# Got myself a 46g, but now unsure what to put in it. Suggestions? 0_0



## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

*Got myself a 46g, but now unsure what to put in it. (Update: Now a 20g)*

Hi Guys,

I guess you can say the fish bug has officially bitten me. I started off w/ 3 platies and a shrimp in a 10g. One of the platies got pregnant so I decided to take out 2 of the adults, put them into a new tank and try to save as many fry as I can (possibly to give away later).

On pure impulse (stupid me) I bought a much bigger tank than I originally planned for the 2 platies - it being the new 46g (a demo on sale). I set up the 46g, transplanted the 2 platies and now they look ridiculously small in it. So I'm thinking of eventually putting them back into the 10g later, giving away the fry, and starting fresh w/ the new tank.

I'm bouncing some ideas in my head, but would definitely like to hear anybody's input.

current equipment:
46 g bow Marineland aquarium, stand, eheim 2213 classic, eheim jager 150w heater, unknown fluorescent light - all new. Btw, are these decent quality items - any experiences?

ideas:
- would like a planted tank, but low maintenance preferred, thinking java fern, java moss, anubias

- Fish thoughts: 4 goldfish (2 comets, 1 black moor, 1 shubunkin) or a nice tropical community (what fish?).

- substrate suggestions? Thinking of a dark but natural colour.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Also, if someone could help me out w/ seeding the new filter - that would be greatly appreciated too.

I'm in no hurry to stock the tank, I'll wait 'til it's cycled w/ substrate and plants. When I buy the fish, I know I'll have to be committed to them, so I just want to plan everything right up front.

Cheers,
Rob


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey Rob, If you are looking for some personality and colour i would probably go with the community tank. low maintenance and planted would work well for theses fish. 6 Black neons or emperor tetra's a pair of Kribs or Bolivian Rams, 6 Otto's for the algae maintenance (they do good in schools) and a school of 6 or more cory cats. You could even add for more upper water level fish like more neons because they do better in larger schools and add a nice look of naturalness.


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

That would be a really neat set up for four goldfish.
however, if you do end up going with goldfish, dont bother with planting substrate or tender expensive rooting plants.
go with the anubias, and java ferns. 
goldfish like to root around in the gravel and will eat away at the succulent plants - except for the anubias and java ferns. they are too tough for them.

oh ya, and comets are not good with moors and shibunkins. comets would race them to the food and always win. substitute comets for fan tails.

although, If it were me,I might go with a nice planted tank AND a goldfish tank. $0.02


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Low light planted low maintenance is the way to go 

You're best off without the goldfish - they need a big tank and bigger filtration, contrary to what people usually subject them to. A nice community tank with a few smaller breeds of fish look nice IMO.

Like Trop suggested, some ottos for algae control, some shoaling fish focolour, and some surface dwellers to fill out the tank should be a decent looking community tank. And with a 46g, you can have a large shoal of something small like mircorasboras, if they're your thing.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> Hey Rob, If you are looking for some personality and colour i would probably go with the community tank. low maintenance and planted would work well for theses fish. 6 Black neons or emperor tetra's a pair of Kribs or Bolivian Rams, 6 Otto's for the algae maintenance (they do good in schools) and a school of 6 or more cory cats. You could even add for more upper water level fish like more neons because they do better in larger schools and add a nice look of naturalness.


Hi Tropicana, thanks - this sounds like something I could really go for. Don't know much about the Rams, but they look really nice in the pics. Will do more research on them, perhaps they can be my 'showcase' fish. The idea of a school of cory cats also definitely appeals to me. Btw, would loaches be too big?



ksimdjembe said:


> That would be a really neat set up for four goldfish.
> however, if you do end up going with goldfish, dont bother with planting substrate or tender expensive rooting plants.
> go with the anubias, and java ferns.
> goldfish like to root around in the gravel and will eat away at the succulent plants - except for the anubias and java ferns. they are too tough for them.


Thanks ksimdjembe, yeah, I was thinking of plants that could work w/ goldfish in case I go that route, but now I'm really thinking about going tropical/planted.



ksimdjembe said:


> oh ya, and comets are not good with moors and shibunkins. comets would race them to the food and always win. substitute comets for fan tails.


Ahh, good to know. Thanks! 



ksimdjembe said:


> although, If it were me,I might go with a nice planted tank AND a goldfish tank. $0.02


I was originally planning a planted goldfish tank. But now that you mention it, having a separate tank for the goldfish seems a lot more logical and less headache. I suppose the goldie tank will have to wait then.



ameekplec. said:


> Low light planted low maintenance is the way to go


Hi ameekplec - Yes, I'm sure I'd be getting out of my league if I had to deal w/ ferts, c02 and whatnot.



ameekplec. said:


> You're best off without the goldfish - they need a big tank and bigger filtration, contrary to what people usually subject them to. A nice community tank with a few smaller breeds of fish look nice IMO.


