Hey guys! I'm new to these forums, and quite new to aquariums. I'm looking to set up a 29 Gallon planted tank, and need sme advise on stocking. My aquarium has been cycling without fish for a month now. I've been fiddling around on Aqadvisor and researching a lot, and I've come to a lot of personal opinions and clashing advise. The filter is currently a simple Tetra Whisper 30, but am going to upgrade to an AquaClear 110 soon. I am also going to more densely plant the tank.
How do I go about doing that? Would I have to start my fishless cycle all over again after adding plants? Would i just add the plants and new filter and run both filters at the same time fo awhile?
Anyways, on to stocking, the current list my GF and I have come up with is as follows, nothing but the kuhli loaches set in stone:
Kuhli Loach x5
Zebra Danio x6 (My schooling pick)
Glass Catfish x6 (My GF's schooling pick) Too large perhaps?
Dwarf Gourami x2 (Male and Female pair)
I also like Harlequin Rasboras, but my GF isn't sold on them as the other school with the Danios. She also likes Select species of Tetra (Not cardinal or neon, too overused i guess) as an alternative to the glass catfish. We are also looking at a pair of german Blue Rams as an alternative to the Dwarf Gourami pair.
Putting this into Aqadvisor says that we are at 109% or 106% stocking level, depending on gourami or ram pair, and I don't understand why or how, and don't really trust it to be that accurate. I'm looking at some feedback on how heavily Kuhli loaches are truly weighed in a tank, because they seem to be eating up a huge chunk of our stocking level. I understand that we sould be around 80-85% or so for our first tank.
TLDR: Will the current stock be a problem for beginners? How do I go about adding new plants and replacing the current filter? What are some other good schools of 6 (aqadvisor says schools of 5, everybody else says schools of 6) that we may have missed?
Thank you and sorry for the long post!
How do I go about doing that? Would I have to start my fishless cycle all over again after adding plants? Would i just add the plants and new filter and run both filters at the same time fo awhile?
Anyways, on to stocking, the current list my GF and I have come up with is as follows, nothing but the kuhli loaches set in stone:
Kuhli Loach x5
Zebra Danio x6 (My schooling pick)
Glass Catfish x6 (My GF's schooling pick) Too large perhaps?
Dwarf Gourami x2 (Male and Female pair)
I also like Harlequin Rasboras, but my GF isn't sold on them as the other school with the Danios. She also likes Select species of Tetra (Not cardinal or neon, too overused i guess) as an alternative to the glass catfish. We are also looking at a pair of german Blue Rams as an alternative to the Dwarf Gourami pair.
Putting this into Aqadvisor says that we are at 109% or 106% stocking level, depending on gourami or ram pair, and I don't understand why or how, and don't really trust it to be that accurate. I'm looking at some feedback on how heavily Kuhli loaches are truly weighed in a tank, because they seem to be eating up a huge chunk of our stocking level. I understand that we sould be around 80-85% or so for our first tank.
TLDR: Will the current stock be a problem for beginners? How do I go about adding new plants and replacing the current filter? What are some other good schools of 6 (aqadvisor says schools of 5, everybody else says schools of 6) that we may have missed?
Thank you and sorry for the long post!
