Newbe 10g. set up questions

[HrdWodFlor]

Hello Everyone!
I am looking to get my first aquarium ever soon and need some advice. My friend just got 2G tank recently and the last time I was at her house I just sat and stared at the tank watching the fish. Now I'm hooked and have to have a tank of my own!!!
Before I do this I have been doing research on the internet to make sure that I will be treating my fish right. I want to get a 10G long tank and am going to use Jim1212's guide to stock it as follows
1 Dwarf Gourami
6 Neons
12 Ghost Shrimp

He also recommends a snail to help keep things clean but I want something else and need advice to what will be safe to introduce to the above fish.

So here are my questions
1. What else besides a snail can I put in there?
2. Will it be OK to use sand instead of gravel?
3. Once I get the tank set up and stabilized can I add the fish all at once
or just a few at a time?
4. Due to limitations I will be using artificial plant but plan to switch to live
later on. Will this be OK?

Any advice will be great! I just want to make sure that I am not going to harm any of the fish that I buy. Thanks!

 

[Coler]

Welcome to AC !

Snail would be nice I guess - but not to keep anything clean that's a gunna be your job

So here are my questions
1. What else besides a snail can I put in there?

Not sure...some pygmy corydoras maybe...I don't know regarding the ghost shrimp how they would interact. Lets see what other people say.

2. Will it be OK to use sand instead of gravel?

Yep indeedy. e.g. playsand will do just fine. Rinse it well.

3. Once I get the tank set up and stabilized can I add the fish all at once
or just a few at a time?

Careful there on what you mean by stabilised - this is not a term of art. If you do a good fishless cycle you can indeed stock all fish at once. Here is how http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

4. Due to limitations I will be using artificial plant but plan to switch to live
later on. Will this be OK?

Subject to your lighting being adequate and appropriate substrate this will work out great - live plants are excellent in the tank. One thing that occurs to me is if you are doing a really heavily planted tank whether you'd be better off putting in plant friendly substrate right now with the intention of planting up later...however for stuff like lets say java fern, vallis, some moss on a piece of driftwood type thing...I think the sand will be fine...see what other's think and if no one addresses this set up a thread in the planted forum and see what those green dudes say.


QUOTE=HrdWodFlor;1648909]
Any advice will be great! I just want to make sure that I am not going to harm any of the fish that I buy. Thanks![/QUOTE]

Great attitude Fishless cycle and a good liquid drop test kit used frequently in the early days at least are your friends here.

 

[SchizotypalVamp]

1) You can put more shrimp in there. There are also many different types of snails-you will probably get some hitchikers who are pond, malaysian trumpet, and ramshorn snails. Don't worry, everybody has these, and the malaysian trumpet snails are a great cleanup crew who keeps sand from compacting due to their borrowing tendencies. You can also put in pygmy/dwarf/black diamond cories

2)Sand is actually generally prefered. Look into pool filter sand-it's cheaper

3)Depends on how much ammonia you cycle with-though it is generally the best idea to add slowly. A mini cycle is stressful on everyone.

4)Many people do this.

 

[jm1212]

First of all, thanks for using my article

1. the ghost shrimp will do a decent job at going around the substrate and picking at the sand/gravel. if you dont want a snail, i would ahve to suggest a mag-float magnetic algea scraper or some other algea scraper.

2. after switching to sand i wont go back to gravel. its much easier to keep clean IMO and its easier to anchor the plants down.

3. if you do a fishless cycle there shouldnt be any problems with adding all of the fish at once. i would wait for at least a couple of weeks before adding the shrimp though; it allows some microorganisms to really take hold that they like to pick at.

4. should be fine, and as with sand after making the switch i wont go back

 

[HrdWodFlor]

Thanks everyone!!!! I am going to go tomorrow and get my tank and set it up. when its ready for fish i will post pics