20l Cycling - What's Next?

[d2thomas]

Well the anwser is simple - stocking it.

First I would like to tell you all about how I aquired this tank. A local pet store used this to sell fish and when they got a new set-up, this one stayed in back for a few months not being used. For a measly 5 bucks I got a 20L aquarium, lighted hood, heater, filter, and the background. After hours and hours of scrubbing, I added some sweet blue rocks, a bubblewall and some other things. Now I was ready to begin the cycle.

I would like to do a colorful community tank [as this tank is in my office and will provide hours upon hours of procrastination]. I was thinking of adding some platys, gourami's, swordtails and tetras. These are all idea's of course, but what is everyones opinion on it? The tank is a 20 gallon long that [as you can see in the picture] is lightly planted [I've added a few more since that picture] with a teracotta cave. I know that age old questimate of 1 inch of fish per gallon is not an ideal figure. So how many and what types should I do? I really want to start with platys so if anyone has a suggestions that include them, please start there. I also know that a pleco would outgrow this tank like WHOA so what's another good alternative for a scavenger/algae eater? Thanks for the input!

 

[dwarfgourami]

I would choose either platies or swordtails, to give space for something else. Platies probably better. Either 1 male+ 2-3 females (expect fry!) or a group of females (you may still get fry. Then either a school of 6-8 tetras- black neons, for instance, or a trio of honey gouramis (1 male, 2 females). This would still leave room for a bristlenose plec or a clown plec, or a group of 3+some amano shrimps.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Well the anwser is simple - stocking it.

First I would like to tell you all about how I aquired this tank. A local pet store used this to sell fish and when they got a new set-up, this one stayed in back for a few months not being used. For a measly 5 bucks I got a 20L aquarium, lighted hood, heater, filter, and the background. After hours and hours of scrubbing, I added some sweet blue rocks, a bubblewall and some other things. Now I was ready to begin the cycle.

I would like to do a colorful community tank [as this tank is in my office and will provide hours upon hours of procrastination]. I was thinking of adding some platys, gourami's, swordtails and tetras. These are all idea's of course, but what is everyones opinion on it? The tank is a 20 gallon long that [as you can see in the picture] is lightly planted [I've added a few more since that picture] with a teracotta cave. I know that age old questimate of 1 inch of fish per gallon is not an ideal figure. So how many and what types should I do? I really want to start with platys so if anyone has a suggestions that include them, please start there. I also know that a pleco would outgrow this tank like WHOA so what's another good alternative for a scavenger/algae eater? Thanks for the input!

Is it a 20gal or a 20litre? The title says its a 20l but you mention that its gallons, so which one is it? What is the tanks dimensions?

 

[dabaers]

Original post says 20 gallon Long, that's a 20 gallon long usually written as a 20L, verses just a 20 in the US.
Some folks must forget that those in the forums aren't all from US and don't all use gallons

Kath

Is it a 20gal or a 20litre? The title says its a 20l but you mention that its gallons, so which one is it? What is the tanks dimensions?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Original post says 20 gallon Long, that's a 20 gallon long usually written as a 20L, verses just a 20 in the US.
Some folks must forget that those in the forums aren't all from US and don't all use gallons

Kath

Is it a 20gal or a 20litre? The title says its a 20l but you mention that its gallons, so which one is it? What is the tanks dimensions?

For future referance it will probably be best that you type your tank as a 20gal and not 20l as most people view "20l" as short for "20litre".

With scavenging or algae eating fish, they are generally unnesarsary if you are buying them for these characteristics- scavenging fish will not survive off scavenging alone in an aquarium and will not clean the tank of waste, only fresh uneaten food. If there's no algae in the tank, there is little point in getting an algae eater.
With both algae eating and scavenging fish, you will need to substitute their diet with their own types of suitable foods as well.

The tank's substrate appears to be rough blue gravel, which is not very suitable for corys, which are some of the most popular scavenging fish, so i would not advise these unless you plan to change the substrate to something like fine sand.
Oto's make ideal effective algae eaters which are good for many smaller tanks due to their small size and peaceful nature, however they do best in tanks of at least 5-6months mature due to being rather sensitive fish.

With the other stocking options of your tank, you say you would like colorful community fish, but do you want ones that shoal together (like tetra's) or ones that are sociable but don't spend an aweful lot of their time together?