Got a new nano cube! Need help stocking it.

[zmazza]

Hello everyone. I had originally had plans to purchase a much larger aquarium for our house, which it would have been a miracle if we could fit anything much bigger than a 29 gallon, but never the less, creativity was at work. While my wife and I we're pricing aquariums, we came across a 12 gallon nano cube at our local fish store. The nano cube had been bought by a customer, and then returned shortly thereafter to purchase the larger version. After finding out that this nano cube was ONLY 60 dollars, my wife promptly purchased the tank, and the stand to go with it for only 120 dollars. I felt this was a deal myself, and my wife was extremely happy because it wasn't bigger than our house, lol. :dance2:

After getting the tank home, we promptly started building the stand, which I must say, is the hardest thing I have ever built. Those directions we're a nightmare. It wasn't anything more than just a picture of the stand. We finally finished building it after about an hour of figuring it out. We filled it up with water and some gravel, sprinkled some fish food, cranked on the heater, and the cycling process has begun. Checked it this morning, no leaks, everythings working perfect.

My wife and I decided to try our hands at a planted tank, since we've done reef tanks for over a year. We figured 12 gallons was a decent size, and to say the least, I'm really impressed with the tank. Even though it may not be huge, it looks great and the filtration system is really hard at work.

As far as the fish go, my tap water is 8.3-8.4 out of the tap, with moderate to hard water, so I know I'm probably limited, but we'd like to at least get a few fish. I prefer a more well rounded aquarium.. fish, inverts, etc... I don't have an RO filter yet, so tetras and the such might be out of the question, although I kept a school of bleeding heart tetras in my tap water in my 40 gallon and they did wonderfully. I've also kept tiger barbs, dojo loaches, bichirs, blood parrots, numerous cichlids, neon tetras, cardinal tetras, etc just to name a few.

I am planning on upgrading the pump to a Maxijet 900 for increased flow. The lighting is a 24w 50/50 power compact. I'm planning on adding 20lbs of eco complete for the substrate, with some small gravel over the top.

We are definitely going with lots of plants, but what would you stock in a tank like this? We've got a small list of plants we would like to have, but I'm not sure what would do well under a 50/50. I'm thinking of upgrading to the 6700k bulb.

What do you guys think? Any opinions on what to stock?

Thanks!!

 

[ergo sum]

Personally I would swap the bulb. I would start thinking about what the plants need. Consider adding CO2, read up on fertilization. I would start looking around for the plants I wanted to put in the tank. Once I located them I would start putting them in the tank and see if in fact they grow. Assuming I was successful and happy with the plants I would start thinking about which fish might be beneficial to the plants. That might mean a little algae control, or someone who would eat a few snails, and it would also mean fish that won’t eat the plants or uproot them.

Most of the time I spend about two or three months with just the plants in the tank then I start thinking about cycling the tank. I add a few small fish and check to see that things are going well.

 

[zmazza]

Personally I would swap the bulb. I would start thinking about what the plants need. Consider adding CO2, read up on fertilization. I would start looking around for the plants I wanted to put in the tank. Once I located them I would start putting them in the tank and see if in fact they grow. Assuming I was successful and happy with the plants I would start thinking about which fish might be beneficial to the plants. That might mean a little algae control, or someone who would eat a few snails, and it would also mean fish that won’t eat the plants or uproot them.

Most of the time I spend about two or three months with just the plants in the tank then I start thinking about cycling the tank. I add a few small fish and check to see that things are going well.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Will the plants survive and grow with the pH and hardness being that high? I'm adding the Natural CO2 system to the tank to provide CO2, and I'll buy some flourish and maybe an iron supplement to fertilize the plants. The bulbs aren't expensive at all, so I'll definitely be ordering one of those. I'm upgrading the filtration system with a Maxijet 900 though. I've got the 1200, but I think it will be a bit too much flow. I'll be using 20 lbs of ecocomplete for the substrate, with just a tad bit of gravel to cover the top.

 

[Aquaken]

I have hard water with ph of 8.4ish as well and my plants do ok, but some species won't make it.

Crypts do wonderfully, java moss is good, hygro sp. grow like weeds, ludwigia repens does well, amazon swords die, microsword dies, rotala indica did well, and the aponogetons do well also.

I'm just now trying some higher lighting plants with my upgraded lighting so I only have limited experience.

With only a 12 gallon tank the fish should be ok with the plants, as most of the problem fish are large.

 

[zmazza]

Perfect post. Thanks for the helpful tips. I had some anachris that grew like weeds as well with super low lighting and no ferts. It's a wonderful plant. I guess I'll remove the amazon sword from the stocking list and replace it with anachris. I'll keep my eye out for some other plants.

Any ideas on fish? I hear you on them getting big. I'm thinking maybe a dwarf gourami and some other small fish? I've sucessfully acclimated neon tetras, cardinal tetras, loaches, etc. Haven't had the tetras for a long length of time, so I'm not sure what effect it has on them. Never kept dwarf gouramis, but it certainly seems fun. Any suggesstions?

 

[Aquaken]

Neons or cardinals are hard to beat. Some don't like common fish but they are common for a reason, truly beautiful and very small. A small gourami or betta would go well for some more color, I'm a personal fan of Malaysian Trumpet Snails to eat up leftovers and some algae, but you might want otos.

 

[ergo sum]

Like fish plants grow naturally in hard and soft water and like fish they are pretty adaptable. When you start thinking about plants you start thinking about what makes the water hard. Is it sodium, calcium, magnesium etc? If it is magnesium for example you won’t have to worry about adding any.

It is helpful to get in touch with your water company and find out exactly what is in the water. Often you can do this online.

Here is a link to some information on plants.
http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/en-us/dept_1.html

I think the best piece of advice I can give you is to figure out what plants you want and then buy them. Don’t buy a plant and then try and figure out if it will grow. You have good light. You are putting in a good substrate. If you have specific questions about particular plants go ask on the plant part of this forum. There are a lot of knowledgeable people there.

 

[zmazza]

Like fish plants grow naturally in hard and soft water and like fish they are pretty adaptable. When you start thinking about plants you start thinking about what makes the water hard. Is it sodium, calcium, magnesium etc? If it is magnesium for example you won’t have to worry about adding any.

It is helpful to get in touch with your water company and find out exactly what is in the water. Often you can do this online.

Here is a link to some information on plants.
http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/en-us/dept_1.html

I think the best piece of advice I can give you is to figure out what plants you want and then buy them. Don’t buy a plant and then try and figure out if it will grow. You have good light. You are putting in a good substrate. If you have specific questions about particular plants go ask on the plant part of this forum. There are a lot of knowledgeable people there.

Thanks a bunch for the help. My wife and I noticed the brackish tank in our local petco, which is suprisingly well taken care of and stocked. While looking there she started saying "Look at that! Look! It went behind that piece of driftwood!". Turns to find out, it was a little dwarf puffer. I'm thinking about getting one or two of those. Not sure what other fish would go well though. Anyone have any experience with the little puffers? Non-compatible with fish like tetras, etc?

 

[jm1212]

for a 12 gallon cube, go with 8 neons or cardinals and a dwarf gourami. you could have some ghost shrimp for your inverts but they may become snacks for the dwarf gourami

even though you have a pH of 8.3, your fish should be fine. most fish can adapt to the pHs of a persons water, as long as it remains stable.

 

[zmazza]

It's stable, that's for sure. Since the media I had already had bacteria in it, I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the dwarf gourami tonight, if I can, and then add the neons slowly after the 18th, along with the plants.

Thanks for the help!