My Tank - please advise

Hi everyone

Below is a picture of my tank - sans fish at this stage since I am waiting the two weeks for it to cycle. It's a 128L - 800x400x400(LDH) bow front.
The plants are plastic and silk. I would really love to get some live plants in there - but since my substrate is gravel not sure if it will work.

This is where the advice part comes in. I love the colours and patterns of Discus fish. Would it be advisable to keep them in a tank this size? If not, could you give me any alternatives for good community fish that are also quite colourful. I am not too sure about Malawi Cichlids at this stage.

thanks in advance :blink1:

Can't wait to begin stocking it!

B.

 

More opinion than advice since what works for me might not suite you 100%. I have no clue on discuss. On planted tanks I can say this. Gravel is fine .. fact is I have plain silica in most of my tanks .. depending on what plants you want to plant, your gravel should be fine. If I am not mistaken your tank has a build-in filter - yet I see you have two additional internal filters .. if you are planning to keep real plants and probably anything other than 3 oscars I would remove those two till you understand what fish you are going to run in the system. You need to make the call, are you going to focus on an aquatic landscape with fish vs a aquarium for fish that might have some plants in it.

Once you have made the call between fish or plant .. do the research. Most important of all do not be afraid to try and fail (this is where MTS helps) but do not put your fish at risk. If you just must start adding plants right now .. I'd say go with some Java fern, swords and vallis .. these are good in most water types and your with will seldom see them as a food source.

Do not do any impulse buying when it comes to plants (or even fish) > 80% of the plants that you will buy will probably not be true aquatics.

 

Hey welcome bud.....okay discus won't be recommended if this is your first time keeping fish,they are HIGH maintenence,nuff said.

What pet shop do you go to and what plants and fish do they offer? Take a drive and find out the names of plants and fish that they have beter yet take a pic,then tell us here and we will help you make a good decision.....

F fish is right take out one filter or turn it on low, your fish will be blown around,secondly I can't see a heater?I take it its hidden in the hood?...what's the temp? And what did you use to cycle the tank?


In that tank I would recommend some gourammis,kribensis,and maybe some nice angels?
If you into the shooling thing then leave out the angels and in their place throw in ten rummy nose or lemon tetras,any tetra you like.

Just discuss all your purchases here first

Cheers

 

Thanks for the advice, F-Fish & brads. I will definitely do some research on the gouramis. I like the look of the java moss and variants. Was actually thinking of getting a separate smaller and cheaper tank on which to try my hand at planting.
Is it necessary to cycle the tank for two weeks prior to planting?

The heater is hidden behind the filter on the left - diagonally opposite the thermometer - temperature is normally about 27 degrees.

A product called Nitrivec by Sera was used to cycle the tank.

B.

 

This is my oppinion:
The tank as it is, is ready for Malawi's or Tanganikan's - the plastic plants will be safe!
This type of fish is hardy and the filtration look like it will be enough.
Why change the tank to suit fish you don't have - rather choose the fish for for existing setup. Even Krib's will be happy in this setup.
Good luck.
Gert.

 

Hi, you can leave the discus for about another year or more.
Franna from this site have some lovely and very cheap Convicts for sale if you are interestedm
There are a few threads about cycling and about planted tanks around so make sure to go visit each
section.
Moss are easy to grow and would suite a tank where you do not use a fertalized substrate, so it would be a good
Idee to start with some of that.

 

You can easily put plants in that substrate... most of the plants we get at lps are not true aquatic plants, but the aquatic plants that they do sell will usually be easy to grow plants (because they don't have the knowledge on how to keep otherwise), and should grow nicely in that tank.

Malawi Cichlid's are nice... but chow plants, so you could go that route now as Gert says.

I always like a medium to dense planted tank (need to learn how to fertilize then and have correct lighting), with a few plants. My suggestion for that size tank would be a pair of angels as your main feature. Then a school of tetra's for variety, and the obviously something on the bottom. (Ancistrus/COry--- NOT Pleco's)

Stay away from Discus for now. THey are for the more experienced in my opinion

 

You could also try a pair of apistos. Go see Dolphin he is right in your area. You can see some great fish and get some good advice their.

 

Howsit and welcome!
Yes,unfortunatly your tank is to small for discus.If you don't like malawis or tanganikans,any other small shoaling fish are great.Tetras,guppies,swords,platties,are all colourfull,hardy and easy to keep.
On the planting,first see what you can get.If you like the the plants at the shop,get some,add it to your setup and see if it grows.If it dies off,remove it and throw it away.Try something else.Mostly the LPS plants are cheap and won't break the bank.
In my experiance with systemised tanks is that the lighting is not sufficient for more difficult plants and it is very difficult to customise the hoods for adding more light tubes,so plant to suite your current setup and most plants at LPS is suited for low and medium light.

 

Good post+1

 

Welcome and a awesome tank you got there

Sent from my SM-T531 using Tapatalk

 

Zombie thread!

 

Yes, definitely been more than a few years since this was posted.

Thanks @hencoloots but my tank is nothing as good as the tanks you've got! Will post a pic of my planted tank soon

 

I was going through the forum posts and saw this one...just saw it was from 2010...yikes haha