So many questios, So few answers.

[MadCow]

I am just re-starting a 29 US gallon freshwater community aquarium. Up and running and will begin fishless cycling tomorrow(Saturday). Please excuse my "question spike" but I want to do the best I can to get this right. Let's start.

1)It is too late now, but would it have been ok to use sand instead of gravel in the bottom of my tank? I went to the petshop with the intent to buy marine sand after my last experience with the coating flaking off my gravel and ruining my filter, killing my fish and generally causing chaos, but the "fish expert" advised that sand would require periodic changes as you could not "suck the poop off the bottom" as she so elegantly put it. I found some uncoated gravel, but would have liked the sand set-up.

2)I am filtering with an Emperor 400 filter. Has place for 4 cartridges. They recommend running one of their filter cartridges in each side and filling each basket with charcoal. What would you recommend I use in the refillable baskets? I have considered just running 4 of their cartridges also thought about using the refillables as sort of pre-filters with just some filter floss in each one. Any recommendations?

3)Ideas for inhabitants for my new world? Here are my thoughts for what I would like. I know I am going to be fighting myself to keep from overstocking. I went to a website for an aquarium magazine(don't remember which one now), but they had a calculator to put in your tank dimensions and they calculated maximum inches of fish for that tank. They came back with 53" for my tank. Seems high. I have plenty of filtration so I may be able to cheat a little though. Would like to keep small fish, generally 4" mature size maximum. Here are my preferences and thoughts:

Schools-
Zebra Danios - thought a school of 10.
White Clouds? - possibly? another schooling fish. 6-10

Livebearers-
Platies- would like a couple females and a male. I love babies!
Swordtails- possibly? maybe a couple. maybe just more platies instead

Bottom dwellers-
Red-tailed shark - 1 nice one that plays well with others. haha
Panda Cory - thought 1 but read groups are better. Groups of how many?
Clown Loach - think may be too big though. also read groups are better. again groups of how many?

Also looked at smaller rainbows like neon rainbows.

Any thoughts? Any better recommendations for interesting fish along with stocking recommendations? Haven't set down and figured how many inches of fish I am looking at with these thoughts. Just thoughts right now. Anybody know of a good website to look at all the common freshwater fish and to get info like mature size, temperament, etc?

Sorry about the long post. Hope I don't scare everybody off. Thanks in advance for any help or thoughts. I will take any advice or thoughts even if it is just, "Dude, you are nuts!" Thank you.
MadCow

 

[modernhamlet]

1)It is too late now, but would it have been ok to use sand instead of gravel in the bottom of my tank? I went to the petshop with the intent to buy marine sand after my last experience with the coating flaking off my gravel and ruining my filter, killing my fish and generally causing chaos, but the "fish expert" advised that sand would require periodic changes as you could not "suck the poop off the bottom" as she so elegantly put it. I found some uncoated gravel, but would have liked the sand set-up.

Normal sand would be fine and as you haven't started, you could still quite easily remove the gravel and replace it. Playground sand from the local hardware store would work fine, just make sure you rinse it well.

Marine (coral) sand will NOT work, as it will raise the pH and KH considerably.

2)I am filtering with an Emperor 400 filter. Has place for 4 cartridges. They recommend running one of their filter cartridges in each side and filling each basket with charcoal. What would you recommend I use in the refillable baskets? I have considered just running 4 of their cartridges also thought about using the refillables as sort of pre-filters with just some filter floss in each one. Any recommendations?

The Emperor 400 is massive overkill (that's a good thing) for a 29g. You should be fine with the 2 standard cartridges. I'd just add loose cell foam or polyester batting (super cheap at craft stores) to provide even more area for bacteria to grow.

3)Ideas for inhabitants for my new world?

I'll let others handle that, but your ideas look pretty good. As you're aware, the clown loaches aren't really an option, but a school of 4-6 corys certainly is. The more the merrier. You will probably be able to overstock a bit, but I'd go with the "little at a time" approach, so you know what your tank's limits are before .

Sounds like it's going to be a wonderful tank! Good luck!

 

[jams.alaskan]

Hi mad cow
Modern Hamlet has answered you well... There are MANY lovely tanks with sand on the member's aquarium pictures, If you want it, now is the time! Playsand, pool filter sand have both been recomended for freshwater tanks, marine sand is a no as Hamlet said.

Your filtration sound fine - yeah, you could use polyester batting (cheep)

4 inches would be a nice limit (watch for agression toward your "little guys" Maybe go with two different groups of corys (inchworm could steet you right with those) I'd leave the clown loaches for you next, bigger tank. You know you'll get one.

