Wanting to start a small Tropical Community Tank (60L)

[TmanNZ]

So I have been out of the game for a while after my Native Koura passed but I recently just got an 125W heater (which I was told would be fine for my tank).

I have never had a tropical tank before so any advice would be greatly appreciated

The tank has a Sunsun HW-304B canister filter so it is quite over-filtered but should do the job.

I am hoping to have a few plants but I have no knowledge on tropical plants.

basically I would like some very low-tech plants. There will be washed coarse river sand as a substrate.

Maybe a moss or grass for the foreground, some tall plants for the back and some semi-tall plants for the side.

I will also put some rocks and a small piece of driftwood as a bit of a center piece.

The current idea for stocking is:

3 Kuhli Loach

10 Neon Tetra

3 Corydora

and maybe another small school of fish like 5 Rummynose Tetra?

All Ideas, Suggestions and Criticism are welcome! Thank you!

[JJWooble]

Sorry to hear about your Koura, I've always wanted to try keeping one, they seem like awesome little dudes.

Overfiltration is never really a problem unless you want to keep something that prefers low flow, which isn't the case from the sounds of your stock list

I would suggest in regard to your bottom dwellers (kuhli loaches and corys) that you get more than 3 of each, as in numbers below ~5-6 they tend to be inactive, hide a lot and you'll probably never see them. Try and get as many as you can, and maybe choose one over the other-- e.g. 10 kuhli loaches would be so happy and far more active, or the same in corys.

Also be careful not to get a large sized cory for the tank-- maybe go for some of the smaller species, e.g. panda, pygmy, as opposed to going for the bronze/emerald/peppered corys, as they can get quite big and therefore have less space to swim around.

With your schooling fish, its a personal thing, but I prefer having one big group as opposed to two smaller ones-- so 20 neons as opposed to 10 neons and 5 rummys. That said, they are both really cool fish, and would probably be fine in groups of five or more, so that's entirely down to you

For low tech plants-- swords, dwarf sag, indian fern, java moss, java ferns, ambulia and anubias all grow well for me in low tech tanks. Maybe have the ambulia at the back, with pieces of driftwood and java fern/anubias/java moss attached in the middle, and dwarf sag as a carpet plant along the bottom?

[Colour_genes]

Some suggestions based on my experience so far with low-tech (no substrate ferts, liquid carbon & trace element supplements weekly-ish), your best bets are any of the Java ferns, java moss (but try to wrap or attach it to something that can be easily removed from the tank for a quick clean-off occasionally or it tends to get messy), dwarf hairgrass or lilaeopsis for 'carpet' at the front, stargrass (but only if you have good lighting or it just puts out long tendrils all over the place), cryptocoryne and anubius are nice but slow growing, any of the green hygrophilas for tall background.

Avoid any reddish coloured plants, they seem to need strong lighting and extra care.

Check out the FNZAS plant database for extra info, this should be the link - http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?page_id=2379

Good luck with your tank

[TmanNZ]

New Stocking Idea:

I think I'll scratch the Kuhli Loaches, even though I love the look of them, I think it would be great to make a biotope for them if I ever get the time.

I think what I'll do is have

15 Neon Tetras

8 Pygmy Corydora

and maybe a singular fish that doesn't school, I was thinking of a gourami of some type but don't know about compatibility.

I think I'll go for Java moss and ferns, and dwarf hairgrass, maybe anubias if I have anywere to put it and green hygrophilas looks good!

Would you recommend cycling with plants or without plants?

Thanks JJ and Colour!

[JJWooble]

The new stocking ideas sound awesome, love pygmy corys

With gourami, dwarf gourami or dwarf honey gourami (Trichogaster chuna) could be options. I would suggest dwarf honey gourami as have heard that dwarf gourami can get sick quite easily/randomly due to breeding issues/susceptibility to some kinds of diseases which honey gourami don't seem to get as badly. Very cool fish, you could have a single male or a male and a female in your tank which I think would do ok

Here's a good article I found on them a while back: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tr ... ter-chuna/

Java ferns are awesome I don't think it matters either way in terms of adding plants before or after cycling, I always add them at some point whilst cycling as it gives me something to do whilst waiting for when I can add fish lol.

[TmanNZ]

Dwarf Honey Gourami's look cool! I think I've finalised the stocking list and plants! Just need to cycle it, hopefully I can find someone with some already cycled filter media! If not, I'll just add in some food and leave it for a few weeks and probably add plants on 2nd week!

Can't wait to go tropical! Will start a Tank Log soon!

[JJWooble]

Sounds awesome, will keep an eye out for your log best of luck

[jackypukeko]

Hey if you want a cheap and easy plant ask me I've got tones of Java moss

[TmanNZ]

Sure! I'll contact you soon, I still need to buy some more media for my filter as I need to replace wool and sponges and top up on filter noodles and Bioballs because i gave half of my media to a friend when I stopped my tank. Once I've got cycling in progress I'll get in contact. :bggrn: