First time aquarium owner, hoping to avoid mistakes of inexperience

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Damon-Alter

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Hi Everyone

I've recently started my first (not counting goldfish as a kid) freshwater aquarium (127L/33.5G - 80x38x51 L-D-H) which I had running for a few days shy of a month before adding fish. The tank has an inbuilt drip bar filter, for which I've added Matrix all the way along which has been there since the tank has been running. It still has the carbon cartridges that came with the tank, however I will replace these in the near future with bagged activated carbon beneath the sponges. It seems I've made the mistake of cycling incorrectly as I had been relying on Seachem's Prime and Stability (dosing per instructions) to do the work + pet store instructions + inadequate research without having a proper appreciation of the nitrogen cycle (helpfully included on this site!). Nevertheless, I've since stocked the tank (one week ago) with:
  • x7 Diamond Tetras
  • x1 Kribensis (a mate for him would be nice, but all the articles on heightened aggression during breeding seems unfeasible to accommodate in a community tank)
There's also some planted crypts and hair grass (4 bunches of each) and some dragon rocks.

Testing shows no detectable nitrite and approximately ~20ppm nitrate. Water conditions measure as hard - around 7-8, although apparently this is normal for our water and is the same used at the pet stores in my area. pH is about 6.4-6.8, and I'm running a heated temperature of 26 degrees C/78.8F. I'm thinking now that fish are in the tank, will it be best to continue cycling without adding additional fish for 1 - 2 weeks?

Lastly, future stocking - I was hoping to add the following fish:
  • 2-3 Dwarf Gourami (apparently they prefer upper/middle layers which I hoped would prevent conflict with the Kribensis who has only been peaceful so far)
  • 6 Kuhli Loaches
I would be happy to leave the tank at that as I don't want to overstock. However, if you believe that combination could healthily support additional fish, I would add additional Kuhli Loaches or Diamond Tetras, or a different species entirely if the remaining capacity is significant. I've seen the rule about an inch of fish per gallon, however this doesn't seem to take into account the behaviours and needs of different species, so I wanted to see if these combinations and numbers sound ok.

If anyone reads this far and chooses to respond I'd greatly appreciate it because if I've made/am making any mistakes I'd prefer to know the truth. Sorry if I've left anything important out, I've tried to be comprehensive.

Thank you!
 
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Welcome.
You’ll read on here countless times when you do a search (old threads on here are a mine of information) that Dwarf Gouramis the world over have serious health issues due to over/in/line breeding. It’s crossed them off my wish list.
Many suggest Honey Gouramis as a possibility substitute though I don’t know how well they’d get on with Kribensi. Just about everyone on here is more knowledgeable than me, I’m just repeating the general consensus.
Amongst which is that seriouslyfish.com is the internet’s best source of knowledge on individual fish. Ignore it’s complicated search function bit and simply put the fish name into the general search function then click on it.
Have fun.
 
I'm new to all this myself, so i'm not sure how helpful all this will be, but I've been planning out my own very similarly sized tank for a while now, and some of the advice given to me seems applicable in this instance.
Mainly, i've been recommended against keeping gourami and cichlids in the same tank together due to aggression and territorial issues. (I know, i was devastated as well :S ), though as you dont have a breeding pair, it may not be as bad.. you'll need someone else to chime in on that one. And as mentioned above, it seems that dwarf gourami has a penchant for health issues..
Sorry to be a bit of a downer in that regard :( from my limited experience, the rest seems ok, though you'll probably need an expert opinion on the Kuhli loach as i have little knowledge of them (if they seem good, i may have to steal the idea for my own tank!).

Also for stocking, while not perfect by any means, Aqadvisor is a website that gives a reasonable estimate of stocking levels. Just input the tank dimensions, any additional extras, then add the fish you have/want and it will give you an estimated stocking percentage, as well as approximate PH, temperature values for those species to coexist. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's good to get a rough estimate. :) It doesnt seem to use inch/gallon or any other common measurement, but its own algorithm that seems to take species nature into account somewhat.
 
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What substrate do you have? Kuhli loaches really need a soft sand substrate. Some people do keep them on gravel and say that it's fine, but kuhli loaches have soft bodies without a lot of protective scales, and they love to bury themselves in sand... fish shop workers hate having to catch them to bag them up because they're so fast and will bury themselves ;)

Need to be very careful about selecting bottom dwellers based on your substrate, since species like cories also filter feed, so need a fine sand too. Otocinclus seem to be okay on gravel (mine are) since most of the time they're suckered to the glass or plants, and have bony armour plating, and they don't dig through the substrate for food.
 
Thanks so much for the suggestions and welcome - admittedly I've come across the inbreeding issue on several sites although seen just as many willing to recommend them or not bringing up the issue at all. That's disappointing from both tank building and fish welfare perspectives but it it's better to hear the truth. Gouramis were my choice because of a lot of practical reasons, although I'd started out hoping to add Bolivian Rams (and before that - German, which seemingly have the same issues as Gouramis), there was just too much of a risk of them clashing with the Kribensis. Anyway, I'd rather my fish be happy than make them stressed to fit my plans.

Don't worry about being a downer, I appreciate the honesty and advice! I tried the Aqadvisor, although the domain seems to be... gone (http://www.aqadvisor.com/)? I might have tried the wrong thing. That said, I did find a community creator tool here (https://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/community-creator) which I presume is similar - it suggests I still have almost 75% capacity remaining with my current tetra/kribensis stock.

The substrate I am using is Flourite Black Sand (kind of got on the Seachem wagon..) which largely sold me on it supposedly being a standalone substrate for plant growth. Time will tell on that one I suppose. I was originally planning on getting a Pleco (Bristlenose) as well, since they don't get so massive but then also read that they make more mess than they clean. I sort of want to get Kuhli Loaches sooner rather than later, however I was advised at what is probably the most reputable pet store in my area to let my tank mature for a while because of their sensitivity so I think I might wait a few more weeks.

Also I'll try to make sure I read through the posts here more before asking questions in future as I can understand it probably gets frustrating being asked the same things repeatedly. Thank you again for your time in replying!
 
Don't worry about being a downer, I appreciate the honesty and advice! I tried the Aqadvisor, although the domain seems to be... gone (http://www.aqadvisor.com/)? I might have tried the wrong thing. That said, I did find a community creator tool here (https://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/community-creator) which I presume is similar - it suggests I still have almost 75% capacity remaining with my current tetra/kribensis stock.

It's down again!? i swear that website is like a yo-yo. It seems to go down then back up every other day! I haven't tried the community creator before, but it seems to rely on the cm/L rule which can be a little unreliable from what i've read. You should have plenty of room left in your tank however from what i've seen, so you should be good there. And never worry about asking questions, the people here are really friendly :D
 

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