Need Recommendations On Fish, Plants In 75 Gal Fw Tank...

[abandonedbrain]

Hey, all.
 
I've finally received almost everything I've been scrimping and saving for to start off on a good footing with an aquarium. Today, just to molify the kids, I started setting up the substrate and deco after running the tank for about 10 days (just making sure the filter and tank were solid, heaters working to keep the temp stable, et al).
 
What I need: fish and plants.
 
What I have:
75-gal glass tank (Deep Blue) on DB stand, solid, on basement floor, level
Fluval 406 cannister filter with no charcoal, plenty of biomedia, in and out hoses on opposing sides of tank
(2) 200W Aqueon heaters along the bottom of the tank, 2" above substrate levels
90lb Fluorite Dark substrate
Assorted rocks from our area (tested OK by LFS), larger ones on plastic eggcrate sections
Assorted Malaysian driftwood chunks (boiled twice, then soaked for a week)
Fluorescent lamp, single T8 40W w/ 6700K bulb (used, not enough light, I know)
 
What I am waiting to order:
Catalina 48" 3 x 54W T5 HO fixture (need to decide on which bulbs to have them include)
 
So I know I need lighting, and I'm sold on the Catalina because of the dual-switch setup, made in USA, includes the bulbs, and comes recommended by even the LFS selling other brands in their store. 
 
1) Which bulbs should I order? I'm thinking of two 10000K and the 'plant grow' bulbs, they offer "65K, PLANT GROW, 10K,5000K, 3000K" (I'm assuming that's 6500K and 10000K)
 
Next, my daughter and I were flipping through forums and catalogs looking to see which fish looked cool, fun and played well together. Here's the list we have so far:
 
(10) White clouds
(8) Gold barbs
(14) Rasboras
(4) Honey dwarf gouramis
 
2) Can I add a small school of cory cats (say, 6) with the barbs in there, or will they pick on the cats?
 
Finally, I'm going to be cycling with the "excessive plant" method. I plan to put a large amount of stem-type plants in the Fluorite to start the cycle for a few days, adding some ferts like Excel to keep things pumping, and then add 4-5 white clouds to balance the cycle. I'm using the technique described here: http/www.rexgrigg.com/cycle.htm
 
BTW, any newbies starting out with Fluorite, DO rinse and rinse again before putting in your tank, and then have PLENTY of floss material in your filters, and be prepared to change 50% of the water at least daily. I made the mistake of adding the gravel without rinsing. Chocolate milk.
 
3) Which plants would be the best mix for both starting the cycle AND looking good while waiting a month for the cycle to complete and stabilize? (Note: no CO2, just light and adding Excel as needed)
 
Thanks for your opinions.

 

[Aviici]

Hi, first of all welcome
You've clearly done lots of research and not jumped in like a lot of people do!
I can only give sound advice regarding plants and fish I've kept, but I'm running a similar set up to what you have, with no co2, but dosing ferts daily.
I have some Anubius, Crypts, Amazon Sword, Vallis (going to order some giant). They're the plants that I think look good at the moment, I've collected a mystery plant from a stream near my house a while back, and it grows half the height of my tank every single week, and is extremely dense. Obviously there's Elodea, but that looks bad IMO, I had that through my cycling process too, but gradually removing it as and when I replace it with better looking plants.
Fish: Your barbs won't harm your cory cats at all, and they shouldn't pose a problem to any other fish as long as you keep them in a group of 8+. Despite people giving them a bad reputation, barbs aren't all that bad You've got a lot of room to play with, having a 75G tank, and so the barbs won't harass any other fish. White clouds would look great, however they do best in colder temps and although you could acclimatise them; they wouldn't flourish. Rasboras may get outcompeted for food with the barbs, and Gouramis should be alright, although their long feelers have the slight possibility of being nipped. If you're keeping lots of plants you could decide to go with Rainbow fish, many of the tetra species, a shoal of your cory cats can be at least 6+.
 
