New setup for my old "Juvenile" tank

[WaRn00b]

Hi all,

So after getting rid of the last of my young Copadichromis Insularis' my "Juvenile" tank was just sitting there and I've been itching to do a proper tetra tank for quite some time now, so today when I had some glass cut for decent sliders for my 1.5m tank, I bought some fine & shiney black substrate from my LFS and decided to do rebuild my small tank.

I drained the old water and bagged the old PFS and coral mix. Then removed the old background, cleaned the tank nicely, cut a new piece of black self adhesive vinyl for the tank and stuck it to the back of the tank using soap and water trick, worked well, no bubbles at all!! :D

Cleaned the substrate (must say, was impressed at how clean it was, only one rinse and it was clean!!). :D

I was planning on putting the tank where it was in my spare room, but my girlfriend actually said I must put the tank in our bedroom, so I moved our old coffee table next to the bed and started setting up the tank.

Must say, I'm quite happy thus far, looks damn nice with the black substrate.

Here's some pics, please excuse the quality, I use my Blackberry for the pics.

Going to be buying a nice bright white T8 for the small tank (I only had this pinkish one that I used from my tank from years back).

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c355/CrossFire64/IMG00508-20110314-2145.jpg

Then just added some old plastic plants I used in the "Juvenile" tank to get an idea of the contrast from all the black and then the green from the plants.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c355/CrossFire64/IMG00512-20110314-2149.jpg

My idea is to get a nice small piece of drift wood, will try to get some nice rocks (what colour I'm not sure yet), then some nice plants and tetras.

How many fish do you think I can keep in this tank?

It's 46cm x 23cm x 30cm and holds about 30litres and I'm using a Boyu 340l/h filter.

Any advice and comments welcome!! :)

[WaRn00b]

Woke up this morning to a crystal clear tank. I've also been thinking about getting a black filter for the tank rather, as the grey stands out a bit too much. Then I'll keep the grey one for my hospital tank.

If you experts don't mind giving me some advice, I'd like to know what the limit of fish I can add would be for this tank/filtration system?

I'll go and buy a filter with a larger turnover (black one) for this tank as well, I'll be going for any combination of zebra danios, glowlight's, cardinals, black neons, etc. Basically fish that will stay nice and small. :) Maybe some nice guppies as well?

Also, any recommendations on plants I must go for? :)

[ryanj252]

Looks good. For design purposes, i always make my rocks the opposite colour of my substrate. So go for creamish/brown rocks. Not white, thats too high contrast. Plants i would've given you if i knew...threw away a handful of glosso, java moss, flame moss, Alternanthera aquatica.

I dont know what style of tank you want, but id recommend you just get as much plants as you can, plant them from big to small - back to front. and remove what doesnt look cool. Put it in a temp tank for now.

[WaRn00b]

Damn dude.. would've loved some plants and moss to experiment with. :( :(

Anyhow, I was thinking of getting some sandstone or redish/brownish stone to break the contrast.. white also didn't seem like too good an idea as algae will usually turn it a bit greenish?

[Zoom]

A reddish stone would look good as most plants are all green. The reddish plants need CO2 and high light.

[WaRn00b]

A reddish stone would look good as most plants are all green. The reddish plants need CO2 and high light.

Hahaha.. Looks like I "red" your mind or something (excuse the lame pun), coz I just bought a few kilos of Red Jasper and a new black ViaAqua 500l/h filter, also bought a whole BOX of awesome driftwood from a factory in an industrial area close to Somerset West for damn cheap.