Stocking for my tank?

[JJWooble]

Hi there

Just joined FNZAS, thought I'd ask a few questions.

I just got given a 90 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm aquarium. Currently is covered in green stuff, and has been out of use for 4-5 years. Did fill it up with water though, and 24 hours on it appears to have no leaks. So I can officially start my new project!

The one fish I'm certain of as inhabitants in this tank is a school of zebra danios. I currently have 6, so would move these guys to this tank. Would also like to upschool them to 10 or so, depending on what sort of bioload this tank could handle.

Other fish I'd be interested to keep and would maybe like to have in here:

Hara Hara Catfish (5-7?) OR Kuhli Loaches (10?)

Another school of danios-- Glowlight, Pearl or Celestial Pearl Danios? Is it advisable to have two schools of danios in one tank? Alternatively;

A dwarf gourami pair OR a honey gourami trio? Would the honeys get intimidated by the danios? Would I be able to keep any of the bigger gouramis in here?

Set up would be planted low tech-- currently have ambulia, Christmas moss and java fern in my other tanks, so would transfer these plus some other new plants over to the new set up. I'm a fan of driftwood so there would be plenty of that in there, and river stones too. Substrate would be white silicone sand with maybe some smooth black pebbles underneath for the ambulia to be rooted in.

Temperature I'm looking at is round 24 degrees, and judging from my other tanks the pH would be round 6.5. I'd do 2x 20% water changes weekly as thats the schedule I keep for my other tanks, should I change this up at all?

I will do a fishless cycle for a couple of months before adding the danios, then add other fish slowly. Can I add in the plants before adding in the fish?

Any suggestions on the type of filter/the flow rate I should have on the tank would be awesome!

Any suggestions/constructive comments/advice/input at all would be awesome!!!

Jamie

[Godly3vil]

& welcome to the forums!

Sounds like you have a good plan there so far, as long as you add the fish slowly over time a tank that size and with an adequate filter could easily house a school or 2 of different danios/tetras, I would go with 10-15 of each type that you want.

You could also have either the haras or kuhlis, both are really cool fish.

With gourami you will want to stick with the dwarf variety as the larger ones will eventually need a bigger tank, if you pick dwarf try to get a male/female pair as two males often fight when kept in a smallish sized tank. Honey gourami in my experience are a bit more peaceful and you could probably have a couple males with no issues.

All these fish are compatible in my opinion especially in a planted tank and seems like a well thought out stocklist.

You can plant the tank any time, personally I would plant it on day one so as it cycles the plants will be established by the time you begin adding fish, they will also help with the cycling period as they use up excess nutrients and gives the beneficial bacteria more surface area to colonize.

For a filter I would go with a decent canister like an eheim or fluval though some people do recommend the cheaper ones, I have found you generally get what you pay for in this hobby though. An eheim 2215 or similar or a fluval 304 would be my first choices.

Hope I have answered a couple of your questions, we love pictures around here so feel free to keep us updated with the progress on your tank!

[JJWooble]

Hey, thanks for your reply! Awesome, in that case I would add the 6 danios first, up that to 10, then add 3-4 fish at a time over a period of a few months .

I am really keen on both Haras and Kuhlis, will have to investigate re: prices and other factors and take those into account when deciding as I'm pretty much split 50/50 on which one I would want.

Honey's look so sweet I am also contemplating a dwarf gourami or honey pair for another tank, so will do one in one type in one tank and the other type in another.

Will start planting straight away when its set up :)

Thanks for the recommendation on the filters will probably go for the higher quality, as planning on having the tank set up for a long time lol.

Moving house, so will hold off until then and see if we have room then. Plan is definitely going to be used at some point Will defs post pics of my current tanks, I'm a bit trigger happy with my camera