Hope I've helped, and good luck

 

[frapadoodle]

Okay, first white clouds are a cool water fish.
Second, not familiar with gold barbs, but most barbs are fairly easy going in larger groups.
Most any stem plants will do fine. I know moneywort, is quick easy, and the leaves change from the small rounded emersed leaves to long serated leaves. Something for the kids to watch while cycling.
And you could go for a good 10+ school of cories. You and the kids will love em.

 

[abandonedbrain]

Excellent, didn't know that about the white clouds. I'm aiming temps at 76-77F, is that OK for the other fishies?
 
And I like the idea of rainbows, as well. I'll look into those. I did have moneywort on the short list, as well as maybe 'hygrophila polysperma" and Mexican Oakleaf.
 
Thanks, all!

 

[Aviici]

Hygrophila grows fairly easily and certainly the other fishes should do great at that temp. I've never kept rainbows but have a few friends that do, as they're very "planted tank-friendly" and they show off their best colours when surrounded by lots of live plants

 

[abandonedbrain]

Thanks for the assist, all. I finally received my 48" LED strip (from BuildMyLED, tuned to freshwater planted lighting), and we went to the LFS today to stock. Ended up getting some pennywort, red ludwigia, hygrophila (big bunch planting, not sure exactly which), anubias nana, java moss, cryptocoryne wendtii and what I think is cryptocoryne aponogetifolia (long tall leaves, has that same scalloped leaf).
 
With as heavy a planting as we just did, the LFS felt that a few fish to start the cycle would be fairly safe, so along with a nitrifying bacterial colony mixture from drfosterandsmith.com, and Fluorish Excel and Seachem AquaVitro Envy for the plants, we introduced six beautiful little harlequin rasboras. They disappeared into the tank for about ten minutes, but an hour later they are schooling and darting around, having a blast riding the output from my canister filter!
 
I'll of course be testing daily, and I'm prepared to do nightly water changes if necessary. The light, BTW, is absolutely beautiful. I just couldn't see spending a ton of money on T5 HO, when a USA-made LED could be had for only slightly more, with the same or better PAR numbers than a four-bulb T5 HO.
 
Again, thanks for the help! We'll be adding a few more fish in a week or two (probably some gold barbs, or maybe just more rasboras), so I'll keep you informed on how the plants are growing.

 

[Sherriff]

Its great to hear you did your research!
That sounds like some awesome planting too. Keep your eye on your water parameters for the next couple of weeks then sit back and enjoy the view!
I'd love to see some pictures of the tank as your progress!!!

 

[abandonedbrain]

Will do. I'll try to upload one or two right now.
 
The one with a closeup, I'm not certain what that is, but I think it's anubias. Size is about 4" long, and I was told it should NOT be planted in the gravel, merely tie it to a rock, or "pinch" it between two rocks (which is what I did). And yes, that's a twig of Christmas tree java moss stuck in the middle. This was taken while I was still cleaning the tank after planting.
 
I did verify the crypt, it's actually cryptocoryne usteriana, not aponogetifolia. The big bunch planting in the back/center of the tank (in the other pic) is star grass. I'm not sure if I should break that up or not, it kind of looks cool that way, and it's really matted together tightly.

EDIT:
Here's a better shot, from the other direction. Harlequin rasboras are floating prior to being scooped into the tank.

 

[abandonedbrain]

So I'm trying to not worry too much about "melting". Ludwigia faded a bit for a couple days, but now it's looking like there's plenty of new growth there. Anubias is starting to wilt and fade, so are the crypts. Star grass looks OK, pennywort is looking stronger. Moss is indifferent.
 
No CO2, but I'm toying with the idea of a couple of two liter bottles hooked up with yeast solution, just to see how things work. The fish are doing great, no real increase in ammonia or nitrite (ammonia's sitting flat at just under 0.25ppm, nitrite's at a hair above 0, and nitrate is just about to hit the first marker on my test kit, I'd say about 3.5ppm). I'll be doing a 20% water change this weekend (red color from tannins are driving me a bit mad, but pH is down from 7.8 to 7.6 or a bit less), so we'll see how the plants react. I figure, at two weeks I'll see the most significant dieback, and should start seeing new growth. If none, I'll try adding some CO2.
 
