Ultimate 20 gallon tank

I would say that once you get plants in their you will have anice tank. A bit on the full side but then again all that filtration will keep things very nice indeed. Make sure to get cories that are a different colour than your substrate (ie don't get albinos with areally light bottom!!). I seen tanks with albino fish and white rocks.

Your pleco should be the most aggressive but as long as people leave his territoy alone he will be happy munching away.

I can't wait to see pics of this tank.
 
I cant wait till i get the money and be able to post pics on the computer:D Im hoping for this to be a $100 project maybe 130. It will be mostly low light plants too. Ill be changing hte stcok list probably once i see some different fish. also, what sorta canister filter would you get TKOS? Would you go for the total eheim deal or jsut the ecco? or would you even use an eheim?
 
Well unfortunatly for me I have never used a canister filter. I do have a 20 gallon that I keep at my parents but I keep it understocked with just HOB filtration so that it is easy for them to maintain. But there are like 5 million threads on canisters so I would do a search for the brand names you see and I am sure something will come up. I do not know about the Ecco brand but I see Eheim mentioned a lot. And I see self priming mentioned as a good thing in case of a power outage.
 
Thanks for all of your help TKOS. How many more fish could i keep at the maximum. Do you think i could get soem more cories?
 
I would stick with probably 5 cories. That way they won't have to compete for too much territory with the dwarf pleco. Also make sure to add the ottos last as they seem to really need a well established tank before they can thrive (and they of course need lots of algae to thrive, especially when fist introduced).
 
Everything I read about them says established tanks with some algae and plants. They are (once again from what I have read) finicky eaters and won't readily take to the waffers. Whenever I get new fish I try to make sure and feed them their best food for the first bit before trying them out on new fish. Either way, definatly wait for a few months to get everything established.
 
The tank is already cycled and stuff. I figure ill clean out the whole glass part of the tank and get new filter media. Ill keep teh water. The tank has been steup since december 31st. So what do you mean by establised then? Im jsut wondering, i want to wait anyways so all of the fish are healthy and happy.
 
Well sounds like the tank has been running well for quite awhile. Are you planning on adding all of the fish at once or in small groups. If it is small groups then you will probably be fine adding the ottos near the end. The cories can go in anytime as I have found them to be super hardy, as are the platys (which I am loving as well).
 
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