My New 225Ltr Venture!

[Sie1808]

I apologise in advance, I want to be as consise as I can! For three years we (well, I have done all the maintence etc) have succesfully kept a 30ltr tropical tank and have now bought a 225ltr tank. It was sencond hand and cleaned it with a water and vinegar as I was told was suitable, rinsed the hell out of it and leak tested, we seem all set to go. As this is a whole new venture, I want to make sure I am starting out the best I/we can.
Equipment I have so far chosen are 2x 200w heaters (interpet probably) and an Eheim Ecco pro.
Rather than going out and buying plants here and there from the two decent shops to select from in Aberdeen, we were looking to buy the following; http/www.onlineaquariumstore.com/acatalog/Jungle_Garden_Aquarium_Plant_Collection.html
After lots of research, ThinkFish as my primary source, the comunity we are looking to build to so far is; penguin, black phantom and neon tetras, white cloud minnows, marble hatchets, 2x angels and a few japonica shrimp. And also my new colleagues yet to be identified bottom feeder from her tropical tank which she is giving up (brown stripes, about 7cm long so far)
Now, I have two main questions. firstly, I am unsure which substrate would best suit the fish and plants? I have been looking a pea gravel, though I do not know when sand is most suitable or the planting substrate.
Secondly, when I trailed my partner around to check out the competition (which wasn't that difficult I am afraid to say), one shop advised my partner that we could happily keep a blue lobster/crayfish in the tank we were intending to keep. This seems to conflict with everything I have read. And also that we could get hermit crabs, however I can only find info on marine hermits. Could someone please help me, as my partner is now convinced that we should get a crayfish and/or crabs for our tank, and I feel like fish will end up as feed!
I would be extemely grateful to anyone who will pick apart the plan and put me straight, and all suggestions appreciated!
(BTW why hasn't Practical Fishkeeping got back up yet? I was advised they had a security problem 04/12 and that the website would be closed down until further notice!)

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Sie1808.

I just took a quick look at the link and would be very curious, if I was the buyer, what plants are included in the package. There are plants that are only good for intense lighting and others that are completely suitable for the weak lights that come with a tank package. I would want to know what is being included before spending that kind of money.

The suggestion to keep a crayfish in a tank with fish is an invitation to having the fish eaten when the crayfish can catch them. You are quire right to be skeptical of that suggestion. The WCMM, marble hatchets, angels, penguin tetras, black phantoms and neons sounds like a nice colorful tank to me. You will want a fair number of each fish so that they can interact in a more natural manner. For most schooling fish, a group of at least 6 fish is often recommended. The angels and hatchets are not schooling fish but the rest are. The only exception is the mystery 7 cm fish, at that length, it is likely to be a plecostomus of one kind or another. Unfortunately, unless you are aware of what you are doing, you likely have what is called a common pleco. Those can grow to a monstrous 2 feet long at full grown.

PFK was badly hacked. Although they are one of our competitors, I can certainly feel their pain. They had their registration files stolen which means that people on that site who used the same logon and password in other locations need to go change their passwords everywhere else. They also had the e-mail addresses matched up with those logon IDs so now someone can send you an e-mail claiming to be PFK and include your logon as evidence that they are who they say they are. To me that is some scary stuff. They have been down for a couple of weeks now and I have seen no estimate of when they will be running again. I must assume that they are taking some kind of precautions so that this won't happen to them again.

 

[craig855s]

For plants try plantsalive.co.uk (I have a catalogue from them and the prices are reasonable and there are plenty of low tech plants available
Reference crabs and crayfish I say no, If you want those get a species tank for them
Reference substrate anything would do for the fish you have chosen. Plant substrate underneath a thin layer of gravel or sand would help plants, or just pure gravel or sand will be fine. Just go with what you prefer the look of. I have sand at the minute but im beginning to think of going for an mbuna setup which means sew substrate

As for shrimp, i have some shrimp in my community and all they do is hide, it must be something i have in with them as when i had shrimp in my livebearer tank they were out and about all the time

 

[MOW4T]

welcome, good to see someone else from aberdeen

id seriously think against getting the lobster. everything else sounds good

 

[Forestpisces]

Angelfish have a tendancy to eat anything they can get in their mouth i'm sad to say so any tetras under 2 inches is at risk, i'll also say that in the wild neon tetras are an angels fishes natural diet It's an annoyance but sadly true, if i were you i'd choose a different centre peice fish to save the money and pain of seeing numerouse tetras go missing at the ands (or mouths) of ur angels.