Aquarist In The Making

[TixeeriF]

Hello all,

I just wanted to introduce myself quickly as I'm now the owner of a nice Amazon 160L Corner tank and will likely be asking you all for advice very soon! I plan to set it up and start cycling this coming weekend. Eventually, I hope to have a nice planted and real-rock/cavey environment for a community tank with one or two nice centre pieces - maybe a school of dalmation mollies, some Corys, a Bristlenose and then either / or (or both?!) a couple dwarf gouramis / a figure 8 puffer. I need to research all this in more depth first though, of course, for compatibility etc.

I wondered two things about setting up the tank, though, and hoped someone might be able to anwer:

1) While I plan to use natural (smallish grained) gravel, is it worth using a soil substrate underneath that? And is it worth investing in specially designed 'soil' such as Tetra Complete Substrate?

2) Should I plant my tank before or after cycling? Before would likely be easier / less messy but I don't want to make cycling any more difficult than it already sounds!

Nice to meet you all - and many thanks for any help now and in the future!

Scott

 

[moochy13]

unfortunately i dont think a puffer will fit in with your other fish, they seem to be species only tanks, or have very restricted tankmates. your other fish sound like they will go together well though. bear in mind you shoudl ideally get at least 6 mollies and corys, and be aware that the mollies will more than likely breed, so you need to consider if you want to try get all females, or if you want to raise fry, or just let nature take its course in the tank. which will probably mean fry get eaten unless they have plenty of places to hide. i would say you still had room int he tank for more fish, but get those you want first, let the tank settle. you will always stumble upon a 'new' fish and to have free space in your tank is a nice bonus.

good to know you know about cycling, that puts you miles ahead of most newcomers straight away.

i think you will have to have water in your tank anyway to plant, as the taller plants generally dont hold themselves up, so it may not make much difference to mess made. personally i would plant to begin with, but im not sure what effects it has on cycling, if any. worth finding out. im a convert to sand substrate, my plants have taken root in a big way in the sand, i never had much luck with gravel (though i wasnt using fine gravel), also your cories will much prefer sand or fine gravel, as they like to sift it through their gills when feeding. i guess maybe soil underneath gravel will do the job my sand is doing plant root wise, but it wont help the cories. however, dont think that cories cant live happpily on fine gravel.

 

[GrayScale]

Smooth fine gravel would be best for the corys. You can plant right off the bat but I would recommend waiting for the cycle to complete. Sometimes plants can't always cope with the higher amount of ammonia and it might give you more algae issuses than youre most likely going to have. The algae you may get is normal and should go away after cycling has completed.

I suppose it depends on the plants you'd like to keep. There is tons of info in the planted section on low light plants if that's where you'd like to start. Most low light plants would do fine without additional "plant" substrate or root tabs and only require fish waste and light as food.

 

[TixeeriF]

Wow - thanks for the quick replies, guys.

Good news about the Corys on fine gravel, and good advice about cycling / planting. Thank you GrayScale.
I'll get my gravel and caves set up and wait for cycling to complete before I plant. That'll give me time to chekc out that side of the forums too...

Shame about the puffer, Moochy. My ex had one in with some tiger barbs and chinese algae eater - and it was the CAE that was the troublemaker! so I had hoped a little puffer in a bigger tank might be alright (personality depending). Maybe not, though...

I've read that the mollies are prolific breeders, and don't really want to breed them, so females it is.
I was thinking that any fry might have kept the aforementioned puffer well-fed!

 

[moochy13]

i'll be honest i dont know much about puffers. i did have a little one that hassled everything in a community tank, and ive read nothing on this forum to contradict my experiences. as you've noticed, CAE's do get a bit rude and should be avoided, and tiger barbs can stick up for themselves aswell. but cories and mollies don't. it may be worth investigating the puffer option more, but dont get your hopes up.

 

[TixeeriF]

Thanks again Moochy. It's exactly because I'd read how placid the mollies, corys and gouramis are that I started doubting the puffer in the first place. Maybe I need to rethink my priorities - do I want a puffer or a community tank?! The mollies always look so good in the shops - following your hand around the tank! Maybe I'll look into other centre-piece fish

No chance I'll ever go near a CAE though - I learn quickly!

 

[ZoddyZod]

Thanks again Moochy. It's exactly because I'd read how placid the mollies, corys and gouramis are that I started doubting the puffer in the first place. Maybe I need to rethink my priorities - do I want a puffer or a community tank?! The mollies always look so good in the shops - following your hand around the tank! Maybe I'll look into other centre-piece fish

No chance I'll ever go near a CAE though - I learn quickly!

the general opinion is that no puffers are suitable for community tanks. Most are overly aggressive toward tankmates whilst even the more passive ones will at some point nip the fins of other fish.

if it's puffers you want then post your questions in the Oddballs sub-forum where you should get good advice.

One big watchout is that many puffers should be kept in brakish (slightly salty) water and are not for freshwater tanks (even if they are kept in freshwater at the store) so do lots of research before buying them.

 

[moochy13]

check out apistogrammas, german blue rams and bolivian rams. all very colourful great looking fish that will be the focal point of a tank, im not sure about compatibility with gouramis though, ive never kept them. however i do have a pair of german blue rams and they are great community fish. depending on what you want to spend you could get a plec thats a bit more exotic than a BN, nice as they are, there are some seriously attractive plecs available, though some require serious cash.

 

[TixeeriF]

Hi ZoddyZod - that certainly appears to be the consensus about puffers, but I'll try asking in the oddballs forum as you suggest. One more roll of the dice!

I really like the apistos and the other cichlids you mentioned Moochy, but I'm in a hard and fairly alkaline water area (Thames Valley, UK; ph7.5) and from what I've read the cichlids prefer softer, more acidic water? Would be great if I'm wrong about that, though..!

 

[moochy13]

ive got a ph of nearly 8, and mine seem to be getting on alright, i have very hard water. consider that fish bred locally to you, and fish kept in local shops will all be using the same water as you, so should hopefully be 'used' to the water. thats the theory anyway.

 

[TixeeriF]

That's really interesting and useful info Moochy, thanks - I hadn't thought of things that way.
I'll have a look in my LFS next time I'm in there at their range of cichlids and ask them about where they were bred and how they keep them...