware they are also supposed to be in a school but it has just been the two of them for months now and they seem fine...), and 5 ember tetras. I would move these current fish to the 40 gallon as well as adding a few new fish.

So the fish I'm thinking of adding are:
3-4 pearl gouramis
5 more ember tetras (so the total amount would be 10)
2-5 Female Platys (My friend is looking to rehome her full grown girls as well as possibly some fry)
1-2 bristlenose plecos (I do plan to have plenty of driftwood in the tank, and I wouldn't add them until the tank had grown some stuff.)

So I have a few questions.. Is the filter and adequate size? Is the stock ok? Is my ph too high for the pearl gouramis? And I would love some beginner plant suggestions that do not have a need for Co2, as well as a good fertilizer. Thanks!

The filter would be on the " barely getting by" size as long as the fish load is not excessive. A turnover rate of 5 times + is recommended when figuring out what filter to get. Your filter may pump 200 gallons per hour but I'll bet that's when it is fully clean so probably not going to run that fast permanently. The majority of the fish you mentioned will remain small so it shouldn't be an issue but you have to be extra careful about not over feeding and keeping up with weekly water changes. As for the Ph for the Pearl Gouramis, it will depend on what the Ph is where you are getting them from. Here in Florida, they breed and grow in water with a Ph of 8.4 and higher so they can handle it but if you get them from water that has a much lower Ph, you will need to acclimate them more slowly.
As for plant suggestions, it will all depend on what kind of lighting you have.

Hope this helps.

 

[Danio8]

Thank you for the advice! Currently my lighting plan is a 26 watt hygger light from amazon, so I'd probably say I would need plants that want moderate to low light levels. However, if there are suggestions for better lights (preferably $50 or less) I would be willing to hear them.

 

[Andy Sager]

I'll have to let others on here answer this part as I am not as current on what lighting is out there as you will need.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Currently my lighting plan is a 26 watt hygger light from amazon.

Saying 26W doesnt really tell you much. It just tells you how much power it uses, and nothing about how much light is gives or whether this is useful light for growing plants.

PAR is much more useful as it tells you how much useful light is arriving at a particular point. But, the only way to know PAR is to measure it, and PAR meters are very expensive.

In lieu of PAR you can make generalisations. 10 to 20 lumens/ litre is usually good for low light demand plants. White light will give a good broad spectrum of light, so look for something in the region of 6500k colour spectrum. And you want a nice strong peak of blue and red light for plant growth.

So, assuming you are meaning the Hygger Aquarium LED Light, 26W Full Spectrum Plant Aquarium Light that gives out 1290 lumens, roughly 10 lumens per litre in your tank so produces enough light for low demand plants. It can produce light at 6000 to 10000k, so thats good. And it has nice peaks at the red and blue wavelengths.


So i would say the light is good for what you want it to do. However, saying that, i went to look at an aquarium a couple of weeks ago that i donated some plants and shrimp to and the plants where doing fine with no aquarium light at all, just the room lighting. So most low demand plants dont really need anything beyond ambient room light. I keep saying i could keep java fern alive in a bucket of water in the shed.

 

[Aiken Drum]

As for low demand plants. Amazon swords java fern, anubias, and java moss are good ones to start with.

 

[Danio8]

Thank you! In my current tank I do have Amazon swords, a java fern, a couple small Anubis’s, and some Java moss. The moss is growing great but the Java fern has gotten a little stumpy. I have a suspicion that it might be because I have virtually no nitrates in my tank. This might be totally off, but are there any good aquarium fertilizers I should look into?

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you are from a country where its available NA thrive is a good all in one fertiliser if you need to dose nitrogen. Aquarium Co Op Easy Green and Tropica Specialised Nutrition are others. Here in the UK we have TNC Complete.

Seachem Nitrogen will dose nitrate, but should be used used alongside an all in one fertiliser that doesnt already contain nitrogen, like Seachem Flourish.

 

[Danio8]

Ordered the NA Thrive! Thanks!