Getting Tank Set Back Up Again

[NomadicOne]

After a layoff of around 5 years since I had a tank setup at home, I have been persuaded by my wife & kids to set up the Juwel Rio 400 (100 USG) that has been sitting empty in the living room for the said period of time.

The last stock that it held was a mixture of Discus (including a pair of breeding wild Browns), but I don't want to go down the Discus route again due to the time needed to look after them (and with my kids they would probably end up being scared to death pretty quickly by them!).

As I have always preferred South & Central American species in my tanks, I will be trying to recreate a South Amercian biotope style setup within the aquarium.

We have decided after digging out the Tropical Fish books from the back of the cupboard, to go with a South American community tank setup, with the thoughts of possibly breeding some of the species in the future. The following is the stock that we have agreed on (to be introduced gradually to keep any water chemistry spikes to a minimum);

Corydoras aeneus x 10
Corydoras paleatus x 10
Corydoras reticulatus x 10
Pterogoplichthys gibbiceps x 2
Corydoras metae x 10
Corydoras barbatus x 6
Corydoras schwartzi x 10
Pimelodus pictus x 5
Corydoras sterbai x 10
Dianema urostriata x 5
Paracheirodon axelrodi x 25
Gymnocrymbus ternetzi x 25
Hemigrammus erythrozonus x 25
Paracheirodon innesi x 100 50 (not a typo , 100 of these fish)
Gasteropelecus levis x 10
Carnegiella marthae x 10

I understand that it is a lot of fish to put into a single tank, but I will be running 2 x Eheim 2228 cannister filters (with spray bars set at surface level) in the system & hopefully with the Juwel filtration removed (haven't decided yet as you can never over filter a system from my experience).

The tank will be also quite heavily planted with the following;

Cabomba caroliniana
Egeria densa
Heterathera zosterifolia
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides
Telanthera lilacina
Echinodorus tenellus
Eleocharis acicularis
Echinodorus paniculatus
Echinodorus major
Echinodorus cordifolius
Sagittaria platyphylla

The main plants will be used for background purposes, with the specimen plants (such as the Swords) being used a single features along with pieces of bogwood. I will be rooting the specimen plants in small pots buried in the substrate containing rooting fibre & fine washed gravel.
The substrate is 3" of sand which will need rewashing as it has sat in the empty tank for the past 5 years or so.

The water chemistry from the tap in the area I live in is PH 7 with a medium-high gH.

The main questions I am looking at being answered are;

CO2 usage - what sort of CO2 setup would you say is best for a tank of this size, with the amount of plants that will be used?

Lighting - I intend to use the twin tube lighting system (with reflectors) that is provided with the Juwel hoods rather than have an open topped setup with Metal Halides (mainly due to the young children who will put everything & anything into the tank if it is uncovered!!!!). What twin tube setup would you recommend for healthy plant growth and also to bring the best out in the fish colouration?

RO Usage - Would I be better off rejuvenating my old RO filtration system from my Discus days to lower the gH & PH slightly for the plants & fish species or would you stick with the standard ways of dechlorination?

Fish Selection - I know every fishkeeper has their own personal preferences with regards to the fish kept. Are there any species that I should be looking towards other than the ones I have listed above?

Plant Selection - Same question as per Fish Selection. I have had some success in the past with planted tanks without the use of CO2, but have always struggled with specimen type plants only flourishing for a few weeks before dying off.

Any constructive comments will be taken onboard.

Thanks in advance.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Corydoras aeneus x 10
Corydoras paleatus x 10
Corydoras reticulatus x 10
Pterogoplichthys gibbiceps x 2
Corydoras metae x 10
Corydoras barbatus x 6
Corydoras schwartzi x 10
Pimelodus pictus x 5
Corydoras sterbai x 10
Dianema urostriata x 5
Paracheirodon axelrodi x 25
Gymnocrymbus ternetzi x 25
Hemigrammus erythrozonus x 25
Paracheirodon innesi x 100 (not a type , 100 of these fish)
Gasteropelecus levis x 10
Carnegiella marthae x 10

Fish Selection - I know every fishkeeper has their own personal preferences with regards to the fish kept. Are there any species that I should be looking towards other than the ones I have listed above?

Personally, I'd nix the gibbys, and swap them for something smaller and less messy. When they're full grown, they'll dominate the tank (in terms of size) and create a load of mess (including messing up your planting). I'd also be tempted to go for larger groups of cories and less species. Halving the number of neons may also be a good bet for money and bioload purposes. And swimming space. Or perhaps having 25 neons and more hatchets? The pims will eat the smaller fish however, so those probably aren't a good idea.

RO Usage - Would I be better off rejuvenating my old RO filtration system from my Discus days to lower the gH & PH slightly for the plants & fish species or would you stick with the standard ways of dechlorination?

You'd be fine with just tap water, although if you want a mix of 25% RO and 75% tap water should soften it and lower nitrates enough while not being to drastic.

