Stocking 42 gallon community tank

[jacoste]

While I wait impatiently for my quarantine tank to finish a fishless cycle (learnt the hard way how important quarantining can be) I've been trying to decide how to stock my main tank. Specs are as follows:

160 litres (about 42 US gallons)
36" x 15" x 18"
Heater: Aqua One 150w
Filtration: Aqua One Maxi 103f internal filter (am considering adding/upgrading to a HOB, any thoughts on that would be appreciated)
Airstone: air wand along the back of the tank
Lights: 2x 30w fluorescent tubes
Driftwood, rocks, small gravel substrate
Plants - currently 1 amazon sword and 3 crypts but will be getting more soon hopefully
Tank is cycled and stable at 0 ammonia 0 nitrites 5-10 nitrates, however I've discovered there is a small amount of ammonia in the tap water here (0.5ppm) so water changes are frequent (twice a week) but smaller amounts (about 20L)

I currently have 8 black neon tetras in the tank. I was thinking of adding a few more to make a school of 10 or so. With that I wanted to have another school of tetras of about the same size (am leaning towards rummynose tetras but any other suggestions are welcome), some bottom dwellers, probably corys, and a larger centrepiece fish.

So to summarise:
8-10 black neon tetras
8-10 rummynose tetras
6 (or more?) corys (not sure what type, suggestions?)
1 larger fish

For the centrepiece fish I was thinking something colourful, maybe a gourami. I liked the look of the opaline gouramis at the lfs but I'm not sure if they would be compatible with the other fish/too large for the tank etc. Again, any suggestions would be great.

So is this stocking possible for my tank? Fewer fish? More fish even (looking hopeful) :18: ?

[Sharon]

The Opaline, or an Angel would be fine ....

[Kaz]

Alright, basically you've got 2 options:

get 10 black neons and 10 rummy nose tetras
then get 10 pygmy cories
and top it off with a small gourami or GBR

or

10 blacks and 8 rummy nose tetras
4 bronzeback/Albino cories (the most common type)
then a small gourami or GBR


I incuded GBRs because they're pretty cool and also work well as a small centerpiece.

Basically it comes down to whether you want the fish you selected in addition to lots small cories that swim low to middle, or if you want a few big cories that always swim/rest on the bottom. Both have their advantages, personally I would go with the bigger cories because they are much different then the other fish in the tank.

I'm not sure if rummies go well with GBRs or Gouramis or if they fin-nip at all but otherwise it looks good. The stocking amount is actually a little low because black neons leave such a small bioload.

[jacoste]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Everything I've read about rummynose tetras suggests that they're really peaceful - no mention of fin nipping - so that shouldn't be a problem.

I didn't know that bronze corys had different swimming patterns than other smaller corys. Would 4 be enough though, I thought they liked groups of 6 or more?

I'm not really a big fan of GBRs. I think I'm definitely going to go with a gourami of some kind. Do you think the opaline would be too large given the rest of the stocking. Would a dwarf variety be more suited?

So I'm thinking:
10 black neon tetras
10 rummynose tetras
4 (possibly up to 6?) bronze corys
1 gourami (opaline or a dwarf variety?)

[Kaz]

Bronzebacks aren't the weird ones, it's the pygmy cories that swim differently than normal cories. pygmy cories school and sometimes swim in the middle levels of the tank. basically they act simular to tetras. Because you already have two types of tetras, I thought you would like a change of pace.

And bronzebacks only need groups of 3, Again It's pygmies that need 6.

I can understand not wanting GBRs I was just throwing it out there.

I know very little about Gouramis so I can't help you here. However if the gourami you're thinking about is bigger than 4 inches you should reconsider.

Looks like you have a good stocking choice picked out, I would only have 4 cories though, no more. Too much of a bio load, especially with those 2 extra rummy noses.

Once more, one or more of the things I have said may be wrong so make sure to double check.

