What should i do with the 33g tank???

[squirt_12]

well honestly...i don't really like how the 33g looks right now. I like the big rock pile on the right of the tank. but i don't like the whole left side of the tank. and i can't figure out what i should do....so i am asking you guys what i should do with the tank. I will give you all of the info and you can suggest what i should do.

tank size 33g - 36" x 12.5" x 18.5" (length x width x height)
every 3 days - weekly 25-50% water changes/gravel vac. (i don't always gravel vac everywhere)
filtration - whisper rated for a 30-40gallon tank (will be upgrading soon/and or adding another one)
temp always at 80F (i can change if needed)
lighting - 2 x 23 watt 6400k bulbs [Only Registered Users Can See Links.] something like that. is that good for plants??? or no???
gravel and such can be seen from pic....you can give suggestions on what kind of gravel or sand i should get if you want to.

fish: i know that i am way overstocked but bear with me.....i do alot of water changes and i do not overfeed. Also...some of the schooling fish had enough to school but some of them died through the years.
10 glowlight tetras
2 cherry barbs
1 scissor tail rasbora
3 bronze cories
2 pencil fish
2 opaline gouramis
1 kissing gourami
1 loach (unknown kind...small)
3 black skirt tetras
2 male guppies
5 females swordtails (2 are fry)
1 common pleco (trading in tomorrow for clown pleco and buying 3 more clown plecos for a total of 4 clown plecos)

also...i am planning on getting some clay pots for the tank...about 2-5 of them. So keep that in mind. I don't have to have all of the big stacks of rocks in there. I would LOVE to have some live plants in there but can never seem to keep the right kinds alive...and kinds that would stay alve in there?? i can and will use CO2 and ferts if i have to. Also...all of the plants in there now...i can move around.

thanks.

P.S.
the picture of the tank is black and you can photoshop if you would like to show what you think.

thanks.

EDIT- tomorrow i think i am going to go and get a background aswell.

[Dave66]

You do know, squirt, how large some of the fish you have in that 33 will get? That Rasbora tops out at 8 inches, and the kisser slows down after 10 inches but tops out at a foot. Might want to add those two with the pleco for the trade in. The black skirts grow to 3 inches and fade to an ashy grey and can be fairly aggressive when they are adults.
On the plus side, you could add a few cherry barbs to your two for a little group of five or six.

Dave

[squirt_12]

i knew that the rasbora an the kissing gourami got big.....i am thinking of getting a few more cherry barbs but my tank is way overstocked now that i thought i shouldn't.

ALSO.....i really want some suggestions on what i should do with the tank?? as in with re-decorating it (can't remember the fancy word). I really want to aquascape it (there is the word. lol) so what do you suggest??

[Tolley]

If your parents would let you get some sand that'd be awesome also maybe some big fake plants at the back corners?

[squirt_12]

If your parents would let you get some sand that'd be awesome also maybe some big fake plants at the back corners?
what colour of sand??? dark substrate????



What kind of look should i go for???


YOU WON!!!! PM me for some points

[Tolley]

I think a natural look would be good with your rocks. Maybe jus plain sand, Your nice rock piles and some realistic fake plants

[squirt_12]

are my lights any good for any type of Live Plant?????

[Tolley]

sorry dunno anything about lighting... All my tanks are low light.
A large anubius would look good, maybe a few java ferns, hornwort and anacharis.

[Fishalicious]

Ok I'll give it a go with a suggestion...

I have picked all easy - lower light plants which are brilliant for starting with.. once you get more confident with plants you can swap some around for more advanced plants - no CO2 is needed wth these plants either but feel free to make your own home-made CO2 with yeast and a few coke bottles.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

1. Wood with Microsorium pteropus 1x en Anubias nana 2x
2. Egeria najas 1x
3. Nomaphila siamensis 1x
4. Cabomba aquatica 1x
5. Wood with Microsorium pteropus 1x en Anubias nana 1x
6. Cryptocoryne tropica 4x
7. Cryptocoryne moehlmanni 1x
8. Cryptocoryne walkeri 2x

There are gap for plant pots for the pleco's

(not mentioning the stocking as you are just asking for aquascapes)

[squirt_12]

fishalicious......is my lighting good for those type of plants???

[Fishalicious]

These are all super easy plants that do not need loads of lighting so you are definately ok with these....

Add some seachem flourish tabs to the roots of the plants when planting and your are ready to rock 'n ' roll...

It is just a suggestion... sure other folks will have other or more ideas...

[squirt_12]

These are all super easy plants that do not need loads of lighting so you are definately ok with these....