I have to admit, I was originally more biased to having bigger fish. But now I'm realizing that smaller fish could still work in this tank. I do like the idea of schools of small fish w/ the plants.



ameekplec. said:


> Like Trop suggested, some ottos for algae control, some shoaling fish focolour, and some surface dwellers to fill out the tank should be a decent looking community tank. And with a 46g, you can have a large shoal of something small like mircorasboras, if they're your thing.


Convinced. Will get the Ottos - I'm sure I could use any algae control help I can get. Will check out the microrasboras.

Thanks everyone for the input so far. Ok, right now you've all helped me to decide to go tropical community/low maint planted (driftwood, java fern/moss, anubias)

I'm still unsure about substrate choice. Given the plants I've listed, and I'm going for about 6 cories would I better off w/ gravel or sand? I've read somewhere about people using home depot sand in their freshwater tanks. Pros and cons?

Cheers,
Rob


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Doctor T said:


> I'm still unsure about substrate choice. Given the plants I've listed, and I'm going for about 6 cories would I better off w/ gravel or sand? I've read somewhere about people using home depot sand in their freshwater tanks. Pros and cons?
> 
> Cheers,
> Rob


Try not to get any Sharp gravel, Sand works nice, a few people use Pool filter sand. The amazon sand works nice too, but hard to find it seems for me at least. The sharp stuff you see like fluorite will damage the cories little mouth whisker things lol.

Plants seem to do well in sand also. just make sure you saturate it before hand so their isnt alot floating around. What kind of Filtration are you getting? or does it come with.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> Try not to get any Sharp gravel, Sand works nice, a few people use Pool filter sand. The amazon sand works nice too, but hard to find it seems for me at least. The sharp stuff you see like fluorite will damage the cories little mouth whisker things lol.
> 
> Plants seem to do well in sand also. just make sure you saturate it before hand so their isnt alot floating around. What kind of Filtration are you getting? or does it come with.


Thanks for the sand tips. I can't seem to find much reason not to use sand either - so I'm happy go with it. For filtration, I have an eheim 2213 classic cannister filter (w/ filter media balls). Is that ok?


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Yeah that sounds good. the plants will help with the filtration process also which is nice.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

Ok, thanks Tropicana.

I started entertaining the idea of doing a 180 and going w/ a saltwater tank. I guess like a lot of people, I'd like to have a clownfish someday too. But I started looking into what I needed to add to this setup, like the live rock/sand, protein skimmer, power head, etc... and it started to look daunting.

So I'm still more comfortable w/ the planted, tropical community idea and I think I'm pretty much all set to start cycling the tank. Plus, eventually it'll give my platies and nicer home to stay in.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

So... going along this line of thought. I have a couple more questions, if I may. 

Lets say I go w/ the community as suggested by Tropicana and others:
i.e. 2 kribs, a bunch of tetras, 6 ottos, 6 cories
- can my platies co-exist ok in this community? (3 adults, possible more if I keep the fry) Oh, and a vampire shrimp.
- I'm very interested implementing the 'silent/plant' cycle technique. Assuming I go w/ pool sand and the 2 platies in the tank already, any recommendations on plants to start off the silent cycle? (I have a feeling the low maint plants I originally planned, i.e. java fern/moss/anubias may not be ideal for this) Do I need to have fertilizer substrate under the sand? Do I need to upgrade my light right away?

Thanks again...


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## bluekrissyspikes (Apr 16, 2009)

stem plants are good for that, but adding the other plants you like will help as well. amazon swords can soak up a lot. i'm sure others might have some suggestions for fast growing stem plants. i have a few but i'm not good with latin names so i don't know what to recomend. one that i hear grows fast is hygro/ sunset hygro. floating plants like water sprite do a good job soaking up excess nutrients too. both of those do well in low light/low tech as well. there are lots of options, the more plants the better. even slow growing plants will help out. just add some fish, then wait a week or two and add more, repeat until stocked. good luck!! post pics when you get it all running.

stocking sounds good too.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

Hi bluekrissyspikes,

Thanks for the silent cycle tips. Seems like a good way to get started.

I have to confess, I'm going a bit mental on this. The freshwater route now seems pretty clear and straight forward to me. But damn, I can't seem to get my mind off going the other direction - i.e. saltwater - LOL

Getting into this hobby, I never realized how tough each choice would be to make. But I've already learned that regardless how much I spend on a fish, whether it's $2 or $100 - I'll do whatever I can to take good care of it (I mean, I'm sure everyone else is like that too). So, it ends up being such a huge decision for me. I also learned that if I don't plan each piece of equipment I buy carefully, I'll end up spending more for each mistake I make.