 

[Tolak]

I would agree with OohFeeshy's comment on the corys, as well as being concerned with the temperature range differences between Aeneus & Sterbai. If you have the ro unit you may as well use it, as mentioned, with a mix with tap water.

 

[Callum]

ok first things first welcome to the forums about your stocking ; that is what i would stocki in a 1000 gallon tank not a 100g. It would take me hours to go through each fish in detail but here is the guideline i use 1cm per litre so you have 400cm of fish to play with. Also the best co2 setup for a tank that size would be a large pressurised kit. i wouldnt bother with R0 unless your fish require different GH's / PH's of your tap water. The juwel twin lighting unit would be ok but for best resaults either metal halides but you want something in your tank and the Arcadia I- bar will fit nicely in there. For plant selection you will want lots of fast growers to name a few, hornwort, vasanilla spirals (spelt incorrectly) Even with twin Eheims running that level of stocking is too much. May i also say that is one of the most ambitious stocking plans i have ever seen lol . Dont worry though you can learn a lot here and in a few weeks you will know a lot more. For the best awnseres you your planted questions consult the planted forum there are some real experts in there .

Edit: i was beaten to this took so long to write lol

 

[NomadicOne]

Thanks for your thoughts.

The main reason for going OTT on the stocking is that a LFS has said to me that I can have all my fish & plants at cost due to getting their other business' website setup a lot quicker than they expected. Obviously if they are having to order fish in for me then to get good prices they would have to go with the bulk orders which mught mean that they have no room to keep the surplus or on special order cases, not want to stock the others in the bulk batch. When I am offered Neons at 10p each in 100's, I would be mad not to take them all (especially as Neons IME have a nasty way of just keeling over without warning).
With regards to the Pims, I did think of them eating the smaller fish but the wife liked them. May have to nix that idea (same with the Gibbiceps). I did fancy a couple of Zebra Plecs, but the cost of them (even wholesale) put me off along with the softer water option required for good conditining (which may not be preferable for the other species if they have been kept or bred in higher PH or gH conditions).
My wife chose the species of Corys (she couldn't make her mind up to a short list, so went for smaller groups of more species. If she had her own way, we would have nothing but Corys in the tank!!!!!!

 

[Callum]

corys are lovely fish lol also if you can get fish for that cheap just buy loads and sell them in buy, sell and swap for 50p each make a bit of money to put towards the equipment. Also did you mean eheim 2028 i couldnt find any 2228. Also the Neon keeling over thing is called neon tetra disease and they arnt very hardy either i would reccommend the cardinal tetra much hardier and isnt prone to NTD. Also i would remove the juwel filters two eheims would be enough and the juwel takes up a lot of space.

 

[NomadicOne]

Just checked them & they are 2028 (Pro II's). I had 2228's in the past which the 2028 replaced!

I have edited my original post with regards to the numbers of P. innesi (halved the amount) & removed the Pims, Gibs & C. sterbai.

 

[Callum]

i see you have ammended your original post, but its still overstocked, check out the fish index on the forums here and do a cm per litre thing its only a guide you can exceed it but only to a certain extent.

EDIT: how much are zebra plecs wholesale?

 

[NomadicOne]

how much are zebra plecs wholesale?

I was quoted £18 each for 3" fish. Not as bad as the late 90's but more than I wanted to spend on a couple of fish for a community tank.

 

[Callum]

that is very cheap ive heard people on here pay £140 each for a fish that size

 

[Tolak]

I wouldn't worry too much about the stocking/cm per liter thing. If you successfully kept discus you sound like you have more than a little experience, plus you have different levels of the tank divided up nicely between the corys, tetras, & hatchets. If you were a beginner I would suggest stocking at about 1/3 that rate, but you seem to have it well planned out.

 

[OohFeeshy]

how much are zebra plecs wholesale?

I was quoted £18 each for 3" fish. Not as bad as the late 90's but more than I wanted to spend on a couple of fish for a community tank.

I doubt they're true zebras at that price, most likely a similar species. Besides which, most people hold the opinion only those with the intention of having a breeding colony of zebra plecs should own them because of their low numbers in the wild. The stocking level is fine, it's a large tank and the fish have a small bioload, plus the filters are large.

 

[NomadicOne]

I was thinking the same in all honesty with the 'Zebras'. I couldn't check obviously because they were a 'order in only' (and with any fish like Zebras or other expenbsive/rarity species, I like to see what I am buying first to make sure it is healthy etc.

I was thinking more about the CO2 kit. I don't particularly want to buy an expensive kit, and was thinking of DIY kit but on a larger scale than a couple of drinks bottle - such as a 10 gallon water carrier or similar. I was also thinking about the way to push more CO2 into the tank and was thinking of hooking up a small air pump to the DIY kit to add CO2 & aeration into the tank at the same time. Would this work or would it cause the CO2 to be dissipated out through the surface tension too quickly with the bubbles from the pump? You will have to excuse my ignorance with regards to CO2 as I have not used it before and trying to get my head around it.