50 Gallon Aquarium Setup Help?
guys need your help, im planing to have a Planted 50 gallon (200 liters) tank and need guide from you, please advice me on my plans below.
50 gallon tank (36″x18″x21″ )
30W double florecent lamp ( enough?)
25KG of sand no. 3
16KG of custom brown soil
1 C02 injector
1 airpump
1 terta EX700 external filter
1 200W heater
im planing a planted aquarium with ofcourse plants and drifwood.
the only available plants in my area are:
athelnathera,
dwaftbacopa,
foxtail,
redludwigia
,indian fern
,water lotus,
japanese pompom,
red wave,
umbrella plant,
and im planing to add fish like,
tetra’s (neon , cardinal , panthom red & black )
danio zebra’s or guppies
clown loachers or corydoras
based on your experience what other things you can advice me ?
need your support.
Holy crap your fish will love you. I’d go with a hearty quick rooted plant that the loaches will not knock around, since they are so active and make such a ruckus. I love my clown loaches so much, they are so much fun to watch. If you’ve never had them, then don’t be alarmed by their behavior. They will sit at the bottom of the tank, on plants, on anything, they will hide, they will swim in circles, and they will do bizarre things that are considered warning signs in any other type of fish on the planet. It’s just clown loach behavior. Mine would ‘disappear’ for the longest time, or at least my little one did. I’d look all over and not find him. Then Pop! He’d appear. It took me a week to find his hiding place, but it was the driftwood that I had in the tank. He had hollowed out a hole in the driftwood and would nestle into it with just the tips of his tail sticking out. He’d also try to herd my tetra into a group and then try to get them to swim the tank with him. He’s an odd one.
Loaches will get along with anybody for the most part, but keep in mind that a happy healthy loach will get quite big, needing up to a 70 or 100 gal tank- The good news? They grow to middle size quickly (2-5 I believe), but after the growth spurt, it can take 8 to 10 years to reach full size. So you have time. Also, since you are getting live plants, snails like to hitch a ride on them. Clown loaches are notorious for their snail eating habits. (That’s why I got some, we had a huge snail problem and didn’t want to put chemicals in the tank to risk everybody’s lives, so within a week we went from close to 200 tiny snails to about 20, to one every now and then.)
Not sure on the light wattage, I’d check out what others have to say on the subject.
Here’s the best place I know of about information on aquarium life. This link is for the plants and plant care section-http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/AquariumGardenSubWebIndex.html
They are very friendly and knowledgeable and get back with you within 12 hours, (did with me at least, I was very surprised)
The lighting seems a bit low. It’s recommended that you have 1-1.5 watts per gallon for a low light planted tank. Everything else you’re adding seems good. You might want to think about buying some kind of fertilizer for better plant growth…I believe there are fertilizer tablets you can buy. You also might want to try ordering plants online. Try using this site: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196710
You get a bigger selection of plants in addition to what you can buy in your area, and you get it tank raised by people at home. You can look at pictures of the plants and read comments so you know you’re getting quality plants, at a highly discounted price. Shipping is usually only around $6 too.
Your fish selection is pretty good. If you place the sand on top of the soil, your clown loaches will stir the gravel a bit and release gas pockets created by anaerobic bacteria(water seeps into gravel, so only aerobic bacteria colonize there and you won’t have this problem with gravel). You might also want to buy some snails. They’re cheap and easy to raise. Try to stay away from snails that reproduce asexually(such as malaysian trumpet snails), they can quickly overpopulate your tank and it’s hard to remove them. You can find some snails on aquariacentral or at your local fish store. If you go with snails though, your clown loaches will eat them and you’ll have to get cory cats instead.
Good luck