[troy]

IME pygmy corys will occasionally swim in the middle levels of the tank. If you could find them I would suggest pygmy corys because you can have a lot more in a tank than bronze corys. IMO you could have 6-8 bronze or 12-18 pygmy corys taken in account that is a 42g tank.

[Kaz]

I was just saying that since most of the fish in the tank would be middle swimming 1-2 inch fish, a 3 inch bottom swimmer would be nice.

Also you could probably fit more bronzebacks I was just being careful about not overloading.

[jacoste]

Thanks guys.

The opaline gourami gets around 5 or 6 inches so probably a little too large. Will have to save that for another tank sometime in the future; an Asian Biotope maybe. lol Can feel a case of mts coming on :ssmile:

I like the idea of a cory that will spend most of its time on the bottom and the pygmys don't seem to be very common around here (never come across any) so I think I'll go with the bronze.

How does this look?
10 black neon tetras
8 rummynose tetras
5 bronze corys
1 dwarf gourami

Was going for symmetry before with 10 each of the tetras but the rummynoses do get a little bigger than the black neons so the schools should look about the same size.

[Kaz]

It all looks good but I have 4 questions.

Are you using US or UK gallons?

What is the wattage on the light?

How often will you do a water exchange?

how many gallons is your filter suitable for?

With these questions we can determine the bioload rather than just guessing.
And if you really want the gourami you can take out one of the cories which would probably lift enough biological strain off the aquarium for a few extra inches.

[jacoste]

US Gallons (160 litres = 42 US Gallons)

The light fixture has 2 fluorecent tubes each at 30 watts. I'm not sure specifically what type of lights they are (spectrum etc.) but one has a purple tinge the other green and together the light is white.

I found out when starting the fishless cycle on the quarantine tank that our tap water here has 0.5ppm ammonia so I've switched to doing water changes twice a week about 20 litres (12.5%) to reduce the amount of ammonia I'm adding to the tank - testing after water changes shows ammonia just registering but still under 0.25ppm.

The filter came with the tank. I'm not sure what it's rated for but it claims a 1200 litres per hour flow rate (not the same thing I know). As I said in my original post I'm seriously considering upgrading the filter before adding any more fish. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[Sharon]

If you really want the Opaline Gourami, I still think it's fine. What's the tank measurements? Gouramis are not fast moving fish....

[jacoste]

36L x 15W x 18H

[Sharon]

IMO, that's fine for an Opaline. They are lovely fish!:ssmile:

[jacoste]

Thanks again guys.

So now I'm thinking:
10 black neon tetras
8 rummynose tetras
4 bronze corys
1 opaline gourami

[Sharon]

Sounds perfect to me...add the Gourami last.:ssmile:

[Lady Hobbs]

I have been wanting a 42 gallon myself. I want my blood parrots and some rummynose in mine.

[jacoste]

Now I just have to wait for the quarantine tank to finish cycling (patience is not one of my virtues)

[Kaz]

Sorry, I was about to post before and my computer died on me.

Alright, the light you have is technically in the low-lighting range (crazy, I know).

I'm not sure about the whole colour spectum thing but I'm sure someone cane tell you.

So you now have 2 options when it comes to plants:

a) you invest in plants with low-lighting requirements such as swords, anubias, java ferns and java moss

b) you get a better light. This option could be more preferable as you would be able to get other plants, you extra cash you're willing to spend on equipment and I'm pretty sure your light is not in the right colour spectrum.

So my advice would be to replace the light rather than the filter. Although if you don't want to do that, low light plants will still work fine in there.

Also, How much money did you spend on the whole thing.

Also also, LEARN PATIENCE,DAMMMIT! LEARN IT QUICKLY!

[jacoste]

I figured to lighting was technically low light although it looks bright enough from where I'm standing. I did have some high-light plants in there for a while and they were growing like crazy though (Rotala I think). The light fixture is the single most expensive thing in my setup but maybe just switching out the tubes won't be that costly, I'll have to look into that. In any case, I quite like the low-light plants so I might go with mostly them anyway. Particularly if I can find something tall for the back of the tank. Also I think I read somewhere that the tetras are supposed to look their best in low, dappled light.

