Can some1 take some time to run through these newbie questions ?!?

Alexpatrascu

Alexpatrascu

AC Members
Feb 1, 2010
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Montreal, CA
Hello everybody.

So here is my newbie thread where I'm gonna ask you guys a lot of questions.....hope you don't mind and can help me out....

I'm switching my 50 gal tank(48x12x20 inch) from salt water to fresh water(planted) and I'm planning on going with TetraCardinal Neons and Harlequin Rasbora as they seem to have almost identical requirements when it comes to tank conditions.....

I used to have a fresh water tank when I was a kid but I didn't knew anything about the cycle and ph and all the other things you need to take in consideration when you have a fresh water tank.....so this time I wanna do it by the book....that's why I'm gonna ask a lot of questions(some of them might sound stupid but please answer anyway) cuz I wanna get some answers from you guys, not from some book.....

Anyway, here come the questions.....so hold on....*inhales deeply*

01. How many neons & rasbora should I ad in my tank(I was thinking at 30 & 20, adding 5 of each every week)?!?
02. Can I add the plants in the tank as soon as I'm done adding the water or should I wait for the cycle to be finished ?!?
03. What species of plants(names please) do I need to put in my tank, that can offer the best habitat for these two species ?!?
04. How many plants are enough to satisfy my fish ?!?!
05. What kind of media should I put in my Eheim 2217 and how much ?!?
06. Should I use my RO/DI unit(like 50/50 with tap water) to lower the hardness of the water(TDS) or not ?!?
07. What kind(how big) of UV should I use with the Eheim 2217(265 GPH) on my 50 gal ?!?!
08. Will two 48" T5HO 54W light bulbs(white) be enough or should I add another one or two(the fixture is 4x54W)
09. What kind of light(color) do you/should I use ?!?
10. Do I really need to ad some Corydoras or can I go with only snails and shrimps(ghost, bamboo shrimps) ?!?!?
11. Which one of the Plecos family is the smallest(full mature) ?!?!
12. How thick should the gravel(small) substrate be ?!?
13. Should I plant my plants in the gravel or in those little pots ?!?!?
14. ...and a few other questions.....I can't remember right now....I'll edit my post later and add some more questions...

So if any of my new fresh water fellas can take some time to answer my questions I'd really appreciate it !!!

Thanks a lot guys.
 
Good luck with your tank! Those sound like good numbers, you could have a centerpiece fish too, a Betta maybe? Dwarf Gourami? I would add 3 every week maybe just to be safe. If you're planting heavily you can just add the plants right away, a lower stocking of plants you would want to cycle first. Also, if you're heavily planting then you can add the fish a lot faster. For plants it depends on your setup, what's your lighting? Are you planning to fert? To add CO2? You can use real or fake plants and really it depends a lot on your tastes. The fish will do fine in lots of decor or not a lot. They'll be more active if you have a lot of hiding places though. I don't have a lot of experience with canisters, maybe someone else can answer that, ceramic rings? What's your pH without RO/DI water? You don't need a UV sterilizer as long as you do regular water changes. Those lights should be fine for a good amount of plants, I might add another one if you can. It would get you a lot more range on your plants. Your lights sound fine with what you have, corydoras are nice but they're not necessary. Snails and shrimp aren't even necessary. The best way to clean up is to not have a need to clean up (gravel vac, not overfeeding). Pitbull Plecos are really small, but you could get some Bristlenoses easy, I love them! For depth I'd do three inches, planting the plants in the substrate should be fine.
 
Wow, I can hear the fingers racing today:

here's my answer:

01. How many neons & rasbora should I ad in my tank(I was thinking at 30 & 20, adding 5 of each every week)?!? Sounds about right to me. A good place to doublecheck is www.aqadvisor.com. Make sure you set up a Quarantine tank ahead of time. The first batch can go in directly, but after that you'll want to quarantine them.
02. Can I add the plants in the tank as soon as I'm done adding the water or should I wait for the cycle to be finished ?!? You can add plants and in fact I recommend it, they tend to help the cycle, but just keep in mind that some plants may be more sensitive to water quality issues.
03. What species of plants(names please) do I need to put in my tank, that can offer the best habitat for these two species ?!? This depends on your lighting and whether or not you're going to dose any fertilizers. Neither of these species is particularly picky about plants. Given the lighting in your later question, I'd say, pretty much anything you want, just be prepared to dose fertilizers and CO2, particularly if you go with the 4 light option. Consider some hygro and rotala in order to keep the algae down. Keep some open swimming room in the middle though since schoolers tend to like to have a place to school. A nice moss wall might be a cool addition.
04. How many plants are enough to satisfy my fish ?!?!
Again, they aren't going to be picky. I'd say aquascape it to how you think will look good. With your lighting though, I'd consider some rotala or other fast growing stem plants to keep the algae down.
05. What kind of media should I put in my Eheim 2217 and how much ?!?
I'd stock it with either bioballs, or ceramic cylinders, a polishing pad, and an initial coarse pad. I'm not a big believer in carbon. I've seen a lot of different opinions on the exact content of cannister filters, but the fish you've chosen are pretty hardy.
06. Should I use my RO/DI unit(like 50/50 with tap water) to lower the hardness of the water(TDS) or not ?!? Unless your water is "liquid rock", I wouldn't worry about it. Unless you're working with some more tempermental species, you probably won't need to pay as much attention to TDS as you would with a saltwater setup.
07. What kind(how big) of UV should I use with the Eheim 2217(265 GPH) on my 50 gal ?!?! 20 W or so should be fine, but I'll probably have gunner on my back for going low.
08. Will two 48" T5HO 54W light bulbs(white) be enough or should I add another one or two(the fixture is 4x54W) Two is fine, and that's what I use on my 55 with good results. Make sure the temp is between 5600 and 8K
09. What kind of light(color) do you/should I use ?!? I use one white and one pink, and I like the color, this is up to personal choice IME
10. Do I really need to ad some Corydoras or can I go with only snails and shrimps(ghost, bamboo shrimps) ?!?!? The shrimp should be fine, I like corys though and consider them a riot, just make sure you get a school if you do. Shrimp do limit your ability to use copper based medications if that becomes necessary.
11. Which one of the Plecos family is the smallest(full mature) ?!?! The Clown plecos can be as small as 3" or so (Hypancistrus sp.)
12. How thick should the gravel(small) substrate be ?!? You have a lot of options here, and there are whole threads devoted to substrates in a planted aquarium. Essentially you can use standard "aquarium gravel" and put fertilizer tabs under your rooted plants, you can use a plant substrate like aquasoil or flourite, and probably not really have to use fertilizers for anything but your floaters (and that's if you want to), or you can use sand (Play sand, Pool filter sand, etc). There are lots of options. I'm going to switch to sand soon since it's a bit better for rooted plants, but the fish really won't notice the difference. In general, I do recommend no more than a 2" substrate, but there are discussions about deep sand beds with malaysian trumpet snails to keep them mixed too.
13. Should I plant my plants in the gravel or in those little pots ?!?!? I like having them in the gravel, but the pots do make it easier to rearrange, and they'll spread more naturally if they're in the substrate.
14. ...and a few other questions.....I can't remember right now....I'll edit my post later and add some more questions... I look forward to seeing them, and everyone else's answers too!
 
LOL...I got ninja'd! I'm a bit more conservative on the substrate, but I don't have anything other than plants in my substrate.
 
Yah, well that would be something I forgot to mention. MTS, Kuhli Loaches, they love to mess around in the substrate (which is good) although they both prefer sand.
 
EDIT: Oooops....I was too slow, lol. Someone posted before me, but I'll go ahead and add my 2 cents, too. :)

01. How many neons & rasbora should I ad in my tank(I was thinking at 30 & 20, adding 5 of each every week)?!?

I'm not great at stocking suggestions, except that I would also have some corys, maybe Habrosus, little bitty guys that you could have in there to help with food that settles down to the substrate uneaten. They are just the cutest.

I would say about 8 of the small Habrosus cory sp or something like that.
I'll wait for someone else to chime in on the Rasborus and Cardinals.

02. Can I add the plants in the tank as soon as I'm done adding the water or should I wait for the cycle to be finished ?!?

Yes, the plants can go in right away, I would think.

03. What species of plants(names please) do I need to put in my tank, that can offer the best habitat for these two species ?!?

Depends upon your lighting. I would go low tech low lighting, 2 watts per gallon or so, unless you plan to do CO2. There are some great sources of gorgeous plants here on AC in the Classified section, and these guys will help you select for your tank and give you great advice on how to take care of them.

04. How many plants are enough to satisfy my fish ?!?!

See answer to question 3

05. What kind of media should I put in my Eheim 2217 and how much ?!?

I have HOBs so I"m not much help there.

06. Should I use my RO/DI unit(like 50/50 with tap water) to lower the hardness of the water(TDS) or not ?!?

What is your tapwater like? ph, gh, kh?

07. What kind(how big) of UV should I use with the Eheim 2217(265 GPH) on my 50 gal ?!?!

Not sure about that one. I don't think a UV on your tank is absolutely necessary, but many people do use them and are very happy with the results.