Add some seachem flourish tabs to the roots of the plants when planting and your are ready to rock 'n ' roll...

It is just a suggestion... sure other folks will have other or more ideas...
well i really like your idea...and it will be really easy to get.....and i also wanted to get a bunch of drift wood aswell (i am guessing that would be the type of wood i would need???) that is cool cause i have a crypts all ready. The one i have is small...brownish with crinkle leaves. It is in the 10g so i could move it into the 33g.

would these beable to live in sand substrate??? or should i use gravel??

[Fishalicious]

yeah driftwood is nicest for plants grown on them...

Plants will grow in both gravel or sand... so that is completely your own taste what you prefer...

The black backing is a fab idea as well... will make the plants look a lot better too.

[squirt_12]

hhhhmmmmmmmhmmmmmmm.......you really have my mind thinking....i am excited now....i really like the setup that you have and then the pots sort of buried in the (wanting it to be sand) substrate would look awesome.

one question.....i thought that the plants would sufficate in the sand???? or is that not true??

[Tolley]

all my plants are in sand and mine never have :D

[squirt_12]

also...would it matter that my pH is a little high....around 7?? or should i lower it??

[Tolley]

I always think a steady ph is better so i should leave it.

[Fishalicious]

PH of 7 is super - nice and neutral and the plants will like it :) They usually just don't like very high or low PH's

Most of my tanks are sand and there is no stopping the plants... just make sure you get good quality sand with equal size grains - filtersand from the swimming pool stores is the best and you can just throw it in without washing etc.

Really happy you like the idea - I am getting excited with you LOL

[squirt_12]

PH of 7 is super - nice and neutral and the plants will like it :) They usually just don't like very high or low PH's

Most of my tanks are sand and there is no stopping the plants... just make sure you get good quality sand with equal size grains - filtersand from the swimming pool stores is the best and you can just throw it in without washing etc.
ok i think that i will try to talk my parents into letting me get some sand for the tank. I am going into town tomorrow to go to my LFS so i think after i am there or before i will try to talk my mom into letting me switch to sand....man i hope she lets me.

what kind of sand should i get?? if i do??? like colour wise??? i heard that a darker colour is better for the glowlights???

[Tolley]

cool Jess never new tht, all my tanks steady at 7. so thats cool

[squirt_12]

what kind of sand should i go for?? if i can get the sand??? which i think i will beable to get. what colour??? i know that i should use pool filter sand.

thanks.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Silica sand is nice. I like a natural greyish yellowish color.

Also, I thought E. najas was a high light plant....

[Fishalicious]

I'm all for the poolsand... very natural looking...

Egeria najas is a good plant for beginners, and its rapid growth helps create a balance in the aquarium from the start. It can also help prevent algae because it absorbs a great number of nutrients from the water. The plant secretes antibiotic substances which can help prevent blue-green algae (a type of bacteria). The growth rate depends largely on the amount of light and nutrition available. Growth does not stop in unfavourable conditions, but the plant turns light in color and the tendrils grow thin.

It grows in any light - honestly and is a super plant to have as you can read above... I have it in low and even very low light tanks with no problems

[Incredulous_Ed]

The plant secretes antibiotic substances which can help prevent blue-green algae (a type of bacteria).
What?! why didnt anyone tell me this before? I'm off to get myself some e najas.

[Fishalicious]

Hahahahaha having a blue green algae problem I take it?? Catappa leaves are also great for it... if you are taking the natural route

[Lady Hobbs]

34 fish in a 33 gallon tank.


argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, if you follow the "-G rule you should have 33 1" fish. lol. better decrease the stock.

[Fishalicious]

What are you doing with the fish during the whole re-scape actually?

Remember a lot of valubale bacteria are stored in the gravel you have now and if you have the filter off for longer than 2 hours the bacteria will also decline... seeing you are overstocked you really don't want to lose lot's of bacteria which may add up to fish loss.

I think he knows he is waaaaaay overstocked .. sure he will work on it .. right? :thumb:

[Lady Hobbs]

lol, if you follow the "-G rule you should have 33 1" fish. lol. better decrease the stock.

More like 20.

[slinky]

Sort of like Beijing for fish... I'm not sure they understand the concept of city living...

[squirt_12]

i know that i am WAY overstocked. I kow that i need to downsize. So if i were to switch to sand it would probably kill all of my fish??

