Back In The Game New Tank :-) What Stock ?

[Craig89]

Morning all hope all is good , well after what feels like a lifetime (2 years) I'm back to keeping fish.....well almost. I've just placed an order for a custom tank to
Be built. It's nothing huge but is making the best of the limited space available to me (a spare alcove in our living room). Tank should be with me in the next 3/4 week so need to starting preparing.

The tank itself is 30"x20"x14.5inch which I work out to be around the 150l/40g mark will be filtered by an APS 1400lph external filter and have 2 14w t5 bulbs in a hanging light system . If I remember correctly the water here in Yorkshire is quite hard. But correct me if I'm wrong .

I'm struggling on a theme and stock choice for the tank, I know I can't have anything huge but kind of wanted to stay away from the common guppy/Molly type of tanks.

Can I draw on the vast knowledge available on here and ask for some suggestions on what to keep. Many thanks.

Craig

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Rainbow fish!!!! You could have a giant group of threadfins, delicate blue eyes, pacific blue eyes etc. Would be cool.
 
Maybe a large school of cardinal tetras? 
 
Or several small groups of fish.
 
Maybe this (what I would do)
10 kuhli loaches
A pair of German Blue Rams
8 bleeding heart tetras
 
Im pretty sure that is stocked just fine but keep up on water changes. And remember, cycle the tank beford adding fish.
 
Welcome back!

 

[Craig89]

Thank you for the help and the warm Welcome a large group of cardinals had crossed my mind as well, not a fan of the kuhli loaches if I'm honest as in my experience tend to hide a lot need something fun and entertaining as it will be a focal point of the room

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Thank you for the help and the warm Welcome a large group of cardinals had crossed my mind as well, not a fan of the kuhli loaches if I'm honest as in my experience tend to hide a lot need something fun and entertaining as it will be a focal point of the room

)

How about a big group of cories then? Very active

 

[Craig89]

Yeah never thought of cories good call

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

If you do dwarf cories like habrosus or a small cory like panda then you could have a group of 12-14
 
Edit- wrong number

 

[Craig89]

Really hmm will have to have a read up on care for them etc

 

[fluttermoth]

I would check your water supplier's website and find how hard your water actually is. Rams certainly won't do well in hard water.

 

[Craig89]

I kept rams before I got rid of my last tank they were fine

 

[Ninjouzata]

Are there any particular fish you like? Certain colors? Might be good to go to your LFS and write down what interests you.
 
Are you going to cycle the tank before adding fish?
 
I quite like peacock gudgeons but I'm not sure if it'd be good to add them if you have very hard water.

 

[Craig89]

Tank will be cycled in a fashion I will be getting some mature media for the filter to give it a kick start the only problem with my lfs is that it tends to be rather repetitive with it's stocking so it's a case of using the internet I'm afraid ,

 

[Ninjouzata]

Will you be using mature media and following THIS article?
 
Lots of variety if you get fish online.

 

[Craig89]

It's not my first tank I had tanks for many years before me and my girlfriend got our first house 18 month ago

 

[Ninjouzata]

I didn't mean to imply that you were, I just didn't know if the tanks you had in the past were cycled fish-less or not. Just wanted to make sure
 
Did you like Ellie's idea for the smaller rainbows? Spotted blue eyes or delicate blue eyes are also quite lovely looking.

 

[Craig89]

Oh my apologies in the beginning I learnt the hard way buying a tank and fish 3 days befor discovering this site. Like so many itheres following advice from my lfs do unfortunately my first cycle was a fish in but I managed to
Come through it without any casualties, every tank since them has been seeded from that original media which is still going strong in a friends tank . As for the fish I'm feeling a decent sized group of smaller fish with some larger fish to give a good contrast.