Oh well, I guess that's all part of the fun. I like learning this kind of stuff anyway. This forum is great too - learned so much already.

thanks again,
Rob

P.S. Will definitely post some pics, once I started getting it together...


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

The javafern and anubis will still be fine when you start your tank off, you dont need to wait with them. also i found in my 180 gal as stained as the water is currently and with such little light(wpg) my Vallisnaria has grown well. i would suggest it also for your aquarium as it looks nice and gets rather large. anyways lol salt is a big decision haha lots to work out. good luck with your decisions. 

note: this forum is pretty great isn't it lol .


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## bluekrissyspikes (Apr 16, 2009)

i am not brave enough to venture into the salt side of things...lol any mistakes will be very pricey compared to fresh water and even the water changes cost money.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> The javafern and anubis will still be fine when you start your tank off, you dont need to wait with them. also i found in my 180 gal as stained as the water is currently and with such little light(wpg) my Vallisnaria has grown well. i would suggest it also for your aquarium as it looks nice and gets rather large. anyways lol salt is a big decision haha lots to work out. good luck with your decisions.
> 
> note: this forum is pretty great isn't it lol .


Thanks, good to know that I can use java fern in the silent cycle. I already got some baby java ferns sprouting up pretty quickly in my 10g that I plan to use. I got some Cabomba stem plants, but they don't seem to be growing as fast as I would've thought. Maybe I need some ferts... I am thinking of going SW for the 46g now, but then I'm planning on getting something like a 30g to put my platies and fry in (and maybe put some cories later on). I may not have to the full silent cycle that tank after all, since my 10g is now fully cycled and I have some seeding material . Still, it will be a planted tank anyway.



bluekrissyspikes said:


> i am not brave enough to venture into the salt side of things...lol any mistakes will be very pricey compared to fresh water and even the water changes cost money.


I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit scared too going SW - LOL. Yeah, the salt water changes seems like a pain until I figure out how get a reverse osmosis/DI setup. But I'm thinking of starting off small and real slow, like getting just the live rock and sand for now and let it cycle for a month or so, which will hopefully let me save up for the rest of the stuff later. Then a clownfish hopefully. I'll definitely hold off on the corals and invertebrates for now as that seems to be where the big money pit lies...


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Doctor T said:


> I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit scared too going SW - LOL. Yeah, the salt water changes seems like a pain until I figure out how get a reverse osmosis/DI setup. But I'm thinking of starting off small and real slow, like getting just the live rock and sand for now and let it cycle for a month or so, which will hopefully let me save up for the rest of the stuff later. Then a clownfish hopefully. I'll definitely hold off on the corals and invertebrates for now as that seems to be where the big money pit lies...


Keeping a simple SW tank isn't going to cost too much. Live rocks and sand do cost money though, but if you take it slowly you can use just few pieces of live rocks or start with base rocks only (but no hitchhikers).

Common soft corals don't cost much at all. Common mushrooms, green star polyps, xenias, once you have your tank cycled, you can throw in frags of these and they grow and spread quickly! Very neat.

As long as you stay away from exotic corals or hard to keep corals (SPS, etc), it won't be too expensive.

Source of RO/DI water is a problem, and good lighting (at least two bulb T5) is going to cost a bit in the beggining. I used my home drinking water filter system (RO).

Water change is a bit more involved than FW, but as long as RO water is available, cost of Salt mix isn't too bad.

People have successfully kept small SW tank with very little equipment. I kept mine with just HOB filter /w filter floss and carbon, and all soft corals did well, as well as all my fishes and shrimps.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

conix67 said:


> Keeping a simple SW tank isn't going to cost too much. Live rocks and sand do cost money though, but if you take it slowly you can use just few pieces of live rocks or start with base rocks only (but no hitchhikers).
> 
> Common soft corals don't cost much at all. Common mushrooms, green star polyps, xenias, once you have your tank cycled, you can throw in frags of these and they grow and spread quickly! Very neat.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply conix. The kind of simple setup you just described, I can't seem to find enough info on. The more I read about SW, I see many opinions where if someone could start all over for example, they'd drill the tank and put in a sump, or wish they bought that $300 skimmer instead of the cheap one, etc... I don't even know for sure if I can drill my tank. It's a 46g Marineland bow btw. The bottom has a sticker saying 'tempered glass - do not drill' - but does that just mean the bottom pane only?

In those cases, I'd rather spend the money now, than regret later. I guess I got so caught up w/ the research, I didn't think it could be so simple. Thanks again, I'll look more into the soft corals - simpler is definitely better for me.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

My favourite tank is my "South American Biotope" tank. I have four angels and 5 bleeding heart tetras, plants that survive in low light, and which seem to make the fish the healthiest of all my tanks. It's a gorgeous tank and everybody comments on it.