[cocoa_pleco]

as long as you have a good seeded filter you will be fine

[squirt_12]

ok.....so if this was you.....what fish would you take out of the tank:
10 glowlight tetras
2 cherry barbs
1 scissor tail rasbora
3 bronze cories
2 pencil fish
2 opaline gouramis
1 kissing gourami
1 loach (unknown kind...small)
3 black skirt tetras
2 male guppies
5 females swordtails (2 are fry)
i really want to make this new setup that Fishalicious has provided to me.

[Lady Hobbs]

You will definately have a set back in your cycle. You are removing a lot of bacteria when you remove the gravel. I just got over it with two of my tanks. But with that amount of fish, you will definately have a set back.

Sorry cocoa......been there/done that more than once.

[squirt_12]

You will definately have a set back in your cycle. You are removing a lot of bacteria when you remove the gravel. I just got over it with two of my tanks. But with that amount of fish, you will definately have a set back.
ok...so after i get your guys opinions about the fish.....should i just do like say half the tank at a time??? and let the sand gather some bacteria???

[Lady Hobbs]

Too hard to do it that way and it gets mixed up. You need to do it all at once but make sure you have a good dirty filter first.

[squirt_12]

Too hard to do it that way and it gets mixed up. You need to do it all at once but make sure you have a good dirty filter first.
well what fish do you think i should sell???

the black skirts
loach
corys
guppies
?????????????????????????????????

EDIT - i don't want to sell the glowlights, pencil fish (have only seen them once so i grabed them), swordtails, cherry barbs. I don't want to sell those as i love their colours. But the others i can fight the courage to sell. I really don't want to but i will inorder to make my tank nice.

[Lady Hobbs]

Personally, I don't like a whole big assortment of fish but large schools of one or two kind. You just have to decide which fish you want the most and then consider which of the others you can live without or will get too large for your tank.

Loaches are social fish and like several of their own, black skirts like large schools and most likely will not school with your others, rasbora's like to also be in large groups as well as guppies. Those are the ones I would get rid of if it was me. I would ask for a store credit and get some bio-spira or Seachems Stability to get that tank reseeded when you change the substrate and don't buy more fish for it.

Just my 2 cents.

[squirt_12]

i really appriciate it hobbs.

I hope that my mom will understand this and let me sell them. If i can i will sell:
the corys
loach
black skirts
guppies
rasbora
kissing gourami
opaline gourami

But the thing is.....i really like all of the other fish that i have....i think that the pencil fish will die here soon.....they have way outlived what all of the sites say they live for and i just recently lost one due to old age. So i think that i did pretty good with them.
I really like the swordtails as they have lots of colour to them. I also LOVE the glowlights and they have anice school so i don't want to break that up. The cherry barbs i really like cause of their colour and i know that they should be in a bigger group.
But i can live without the gouramis They just sit up and hide in the corner the whole time.

Why would i have to buy some bio-spira or Seachems Stability???? couldn't i just wait a while and then change to sand??? what would that stuff do for me???? AND i have never seen it at any of my LFS's.

thanks for your input hobbs.....i need someone to tell me whats what.

[Lady Hobbs]

The gourami's get big so those are good ones to go, too.

You will always have a nicer tank if you keep a good school for the center, bottom feeders in a group and top swimmers so you have your 3 levels of fish that don't interfer with others.

When you decide to switch over to sand, you should probably add a bacteria booster to make sure you don't get a set back. Maybe you will get a set back and maybe you won't but a bac booster will insure you have a safe setback if you do get one.

I just switched over two more tanks to sand and was doing those darned water changes every other day.

[squirt_12]

Hobbs....you really have no idea how much i am thanking you right now.....if you hadn't steped in, and the other who told me i was way overstocked and i should do something before i add sand as it may kill the fish, i probably would have just went and got sand and stuff and switched over and woke up the next morning and found all of my fish dead.

So do you think that the fish i have said are good to sell??? do you think that i should sell anymore??? The LFS i am taking them to really likes me (haha i work there part time. lol.) so they will give me store credit...hopefully. lol.
If i sell the fish that i have chosen...that will put me at: 21 fish. But i am going to be getting 3 more in the future as i am going to be having 4 clown plecos in total.

thanks so much Hobbs.

any more suggestions and or comments????? they would be appriciated...and i wont get mad at you whatever the suggestion or comment is.
thanks so much....your a life saver.

[squirt_12]

so are the fish i chose fine??? or should i sell more than that???

[!!!]

feel free to make your own home-made CO2 with yeast and a few coke bottles.can u plz go into more detail on this one? ...would liek to give it a try

[squirt_12]

can u plz go into more detail on this one? ...would liek to give it a try
there you go: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
alot of people use it and it works great.