Hi I've hit a point with one of my tanks where I want to have an over haul and I'm not sure what to do so thought I'd ask my friends here.
The tank is an Aquascaper 600 which is 100 litres 60cm x 50cm x 40cm. Its got an Oase Biomaster 250 filter and a Twinstar 600SM light with a controller. My tapwater has a ph of around 7.2 and the hardness varies a little through the year but lets call it 17 gh as an average. The current fish are a group of 5 Red Eye Red Tail Puffers (1 male, 4 females), 17 Glowlight Danios and 6 Amano Shrimp.
I've had the setup for about 2 years (nearly 3 but didnt have fish in for nearly the first year). There are a few reasons I'm thinking of changing things up, first is I've used Tropica Aquarium Soil and after 3 years I think it is fully spent and I'm not seeing the same plant growth I have in previous years and a pretty serious BBA issue is growing... so I need to fix that soon. It irks me that I ignored advice early on about how hard my water is and would rather embrace that now, but my fish are a few years old so is me moving them on really the best for them? Lastly, I sit next to this tank all day and the fish in here are not that active - the Glowlight Danios sometimes school nicely in a big ball but it does not seem consistent and they spend most of their time in the denser planted areas of the tank. The tank used to be in a different place where it you saw it as you walked about rather than sit and stare at it, so when the puffers saw you they came out and you got a good 5-10 min interaction but when I'm sat here they just lurk away (as they naturally do) and are not that bothered - so often the tank does look pretty empty a lot of the time...
The obvious route I could take is to get a group of Dwarf Puffers, I only recently realised they come from a harder water habitat with 10-20 gh recommended. IMO the Puffer Fish community is far and way the least flexible and most judgemental of any part of the freshwater hobby but even by their recommendations in a 100 litres 10 is a good number and at those levels I'd get some decent activity and they are more active than the Red Eyes. I could then keep them with a school of Lake Inle Rasboras - Emerald, Red Dwarf, Rummy Nose or the closely related Galaxies - a big school of at least 20 of one species would be great. I think the Amano Shrimp are likely to be ok in this set up too.
The other thing I am tempted by is a Tanganyikan tank, unfortunately there are no options from Lake Malawi for this size tank. I'd be restricted to most likely one species but I may be lucky with 2? If it was single species tank it would be a shell dweller, possibly Lamprologus Ocellatus Gold or maybe the slightly larger Lamprologus Caudopunctatus. If I were to try 2 species it would be Altolamprologus Compressicep Sumbu Shell with either Lamprologus Multifaciatus or Simmilis.
Or do I keep as I am since the red eye puffers have been here 2ish years, get some new plants rescape the tank to a way I'm happier with, big deep clean - reset the algae problems. I've got some wood set aside already to do this and a shopping list ready to go (actually nearly ordered it this morning to do at the weekend but then came to this conundrum)....
I've added a poll so people can help me decide
Wills
The tank is an Aquascaper 600 which is 100 litres 60cm x 50cm x 40cm. Its got an Oase Biomaster 250 filter and a Twinstar 600SM light with a controller. My tapwater has a ph of around 7.2 and the hardness varies a little through the year but lets call it 17 gh as an average. The current fish are a group of 5 Red Eye Red Tail Puffers (1 male, 4 females), 17 Glowlight Danios and 6 Amano Shrimp.
I've had the setup for about 2 years (nearly 3 but didnt have fish in for nearly the first year). There are a few reasons I'm thinking of changing things up, first is I've used Tropica Aquarium Soil and after 3 years I think it is fully spent and I'm not seeing the same plant growth I have in previous years and a pretty serious BBA issue is growing... so I need to fix that soon. It irks me that I ignored advice early on about how hard my water is and would rather embrace that now, but my fish are a few years old so is me moving them on really the best for them? Lastly, I sit next to this tank all day and the fish in here are not that active - the Glowlight Danios sometimes school nicely in a big ball but it does not seem consistent and they spend most of their time in the denser planted areas of the tank. The tank used to be in a different place where it you saw it as you walked about rather than sit and stare at it, so when the puffers saw you they came out and you got a good 5-10 min interaction but when I'm sat here they just lurk away (as they naturally do) and are not that bothered - so often the tank does look pretty empty a lot of the time...
The obvious route I could take is to get a group of Dwarf Puffers, I only recently realised they come from a harder water habitat with 10-20 gh recommended. IMO the Puffer Fish community is far and way the least flexible and most judgemental of any part of the freshwater hobby but even by their recommendations in a 100 litres 10 is a good number and at those levels I'd get some decent activity and they are more active than the Red Eyes. I could then keep them with a school of Lake Inle Rasboras - Emerald, Red Dwarf, Rummy Nose or the closely related Galaxies - a big school of at least 20 of one species would be great. I think the Amano Shrimp are likely to be ok in this set up too.
The other thing I am tempted by is a Tanganyikan tank, unfortunately there are no options from Lake Malawi for this size tank. I'd be restricted to most likely one species but I may be lucky with 2? If it was single species tank it would be a shell dweller, possibly Lamprologus Ocellatus Gold or maybe the slightly larger Lamprologus Caudopunctatus. If I were to try 2 species it would be Altolamprologus Compressicep Sumbu Shell with either Lamprologus Multifaciatus or Simmilis.
Or do I keep as I am since the red eye puffers have been here 2ish years, get some new plants rescape the tank to a way I'm happier with, big deep clean - reset the algae problems. I've got some wood set aside already to do this and a shopping list ready to go (actually nearly ordered it this morning to do at the weekend but then came to this conundrum)....
I've added a poll so people can help me decide
Wills
I was just about to post with a rescape in mind. Shaking up the environment might encourage the fish to come out more and it will be something new for you to look at 
have you got a scape in mind?
it had a purple underside if I remember right...
