Hi
I also have a 30l tank (well, it's 32, but thwat's 2l?) in a cube shape and after stocking it badly (due to bad fish shop advice) I came here and got some good help with fish species (I should have come here first really, but not being an internet savvy person I assumed the fish shop would be OK. ERROR!), and I now have a tank stocked with fish I love, all of which haven't been mentioned here.
The fish I have are a honey gourami, otos and black phantom tetras (2 of them, they are rare among tetras in being OK in pairs it seems). These are all beautiful fish, and quite different in their shapes as well. The honey gourami is peaceful and has amazing thread like pectoral fins and the male black phantoms look like little sharks from a widescreen TV show but squeezed up into a nomrla TV screen. They're so rad! Otos are really cute little pygmy catfish with tubb little bellies (if you're feeding them properly) and they're good too. I also have a golden apple snail and a fan shrimp, which again is a weirdo shrimp and super interesting. It needs a current to feed from though. Another fish to think about (which I really really liked, but I didn't feel the colour was as good for my tank as the red of a honey gourami) is the sparkling gourami. They're small and super nice, really shiny and colourful.
As for plants there are a lot that are easy to care for and grow well. I have Ludwigia repens, Bacopa caroliniana, 2 species of Hygrophilia and java ferns (I like plants in a tank, and also the species I have are into planted tanks). Th problem I have is they all grow so fast I have to prune every fortnight to leave space for swimming! A problem I can see from the biorb is that since the water is drawn down through the gravel for filtration plants may have problems getting their roots established. You could solve this by having the plants in the pots which they come in with the spongy stuff, except they would eventually like to grow the roots out of there, and that's when the UGF might be a problem. There are plant like anubias and java fern however which have a rhizome mainly for support and anchorage rather than anything else, these would be perfect.
Anyway, I am not as expert and don't have as long in the hobby as most of the people here, but that's my experience with planting and stocking in a 30l, and I feel like I have got it pretty much right now. The aquarium seems stable now, and the fish happy, and everything's cool!
Regarding filtration I have a different filter to you, so my advice would probably be quite redundant. However, I cycled my tank using pieces of a friends ceramic mdeia and a squeeze out from his sponge and it worked out fine.
Hope it all goes well for you!
I also have a 30l tank (well, it's 32, but thwat's 2l?) in a cube shape and after stocking it badly (due to bad fish shop advice) I came here and got some good help with fish species (I should have come here first really, but not being an internet savvy person I assumed the fish shop would be OK. ERROR!), and I now have a tank stocked with fish I love, all of which haven't been mentioned here.
The fish I have are a honey gourami, otos and black phantom tetras (2 of them, they are rare among tetras in being OK in pairs it seems). These are all beautiful fish, and quite different in their shapes as well. The honey gourami is peaceful and has amazing thread like pectoral fins and the male black phantoms look like little sharks from a widescreen TV show but squeezed up into a nomrla TV screen. They're so rad! Otos are really cute little pygmy catfish with tubb little bellies (if you're feeding them properly) and they're good too. I also have a golden apple snail and a fan shrimp, which again is a weirdo shrimp and super interesting. It needs a current to feed from though. Another fish to think about (which I really really liked, but I didn't feel the colour was as good for my tank as the red of a honey gourami) is the sparkling gourami. They're small and super nice, really shiny and colourful.
As for plants there are a lot that are easy to care for and grow well. I have Ludwigia repens, Bacopa caroliniana, 2 species of Hygrophilia and java ferns (I like plants in a tank, and also the species I have are into planted tanks). Th problem I have is they all grow so fast I have to prune every fortnight to leave space for swimming! A problem I can see from the biorb is that since the water is drawn down through the gravel for filtration plants may have problems getting their roots established. You could solve this by having the plants in the pots which they come in with the spongy stuff, except they would eventually like to grow the roots out of there, and that's when the UGF might be a problem. There are plant like anubias and java fern however which have a rhizome mainly for support and anchorage rather than anything else, these would be perfect.
Anyway, I am not as expert and don't have as long in the hobby as most of the people here, but that's my experience with planting and stocking in a 30l, and I feel like I have got it pretty much right now. The aquarium seems stable now, and the fish happy, and everything's cool!
Regarding filtration I have a different filter to you, so my advice would probably be quite redundant. However, I cycled my tank using pieces of a friends ceramic mdeia and a squeeze out from his sponge and it worked out fine.
Hope it all goes well for you!
I think the shape of the tank is going to make planting a bit more awkward than it needs to be, and i will probably eventually get another filter, turn off the UGF and turn to sand. But not yet, i need to get a grasp of the very basics first lol, and i've already spent a fortune on this little tank.
