A couple of tanks

[spitz006]

Hi I just wanted to jot down my livestock, filtration, and maintenance plans for my two new fish tanks and if you want to take the time to read it and let me know if I am headed to success or doom that would be cool.

75 gallon heavily planted, substrate of crushed coral and sand mixture, filtration: HOB and sponge. Maintenance: I really am not experienced enough with sand to know if I can use a gravel vacuum. My girlfriend insisted on sand. I need help with how to clean the tank. stock:

2 blue rams
2 apple snails
3 tiger barbs
1 clown loach
1 zipper loach
1 peacock gudgeon
1 amazon puffer
1 upside down catfish
1 bristle-nose pleco
1 common pleco


20 gallon tall

1 angel
7 cardinal tetras
1 apple snail
2 cory cats
1 upside down catfish

is this overstocked?

will a sponge filter provide enough airation in the 20 gallon? I plan to also have a HOB for additional filtration, but just wondering if I need to run a bubble wall or if a sponge filter will do it. I plan on weekly water changes, gravel vaccuuming every other water change.

I know there are probably going to be issues in the 75 gallon but I think we chose the most peaceful possible puffer, and we plan on having it so heavily planted that it shouldn't be a problem. (i don't care if we lose the apple snails...)

Thanks for reading, reply if you have anything to help out.

 

[Gasha]

for the 20 gallon i say get a aquaclear HOB will be plenty... that angel and upside down will outgrow it and not sure(never kept a tank that small in my life) but all those fish might not live because the tank is too small for the load....

for the 75 gallon sand is great!! easy to filter i stick my filter deep in it and suck up all the waste leaving all the sand behind. just make sure to use pool filter sand, haven't delt with a heavily planted tank myself but i have had amazon swords hold up fine in sand. take a look at rena xp3 for your 75 they are cheap and perfect size.. i have had one on mine for a while now.

Good luck and i'm sure more people will help you.

o yea.. i don't know about SA but other species of puffer can be really aggressive so i'd watch it... also not sure about that one but other species of puffer get HUGE!

ok edit.... apparently their is a small upsidedown catfish?? my dad had the big one. so that is what i was thinking of.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I'm wondering why you're using crushed coral with mostly softwater fish? What's your pH? Also, that puffer prefers to be in groups of 3 or more:
http://www.**************.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/sap/
and has a serious dentistry problem:
http://www.**************.com/forum/library/hospital/dentistry/

Tiger barbs are schooling fish, which means 5+.

 

[Richie_ELP]

^ Every time I see you post, I go to read it, knowing you're talking about puffer husbandry. You're the guru of all things puffer. I love it.

Your substrate isn't ideal. Many of those fish prefer water that is more acidic than alkaline.

 

[Pufferpunk]

^ Every time I see you post, I go to read it, knowing you're talking about puffer husbandry. You're the guru of all things puffer. I love it.

That's cool, thanks!

 

[Richie_ELP]

I really am not experienced enough with sand to know if I can use a gravel vacuum.[/COLOR] My girlfriend insisted on sand. I need help with how to clean the tank. stock:


will a sponge filter provide enough airation in the 20 gallon? I plan to also have a HOB for additional filtration, but just wondering if I need to run a bubble wall or if a sponge filter will do it. I plan on weekly water changes, gravel vaccuuming every other water change.

I know there are probably going to be issues in the 75 gallon but I think we chose the most peaceful possible puffer, and we plan on having it so heavily planted that it shouldn't be a problem. (i don't care if we lose the apple snails...)

Thanks for reading, reply if you have anything to help out.

Of course you can vacuum, you just do not plunge the tube into the substrate.

I'd suggest switching to sand only.

http://www.aqadvisor.com/
That is a cool liitle tool to use a general guide. Give it a whack.

 

[Pufferpunk]

To clean sand, you stir it all by hand & after the dirt settles, you skim over it with a siphon hose. Don't make it deeper than 1" or less.

As far as the puffer, did you read those links I gave you?

An adult angel really needs a 30g tank. The synodontis will eat the tetras.

 

[SCGeordie]

If you're going to have it heavily planted I don't think all sand is wise, your plants are gonna keep floating out of the sand unless you weight them down, even with a 50/50 mix of sand and something like the caribsea substrates you will probably get plants floating around for a long time.
If you do go heavily planted then vacuuming the substrate isn't going to be a problem for long cos once the plants get established you won't be able to get to most of it.
As someone already said, the crushed coral is going to result in harder water and a higher Ph, I would wait untill the Ph in your tank settles and then decide if you want to add crushed coral, plus it can be a bit sharp for any fish that like to dig around in the substrate.

 

[spitz006]

The synodontis will eat the tetras.

Are you saying my upside-down catfish is going to eat my cardinals? I doubt it, it's a dwarf catfish and seems pretty peaceful.

The barbs and puffers should be in larger numbers but hopefully a school of 3 barbs is good enough because the clown loach also schools with them.

I think I will go with a 35 tall instead of a 20 long for the other tank.

The reason we went with crushed coral is because we were originally going to set up a brackish tank... I regret the crushed coral now, and I will probably never use it for any tank again. We will use some buffers to get the ph/hardness down.

As for the plants, we anchor them inside of big rocks, we don't plan on just planting them right in the substrate.

I don't want to sound defensive I just know my girlfriend isn't going to want to change the stocking. Right now we have everything in there except the puffer, and he's coming in a couple days. She might be convinced to changing the substrate but that seems like it would be really hard to do now that all the fish are in there...

Thanks everyone!

 

[Pufferpunk]

Using buffers will cause the pH to fluctuate, which is extremely stressful to your fish. Better to just not use the CC. How do you know the synodontis synodontis is a "dwarf"? Got a species name?