Just bought a 30 Gal, many questions

fish sound good, just remember if you have guppies that they are live breeders and the babies my make a nice snake for the tetras. for filters if you are just doing a non planted tank just get a hang on the back of the tank filter like aqua clear or pengiun, just make you don't wash the media of in tap water, use tank water to clean media, read up on cycling and and if this is a non planted tank lighting is not an issue just go with normal flourescent lighting, heater are an investment so go with a jager. sand is a good substrate but don't forget to turn it over regularly to prevent dead spots and dont use a underground filter with sand. fish dont have light requirements so whateverr you like to use like when your up to when you go to bed.

the pleco could be a no no if he does not get to long and outgrows the tank, not sure about that type of pleco, IME plecos are nice but useless, if there is no algea in the tank then you have to supplement him/her with algea wafers.

Welcome to aquaria central. I'm sure that you will find lots of good info. here and lots of good people here willing to help you out with all of your questions. I commend you for doing your homework and researching what you want first before actually going out and buying everything first and than asking questions later. This is the place to be to get your questions answered. Good for you.

I think that the combination that you have listed will work out fine for you. The congo tetras get larger than the bleeding hearts so if I were you I would probably go with the bleeding hearts. The bristlenose pleco maxes out at about 5 inches so you should be fine there. Sounds like you are off to a good start. Just remember that the tank has to cycle so you will have 2-4 weeks of ammonia followed by 2-4 weeks of nitrites. When both of these numbers hit 0 than it will be safe for you to add a few more fish. Only add a few to get your cycle started and do not add any fish during the cycle because the fish will not be able to handle being added in the middle of a cycle. If you do not have a planted tank, after your cycle your nitrates(different than nitrites) will be the end product of your cycle and they will be at zero. If you have a planted aquarium, than you will see some nitrates because the plants need them to survive. However, do not let them get too high and if they do be ready to do water changes.

As far as the heater goes you need one for the fish that you have listed. When you go shopping for a heater look on the back of the package and it will give you a chart for what size heater is needed for which size tank. Let the heater sit in the water for about thirty minutes before turning it on so it can get used to the temperature in your tank.(assuming of course that you will get the submergable kind which in my opinion are far superior to the hang on the outside kind). What filter to get depends on what kind you want. I have a penguien 330 running on my 25 gallon and it works very well for these size tanks. It has a double bio-wheel and a compartment to hold extra media if you need to use it for something like extra carbon. Lighting again depends on what you want. If you plan a planted aquarium than you will want plant lighting. If not than the lighting that is provided with the aquarium will be sufficient.

What kind of substrate is really your choice and what you prefer. I think that you said you prefer sand. In that case DrsFoster&Smith makes a sand substrate called Tahitian Black moon sand that is quite nice. For planted aquariums the is a dark sand substrate called eco-complete that I have in two of my aquariums and I love it. I know that this sounds like a lot but don't worry, there are many people here to help you. I hope this helps. If you have any more questions just post and I or someone else here at aquaria central will try to help you.

Hang in there!

Marinemom

Marinemom said:

If you do not have a planted tank, after your cycle your nitrates(different than nitrites) will be the end product of your cycle and they will be at zero. If you have a planted aquarium, than you will see some nitrates because the plants need them to survive. However, do not let them get too high and if they do be ready to do water changes.

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Actually, you have that backwards, Marinemom.

If the tank is unplanted, the nitrates will be ~20ppm. If it is planted, then the nitrates will most likely be at 0ppm because the plants will have used them up.

Roan

Roan-Sorry for the mistake. You are correct. I guess I was tired and made the post after a long day.I will be more careful next time.

Marinemom

Marinemom said:

Roan-Sorry for the mistake. You are correct. I guess I was tired and made the post after a long day.I will be more careful next time.

Marinemom

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I've been slapped by more than a few people on here, even when I'm not tired

Happens to us all.

Roan

You might want to look into fishless cycling. For heaters, I have had great success with the marineland visitherm and the marlineland stealth models. Both heaters maintain temperature accurate to 1 degree. I have yet to see any fluctuations in both my tanks that have those models and these heaters have lasted very long so far.

For filters, I'd go either with aquaclear or penguin biowheel models regardless if you want to go planted or not. I run a penguin in both my planted tanks and non planted tanks and I am very happy though I did remove the biowheel for my planted tank (this reduces CO2 instability which causes algae problems in planted tanks but not something you need to worry about now).

Fishless cycling is great because it removes the most stressful part of a new tank and allows you to fully stock in one shot. If you don't like the wait, Bio-spira does the same thing but usually in 48 hours instead of 4-6 weeks. It also reduces the risk of disease problems since you get all the fish at once and can knock out any diseases in one shot rather than having to deal with them a few times.

For water conditioner use Seachem Prime. It is the most concentrated and probably the best water condition I've used.

yeah those fish are all fine