Whatever you go with, I think you'll like it best if it all ends up (a) looking great (because that's important), and (b) having a mix of fish that do different things (surface, bottom, mid level feeders) and who coexist not only peacefully, but who are different enough in behaviour to be fun to watch. 

I just LOVE watching my angels, and the larger hardier tetras schooling behaviours are fun to watch. Other fish I just love to watch because they're just so awesome include big Plecos, Cory Cats, and of course, my Puffer+Goby brackish tank.

Oh and I absolutely love watching fishies make babies. So for that I have two tanks each with a breeding pair of convicts. baby-o-rama. They are mouth brooders and it's insanely fun watching them too. Too many choices.

At least my tank expansion phase is over. I've been stable at only 8 tanks for a year now. So my addiction and new-tank-buying phase is hopefully over for a while. 

W

PS. Marine aquariums look great, but I just bought a house, and I can't afford any large expenditures. I dream someone on craisglist will dump a hell of a "moving fire-sale" bargain on me, and get me started.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> My favourite tank is my "South American Biotope" tank. I have four angels and 5 bleeding heart tetras, plants that survive in low light, and which seem to make the fish the healthiest of all my tanks. It's a gorgeous tank and everybody comments on it.
> 
> Whatever you go with, I think you'll like it best if it all ends up (a) looking great (because that's important), and (b) having a mix of fish that do different things (surface, bottom, mid level feeders) and who coexist not only peacefully, but who are different enough in behaviour to be fun to watch.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your feedback KhuliLoachFan - sounds like you got some real nice setups! I did decide to go w/ a mixed community of peaceful fish/low tech planted. I'm sure seeing fish breed is fascinating and hopefully I'll see that behaviour in my tanks soon. In our current case of fry, the platy I had bought turned out to be preggy. It's very cool to see the fry grow up.

I can see how you get addicted. While I don't plan to have 8 tanks, in only a couple of months - I've already got 3 tanks. 

I hear you on finding a full marine setup on craigslist. I kept my eye out for the same thing, but then ended buying most of my reef parts 2nd hand, but individually. More expensive than buying a full used setup, but cheaper than buying all new.

So the official plan is:
Convert the 46g to a reef tank (still ongoing project)
Newly acquired 20g (courtesy of conix67) will be my main FW tank.
10g will be home for the platy fry.

*20g FW tank update:* (Pics coming soon)
I moved my Eheim 2213 cannister filter from the 46g to the 20g - which is working nicely as now I have more relative flow in the tank. The 2 platies from the 46g are in there now.

I put in a new glass canopy and upgraded the light to a Coralife Aqualight dual 14w T5 strip. Current plants are java ferns/fernlets and willow hygro - I hope they do well.

I just added 3 cories to the 20g yesterday. I originally planned 6, but the BA fishcatcher guy said '3 is enough for a 20g'. He seemed kinda low energy, so maybe he was just telling me that so he didn't have to catch all six.

Since I'm going w/ a smaller FW tank than before (20g from 46g), obviously my original stocking plans would have to change (i.e. No more kribs for me ). So I walked out w/ the 3 cories only. But now I'm wondering: Would the cories really be better off if I get six (or five)? My only other plans for new fish in this tank are the platies fry when they grow up and possibly some ottos.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Moar cories!!! They need groups of 5 - 6 to display social behaviours. I have 18 in a 20g densely planted tank (they're all about 1 inch) and they're hilarious.

BTW, where's that reef tank build thread!! Let's see the toys you've collected so far!


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> Moar cories!!! They need groups of 5 - 6 to display social behaviours. I have 18 in a 20g densely planted tank (they're all about 1 inch) and they're hilarious.
> 
> BTW, where's that reef tank build thread!! Let's see the toys you've collected so far!


Hey Ameek,
18 cories in a 20g,sounds like quite the party! Yeah, I' gonna run out and get 3 more dammit! (once I Get back in town) Actually, I just read somewhere that I can put quite a bit of fish as long as they're small like cories And I have decent filtration

Thanks for the encouragement on the reef build and thread. I will start one for sure. I figure I'll start once i put the drill to the glass. So far I've been just shopping around And looking for deals. Not exciting to write about. Definitely looking forward to sharing and getting your feedback .


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You should start a build thread just to get ideas  It's always good to hear other people's opinions on things you're not sure about - and even those that you are.


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## Doctor T (Apr 23, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> You should start a build thread just to get ideas  It's always good to hear other people's opinions on things you're not sure about - and even those that you are.


True. I'll at least try to get some pics going and start one in the marine section soon.


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## shark (Jan 28, 2009)

LOOK AT LINKS HOPE THEY HELP I PERSONALLY LIKE THE FIRST ONE


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