Hello, first off, I should warn you all that this may be somewhat long. I've been doing a LOT of research, and I've collected a list of questions. This is compounded by the fact that I have raised plants and grew up fishkeeping with my dad, but I've been out of the hobby for a decade now. Things change, and things have been forgotten. Not a lot, but enough to make me trigger shy. I should also note that I'm still early in the process here. The fiancee and I are moving out of my tiny apartment and into a house next month, and we're getting married in June. I'm starting to put together a plan and pick up equipment (Yay for Petco $1 per gallon sale!) now, but my plan is to start the tank towards the end of summer. So, I have time to iron out the kinks.
That all said, my plan.
I intend to setup a 55 gallon with an Eheim 2073 canister and an Aquaclear 50 powerhead for additional water movement. Stocking is one of my questions. My current plan is for 10 emperor tetras, 8 Corydoras sp. (that being whatever my local LFS has in stock most likely), and roughly 20 slender bodied schooling characins of the same species. Again, as far as the tetra goes a lot will depend on what strikes my fancy at the LFS and falls within my criteria. When I popped this into AqAdivsor I actually adjusted the second characin upwards until I hit 78% stocked. I used Bronze Cories and Neon Tetras as stand ins for the Corydoras and unknown characin. It seems like an awfully heavy stock to me, and I thought I'd ask opinions on the matter. I know there are a lot of conditions that AqAdvisor can't take into account, so I thought I'd get the experienced perspective here.
As far as plants, I already have my lighting scheme. The old man is an electrician who has always installed his own lighting, and he has several homemade canopies laying around that were designed for 55 gallon aquariums. The one I'm going to nab has fixtures for 4 48" fluorescent bulbs, and just as stand ins (and because I used them before) I have two FloraMax and two UltraSun from Zoo Med planned. At 32w each, that's 2.33 wpg. I know wpg isn't the best measurement, but it's all I have at the moment. My plans are to almost -- if not totally -- avoid root feeders. I want to avoid specific plant substrates (and a lot of tab ferting) since I really like the look of Carib Sea's Moonlight sand, and I want to supplement it with their Snowy River gravel as built in slopes towards the back corners of the tank. As such, my plans are to focus on java moss, ricca (floating only), java ferns, and Brazilian pennywort. If I do get any root feeder it will be some type of large amazon sword that I'll install as a showpiece and tab fert on its own. I'm crossing my fingers that the java moss will take off because a mossy tank is just spiffy IMO.
Lastly, I should note that our water is generally hard and somewhat alkaline, but I have experience with mixing it with R/O water. My dad still goes to the local supermarket and fills his jugs for every water change, and I have no trouble doing the same. I imagine I'll hit around a pH of 6.5 with softish water. I'd have to mix and measure.
So, with all that in mind, would these plants do well under these conditions? In my previous tanks I used Seachem Excel to great effect, and I'm also wondering if I should fertilize the water column. Advice is very welcome on both front, including other plants and fish that may work under these conditions.
That all said, my plan.
I intend to setup a 55 gallon with an Eheim 2073 canister and an Aquaclear 50 powerhead for additional water movement. Stocking is one of my questions. My current plan is for 10 emperor tetras, 8 Corydoras sp. (that being whatever my local LFS has in stock most likely), and roughly 20 slender bodied schooling characins of the same species. Again, as far as the tetra goes a lot will depend on what strikes my fancy at the LFS and falls within my criteria. When I popped this into AqAdivsor I actually adjusted the second characin upwards until I hit 78% stocked. I used Bronze Cories and Neon Tetras as stand ins for the Corydoras and unknown characin. It seems like an awfully heavy stock to me, and I thought I'd ask opinions on the matter. I know there are a lot of conditions that AqAdvisor can't take into account, so I thought I'd get the experienced perspective here.
As far as plants, I already have my lighting scheme. The old man is an electrician who has always installed his own lighting, and he has several homemade canopies laying around that were designed for 55 gallon aquariums. The one I'm going to nab has fixtures for 4 48" fluorescent bulbs, and just as stand ins (and because I used them before) I have two FloraMax and two UltraSun from Zoo Med planned. At 32w each, that's 2.33 wpg. I know wpg isn't the best measurement, but it's all I have at the moment. My plans are to almost -- if not totally -- avoid root feeders. I want to avoid specific plant substrates (and a lot of tab ferting) since I really like the look of Carib Sea's Moonlight sand, and I want to supplement it with their Snowy River gravel as built in slopes towards the back corners of the tank. As such, my plans are to focus on java moss, ricca (floating only), java ferns, and Brazilian pennywort. If I do get any root feeder it will be some type of large amazon sword that I'll install as a showpiece and tab fert on its own. I'm crossing my fingers that the java moss will take off because a mossy tank is just spiffy IMO.
Lastly, I should note that our water is generally hard and somewhat alkaline, but I have experience with mixing it with R/O water. My dad still goes to the local supermarket and fills his jugs for every water change, and I have no trouble doing the same. I imagine I'll hit around a pH of 6.5 with softish water. I'd have to mix and measure.
So, with all that in mind, would these plants do well under these conditions? In my previous tanks I used Seachem Excel to great effect, and I'm also wondering if I should fertilize the water column. Advice is very welcome on both front, including other plants and fish that may work under these conditions.