Deciding On A New Tank, Looking For Some Advice.

[SwordtailLover]

Hello all!

I have found so much great information on this site, and great help from the members, so I was coming to you all again seeking some advice = ). I have a 10 gallon fish tank which I have been running for about four months now, containing three zebra danios and three swordtails. On my hour lunches at work, I find myself wandering over to the LFS to check out the new instock fish, and upon a recent trip, I discovered a few new things.

Firstly, I found a 29 gallon tank with a stand on sale, and some dwarf puffer fish. Upon reading about them, I've found out that they're pretty aggressive little buggers, and that they are good tank mates with Ottos. I have been looking at these beautiful planted tanks, and was curious about setting up a planted tank with some Ottos and some dwarf puffers. I have a few questions in which I'd like to ask, however.

I've read that the puffers need roughly 5 gallons per fish, and that ottos should be kept in schools of three. Seeing how they're algae eaters, I was thinking that this would be a perfect set up for trying out a planted tank. I've read some recent posts and replies about planted tanks, and having a cycled tank which has been running stable for a while now, I think I can definitely handle the task. The question is, what is the ratio for gallon per otto, and what kind of plants would you folks recommend? I have read that Java ferns are low maintenance, which is not a problem, but I'd like something a little easier to maintain due to shortage of free time.

With the 29 gallon tank, I would be going with the AC 30 filter, and perhaps a bubbler as well? The tank I have now is a relatively simple tank, and I would love to add some puffers to the family. I love the look of planted tanks, and would love to try one out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As always, thank you so much for helping : ) : )

 

[OldMan47]

I don't think you will find any plants easier to care for than java fern SwordtailLover. It cannot be planted directly into the substrate or the plant will die and rot. Instead, java fern is usually tied to something with a bit of fishing line and then the object is put into the tank as decoration. If the plant is close to the substrate, the java fern's roots will find their way into the soil but that is not really necessary. A 29 gallon with a 2 foot long fluorescent tube is just enough light for a java fern at about 2/3 watt per gallon. Any less and java fern will not survive while any more will tempt you to try other plants. If you want to try other plants, you will need to upgrade the lighting to at least 40 watts. At that level, thee are many low light plants that could be planted and that will do OK. One way to upgrade lighting is to buy an after-market light fixture to fit your tank from companies that specialize in aquarium lighting. Another approach is to remove the perfectly good light from your hood and backfit the light strip with an upgrade kit like the ones made by AHSupply. The end result of a light upgrade looks like this if you are careful while doing the work.

Inside the new light fixture

Light in place.

In this picture you can barely make out the vent holes that had to be added to the end of the light strip to keep things cool with the hotter, more wattage, light.

 

[SwordtailLover]

Thanks for the reply! I really enjoy the ferns, they're very beautiful. As for the combination of the ottos/dps, will this work well for a lightly planted tank?