08. Will two 48" T5HO 54W light bulbs(white) be enough or should I add another one or two(the fixture is 4x54W)

I would go with the two 54watt bulbs. That would make a nice low tech low light tank and you wouldn't have to worry about CO2.

09. What kind of light(color) do you/should I use ?!?

Not experienced enough in that to help you.

10. Do I really need to ad some Corydoras or can I go with only snails and shrimps(ghost, bamboo shrimps) ?!?!?

Ooops.... see my answer to question 1, lol. I think some Brigs and shrimp would be nice, but some of the shrimp need to go into a well established tank, I think Bamboo is one of them, or maybe Ammano but there are some invert experts here, Msjinkzd is one, and there are others I hope will chime in on that.

(geeze, I'm not that much help, I'm sorry to say)

11. Which one of the Plecos family is the smallest(full mature) ?!?!

Not sure on that one, but there are some lovely ones that are pretty small. One of our members has these long finned beauties that are blonde looking and just gorgeous. I'll look for her and find the name of those guys and report back to you with a link.


12. How thick should the gravel(small) substrate be ?!?

I like sand substrate, it stays cleaner because the gunk just lays on top instead of sifting down into it the way it does with gravel.

You can swirl the vacuum as you hover over the sand and suck up the debris, poo, etc. You have to get a nice larger grain sand, though, or you'll have sand that compacts to tightly and then you'll have problems with hydrogen sulfide gas pockets forming, unless you stir it frequently or have some Malaysian Trumpet snails. They keep the sand really stirred up.

Many here use pool filter sand. It's unimform in size and is heavy. Even if you stir it the sand just settles back down and won't cloud up the water.

13. Should I plant my plants in the gravel or in those little pots ?!?!?

If you use sand, or even fine gravel, I would plant right in the substrate. Some nice Anubias that attach to driftwood would be nice, too. Driftwood would also help to lower the ph and soften your water for the SA fish you're wanting to keep.

14. ...and a few other questions.....I can't remember right now....I'll edit my post later and add some more questions...
 
I'll give my 2 cents on a couple of those.

Lighting... 108 watts should provide more than enough light for just about any common freshwater plants! (unless you have a particularly deep tank, which you don't.)

As for TYPE of lighting ... I'd go with 6500K or higher for the plants... I've recently switched to a 50/50 bulb that's 6700 "daylight" phosphor AND actinic 420 phosphor in one bulb. The actinic light seems to bring out the colors a lot better in the fish :)


As for the canister... mine has 4 trays in it... the top two I have loaded with ceramic rings (just a place for the beneficial bacteria to colonize.) The bottom two are crammed with cheap floss. (flow is from bottom up) ... it also has a coarse plastic "sponge" pad along the intake side of the canister (Fluval) as an initial filter (catches the plant leaves and baby snails :) ). When I need to change the floss, I'll only change one tray at a time to avoid cycle spikes. That seems to work well for mine.

Gravel/substrate can be bare if there's no plants (or whatever looks nice to you)... to a couple inches to provide something for plants to root in. You can always add MORE substrate if you want to "contour" the bottom more... again, whatever looks good to you!

As for planting... in a brand new tank, there won't be a lot of nutrients in the gravel yet... if the plants are in paper pots, I would just leave them that way, the pots eventually dissolve away.
 
I take it you are doing a fish in cycle? If so, I would add the harlequins first, in small increments, then start adding the cardinals, as they are sensitive to poor water condiditons. Better would be to do a fishless cycle or find some used filter media from another fishkeeper to get some bacteria started in the filter.
 
I have a 120 gallon that is 48"x24"x24" and I am only running 2 T-5HO's and I need to trim up my Hornwort and Anacharis every 7-10 days, my Java Moss has tripled in size in about a month and my Amazon Sword has doubled in the same time and has sent out a plant spike with 3 new plants growing fast and the rest of my plants are doing good IMO.
I dont feel UV's are needed
Cories are not needed but I cant see a FW community tank without them and I would add 1/2 dozen Otos and maybe 3 Bristlenose Plecos
I would add the plants as soon as you get water in because you will have a soft cycle and then about a week later I would start adding fish.
 
Wow, thanks a lot guys for all the answers....really appreciate it....

Another question would be: can I use silica sand cuz I know that neons need a dark substrate and silica sand only comes in white(afaIk)...

And I don't know about the planting(heavily or not) but I'm gonna go with live plants....and I'm not planning on using CO2 as I'm not sure how to do it yet....

The cycle will be fishless also....

Some other questions..offtopic.....how can I edit my post(don't see any EDIT option) and isn't there a Classified section only for fresh water ?!?!?
 
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