20 gallon long stocking help

[DogFish79]

I am going to get a 20 gallon long FRESHWATER tank. I will have live plants, but not sure what yet. I will have driftwood. The bottom will be rocks. I haven't started cycling yet. I am getting everything from my LFS, except the tank(amazon) I was thinking maybe:
1 female guppy
2 male guppies
1 honey gourami
6 cardinal tetra
2 ivory snails
1 nerite snail
5 amano shrimp
??bottom feeders

I would love insight on bioload, overstocking, etc.

I would like my guppies to have babies, but don't have another tank. Thinking about allowing "natural selection" to happen. I would also like to hear about plant ideas.
I'd love tons of feedback, thanks!

 

[fluttermoth]

You need to find out if your water is hard or soft. If you don't know, you can find out on your supplier's website.

It is very important to keep fish in the 'right' (for them) kind of water, or they are more prone to disease and die young. Guppies are hard water fish but cardinal tetras need soft water, so they shouldn't be kept together.

If your water is suitable for guppies, you need twice as many females as males, as male guppies are sex mad, like all livebearer males! The can easy bully females to death.

 

[fish boi]

i would not go with guppies my friend got 3 of them to start off with now he has 30-50 guppys
also i would go with 2 honey gouramis

 

[DogFish79]

Ok thank you. My updated version is

2 honey gourami
8 cardinal tetra
1 nerite snail
5 amano shrimp

I have also been told i had too many snails. Do I need more shrimp?

I would like to add one other spiecies. Is that possible?

 

[Byron]

We need to know your water parameters, being the general or total hardness (GH), pH, and carbonate hardness or Alkalinity (KH). Check the website of your municipal water authority.

 

[DogFish79]

My water parameters are as follows:
1 nitrate-safe
3 hardness-hard/very hard
4 ammonia-safe
5 Kh-70ppm or moderate
6 pH-7.2

I can use water softener. (Don't have any yet)

 

[NickAu]

Hi

I can use water softener. (Don't have any yet)

There is no such thing as water softener, sure there are some products that claim they soften water but thats just nonsense, softening water is way more complex than adding xxx drops of product yyyy to zzz gallons of water.

 

[Byron]

My water parameters are as follows:
1 nitrate-safe
3 hardness-hard/very hard
4 ammonia-safe
5 Kh-70ppm or moderate
6 pH-7.2

I can use water softener. (Don't have any yet)

I assume you have your own test, perhaps strips? Are there any numbers for these "safe" results? If "safe" means zero, fine, but I suspect it doesn't. And do you have a number for the hardness?

NickAu is correct, there is no way of safely softening water by using some product. But before we worry about that, having the specific number is necessary, as you may have no need.

 

[DogFish79]

Thanks
Hardness is about 280
Nitrate is slightly over 0 ppm
How do you suggest I get softer water? How much softer does it need to be for tetra and honey gourami?

 

[Byron]

Thanks
Hardness is about 280
Nitrate is slightly over 0 ppm
How do you suggest I get softer water? How much softer does it need to be for tetra and honey gourami?

Assuming 280 is either mg/l or ppm (these are the same in effect), that equates to 15 dGH. Which is on the fairly hard side. Livebearers, most rainbowfish, Central American (not South American) fish are suited. Some others, like Pristella Tetra would work. Celestial Pearl Danio. Keep in mind that I am setting out groups of fish, not suggesting all of each will work; the tank size is limiting.

Softening water is not easy, long-term. It is relatively easy to set up the aquarium initially with softer water, but when you consider weekly partial water changes of half the tank, plus possible emergency water changes, it starts getting complex. Being able to turn the tap on for water to do an emergency water change is much simpler than having to prepare a mix.

As for how to soften hard water, the safest and simplest method is diluting it with some form of pure water. Rainwater (if your area is safe for collecting and you use tubs, not roof runoff), distilled water and RO (reverse osmosis) are pure water for our purposes. Mixing is proportional, so if you mix half pure and half tap water, the result will be half the GH of the tap water. But it is still much simpler to go with fish suited to the source water.