I think you have great plans. Best of luck and we want pictures when you are done

ALASKA

 

[Bol]

(oops: guess I shouldn't leave for an hour before hitting Submit )

Sand:

Many people successfully use sand as a substrate. Usually, you can use "play sand" or "blasting sand" from a DIY store (e.g. Home Depot, Lowe's), rahter than pay premium for aquarium sand. The usual rules apply -- make sure it has no additives or coatings, and you'd have to rinse it pretty thoroughly before putting it in.

Sometimes, disturbance of the sand is recommended, but not because it's tough to clean up waste, exactly. The actual waste should be easy to clean, because the sand is so dense compared to gravel, that most of the gunk stays on the top.

The reason sand sometimes needs to be disturbed is that, because of its density, it can produce anaerobic pockets (places where oxygen is not prevalent). In anaerobic pockets, certain reactions in a tank can produce hydrogen sulfide gas, which will eventually bubble up into the water -- and hydrogen sulfide can be toxic to fish.

So, disturbing or stirring the sand will "burst" these pockets, stopping the process. From what I gather, many people just introduce a few Malaysian Trumpet Snails, or other critters that burrow in the sand, to do the work for them.

Emperor Cartridges:

The general consensus, if there is one, is that activated carbon isn't really worth using, except for "mopping up", either in odd ammonia/toxin situations, or after using medications.

The main reason for this is the cost, balanced by the fact that activated carbon has a pretty short effective lifetime (usually around a week), because it does its "work" by adsorption -- meaning, it only "soaks things up" on its surface. After a few days, when the surface is "full" of toxins, it does about as much good as any material of the same grain size. Not only that, but after a longer period of time, it can leach the toxins that it has adsorbed back into the water. In addition, AC can leach "good" trace minerals from your water, particularly those that live plants need.

For alternative filter media, I'd suggest just using sponge (such as that used in an AquaClear) or filter floss (aka polyester batting). Also, you may want to look at this article for a cost-effective alternative to replacing your cartridges. Although it was written for Penguin cartridges, the same idea should apply for Emperor cartridges. I use this method myself, and it works quite well. Plus, I got the materials for about 30 cartridges for five dollars.

As far as fish recommendations go, I'll just say watch your overall total -- it's easy to add two of these and three of those, and end up with too many fish. Also, I'm not sure the shark will play nicely, but I've never had one. Maybe others can help you there.

 

[myenigmaself]

I have two sand tanks, both with white (non-marine) sand I purchased from a local fish store (it wasn't all that expensive, and was worth the peace of mind knowing that it was ok to put in a tank). I have loaches that burrow to mix up the sand in both of my tanks (kuhlis in my small tank, red-tailed sand loaches in the big. the kuhlis deffinately dig things up more). As Bol said, sand is very easy to clean. It's denser than rocks so the waste stays on the top, and it's heavier than the waste; enough so that it isn't picked up by my siphen. Be careful with the red-finned sand loaches, I think they'd be too agressive for your other inhabitants. Kuhlis would be great though. They get to be about 3" but they're so thin that it's not a true 3". Best of luck to you!

(pics coming soon!)

 

[Dwarfs]

Redtail sharks get 6 inches long and can be pretty agressive. They are nocturnal and swim at all levels of the tank at night (I've had some). Clown loaches do get big. Try a Botia morleti, they are small and i keep mine solitary. They nip fins but if there are enough tardets they shouldn't be bad.

 

[MadCow]

Thanks for all the help so far. I now see how "useful" some of our wonderful zit faced fish store help can be. I may still change to sand. I hate the idea of taking the $25 worth of gravel out to start again. Thanks again for the help and keep it coming. I need all the suggestions I can get.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi MadCow

Since you are still thinking about using sand as a substrate, here's an article that you might find interesting:

http/cichlid-forum.com/articles/sand.php#3

Now about the cory cats........ All kinds of cory cats are great! They are happy little fish who are perfect citizens in anyone's community tank. Pandas are small, as far as corys go. I have 9 of them and they are great, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any other cory with an equal amount of enthusiasm. The C. aeneus, bronze and albinos, are perhaps the most easy to find of them all, and you would be delighted with them, I'm sure.

Kuhli loaches are fine little fish, too. Both the kuhlis and corys love a sand bottom, but will do well with a fine gravel substrate. Also, they both need to be kept in groups of at least 3 to show their real personalities.