[Taurus]

Also , LEARN PATIENCE,DAMMMIT! LEARN IT QUICKLY!

This is the best piece of advice your could offer! :22:

[Taurus]

The filter came with the tank. I'm not sure what it's rated for but it claims a 1200 litres per hour flow rate (not the same thing I know). As I said in my original post I'm seriously considering upgrading the filter before adding any more fish. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I'm not a big fan of internal filters. I would recommend an Aquaclear 70 and\or
Penn Plax Cascade 700 Canister Filter.

Penn Plax 700 Canister filter $69.99 plus shipping at Big Al's. AC70 at Big Al's $53.99.

For an extra $16.00, I'd definately go with the canister. I would make the canister biofilteration only. AC50 at Big Al's is $39.99. Make the HOB a mecahnical fiter only. So for $110.00, you could have a superior filtration system that would last for a very long time, with little maintainance.

If you're going to pick just one, go with the PP 700. Fill the first basket with polyester fiber fill (pillow stuffing) from Wally World for very little money. Fill the second basket with ceramic cylinders or other forms of biomedia that you never have to replace for el-cheapo operating expenses.

HTH :22:

[Amazon]

Besides the gouramis you might want to research the Boesman's rainbowfish, or my favorite the New guinea rainbowfish, they get pretty large like about 6in. but they would do fine in your tank.

Good luck
James

[Kaz]

Did you buy the pieces of your aquarium individually?

And what was the total cost of every thing in aquarium excluding the living things and decorations?

Personally I think it's good but of course some people don't. I wouldn't worry about the light too much especially if it did cost a lot of money, just buy more low light plants.

I have a 29 gallon with 20 watts of light and before I knew the actual watts I assumed it was either in the 'Bright' or 'very bright' category.

Two more questions:

Where do you buy your fish?

How did your plants grow? Did they get bigger leaves or get taller.

[jacoste]

Kaz -
Most pieces were bought individually.

There are two pet stores that carry fish close to me (about a 20min walk away). One's a lfs the others a chain store but it's pretty good (even better than the lfs in some ways), the tanks are clean and the staff pretty knowledgeable. Neither have much in the way of plants but there's an online company based near here that has a large range.

Taurus -
I'm located in Australia so I don't think Big Al's will ship to me (they don't even ship to Alaska so I think I'm way off their map). Canister filters are quite expensive here (at least $100). I might be able to swing that but I don't think I could afford to combine it with a HOB as well (anything rated for my size tank is almost as pricey as the canister) at least not right away.

hmmm I think I'll have to take a walk down to the lfs now and check out some prices.

[Kaz]

Close, but you missed a question.

Did the leaves on your plant get bigger, did the plant get taller or did the plant grow more leaves?

[jacoste]

Taller and more leaves. Don't know if the leaves got bigger, not noticeably so anyway.

I think I'm just going to go with low light plants with this tank. I checked out the lights at the lfs and I couldn't find any with more than 30 watts and they were about $30 a tube anyway.

When I've finished stocking the 42 gallon I'm planning to set up a 10 gallon planted for a betta so I'll look into getting high level lighting for that.

A few other things arising from my quick trip down the road...

The HOB and canister filters they have in store are hideously expensive ($200 for the canister, yikes!) so I'm going to have a look at a few online places. I'll start another thread when I've worked out some options to get everyones opinions.

Also, I've been reading alot about opaline gouramis and am a little concerned about how aggressive it might be towards its tankmates. Does anyone have any experience with how well an opaline would get along with my planned stocking? From the looks of things the stores around here stock both males and females. So would a female be less aggressive than a male and therefore a better option?

[Kaz]

I'd just stick with your current filter.

Aurggh! An ebay page has 2 minutes before it closes It's entry on 99 cent 6" by 6" thing of java moss And I can't bid for 10 minutes!