Hi i am looking at getting a new tank that will hold 35 gallons (uk). I currently have a a 10 gal (uk) with the following in it:

2 - Zebra Danio's
4 - Neon Tetras
4 - Plattys
2 - Serpae Tetra's
2 - Lemon Tetra's
2 - Mollies
1 - Clown Loach

I was wondering how i could turn the larger one into a colony tank. I was thinking about getting some shrimp's. Also what filter would you recommend? And also gravel/sand/substrate?? Lastly how many fish could i hold? about 35-40 small? 20 small? 5 big? etc!!

I also want to use plants quite alot of them with large stones and wood.

Cheers in Advance

Tupps

P.S. i am also if needed going to keep the small one going if i cant add some of these fish to the larger tank!! but i would prefer to use it to store the water for any water changes that are required!!

This post has been edited by Tuppers: Aug 27 2006, 01:02 PM

ke???

hi been looking into this new tank, i am looking at the EHIEM 2012 internal filter for it with a 300w heater, will that be sufficient? with it being so large would a power filter be an idea? just to help the flow rate?

Tupps

Isn't the eheim a power filter anyway?

BTW, I'd move all your current fish to that bigger tank as the 10 gallon is extraordinarily over-stocked at the moment.

Also, remember to mvoe all your filter media and gravel from the current tank to the new one at the same time as you mvoe the fish. if you don't want the old gravel to mix with your new substrate, just put it in a glass bowl or ceramic pot and put it in the tank like that. The diea is to move all your good bacteria to the new tank so that the fish don't need to survive through a re-cycle (which the majority would probably not survive through)

Your clown laoch will outgrow even the larger tank eventualy. I'd sugegst re-homing it now while you can still find it a home or give it to your LFS. They also need to be in groups so keeping one alone realy isn't fair but knowingly buying another is equaly unfair.

The rest of your fish, except the mollies and platies, would benefit from being in larger groups. Once you've got at least a couple more of each, you can consider some other fish. You'll probably want something to replace the loach as a bottom feeder. A small group of cory cats or dwarf chained loaches would be great for that. I'd also add something specificaly for the upper layers - maybe a trio of honey gouramies ( 1 male, 2 females). You then would be pretty much fully stocked but could fit in maybe a pair of rams or a trio (1 male, 2 females) of cherry barbs.

thanks for the reply thats why i am getting a larger tank!! the fish need it!!!

about the gravel/substrate which would you recommend?? Also i mean a power head sorry to push the water around some more?

I am looking into getting a larger tank that will be around 70 gals(uk) will that be big enough for a coupe of clown loaches??

Cheers

Tupps

This post has been edited by Tuppers: Aug 28 2006, 08:59 AM

bump!!

still looking into this!! the partr i am strggling with is the gravel to help the plants grow!! can anyone help?

Also lighting if my tank is 18" deep and i want gravel with plants how much wattage would i require?

Tupps

depends what plants your after but I'd recommend sand for your substrate. I've found gravel crushes the roots and stops the plants from flourishing, after changing my gravel tanks over to sand my plants have really taken off.

to work out your stocking it's 1 inch per gallon, so find out the adult sizes of teh fish you want to keep in inches, add it all up and it should equal roughly the same as the number of (US) gallon's your tank holds.

for the clown loaches, they get to 12" and you really need to keep a group of about 6. I think in a 70g you could maybe manage a group but that'd be all you could have in the tank personally I'd just re-home the one you have.