I may add a few more fish this weekend; I'll have to see if the LFS has any gold barbs in stock. If not, maybe four more rasboras, as these guys really like to scoot around together.

 

[abandonedbrain]

An update: over a month in, and the fish are doing great. We're up to a dozen harlequin rasboras, and a pretty pair of dwarf neon rainbows. Thinking about upping the count next weekend to add a pair of dwarf gouramis and a few small fish, maybe some bloodfin or red eyed tetras (daughter's fallen in love with gouramis, though). As the tank stands, ammonia count is nil at all times, nitrites never go above 0.25ppm, and nitrates test less than 5.0ppm after 10 days (I went two weeks last week on a water change, but my norm is 25% each week).
 
Picked up a Fluval 306 to add to the 406, but I haven't started using it yet. Probably this weekend. Mainly as a backup, but I figured the plants would benefit from a bit more flow. The rasboras LOVE the flow, gathering at one end of the tank and 'surfing' to the other. Hilarious!
 
The plants, though, were really not looking good. Star grass completely failed, and after I pulled it out I found almost no new shoots. Dumped it and bought more Brazilian pennywort, which seems to be doing well. Wendtii crypts were melting and not really putting out anything new, and the Usteriana was kind of looking the same. One tiny shoot on the anubias decided me: time for CO2.
 
Built a rig for DIY, using two 2-liter soda bottles flowing into a small Gatorade bottle as a bubble counter, then out to a hand-made diffuser (which I replaced with a Nano three days later). I have a Fluval CO2 indicator (the upside down pyramid one with the blue liquid), and before I did the CO2 injection it was very blue. After a few days, it's now almost green, so I think I've got enough for the plants without hurting the fishies. 
 
Already, after four days the plants are popping hard! The red ludwigia has started to turn red again, and has grown at least an inch all around the tank. The anubias popped two new shoots right away, and is looking very healthy now (root looks better, too). Wendtii have started to firm up again and I see new shoots. Christmas java moss is already looking to spread like a plague; I can see that's going to be needing some trimming.
 
So overall, DIY CO2 is a plus for my tank, at a very low price for starting out. Each 2-liter bottle is running on two cups of white sugar, 1 teaspoon baking yeast (proofed) and 1 quart of water. Nothing else added; I read many reports that the baking soda didn't extend the output and hampered it over the conversion period, and that molasses just made a mess more than anything else. I'm pretty happy with it right now, no tweaking needed. KH level was fairly high before CO2 added, and pH was around 7.4 thanks to the tannins from the wood. I'll have to test these again this weekend before the water change.
 
I think the biggest complaint about the system is that I get a lot of crud settling on all of the plants. It looks a little ugly, but no one's noticed, so maybe it's just me being too much of a perfectionist.    I don't know if this is the 'mulm' which people talk about; it kind of looks like rusty dirt settling on things. Makes the anubias look like crud. It doesn't vacuum up, and if I rub hard on the leaves it will finally release.
 
Still using Fluorish Excel (one capful a day now, with CO2, for the 75 gallons) and Aquavitro Envy (1 inner capful every other day). Dunno if the Envy is really doing anything, but it was suggested by the LFS over everything else in their line (as my water has high iron content). I may stop using it in a month after I'm sure the plants have come back, see if it hurts them.
 
Snails... that's all I've gotta say about that. No algae, really, apart from a bit of ghostly clearish stuff hanging out occasionally on the wood. It goes away, and pops up elsewhere. I think I saw a tiny bit of that hair-like green algae, but it hasn't spread.
 
Overall, this is a very happy guy talking to you. It cost WAY more than I thought it would to get into this, but the effects are already being seen and felt. My 11-year-old daughter is way into it, feeding the fish every day, counting them, looking at them to see if there are any spots developing, noticing the growth already in certain rasboras, and even helping out on cleaning day. 13-year-old son thinks it's cool, but isn't really into it more than that. He wants a lizard.    
 
I find myself staring at the tank for 10-15 minutes in the morning before I go to work, when we feed the fish. When I come home, I have a blue LED strip of lights turn on for moonlighting, so I can see everyone. Even my wife admits that's a cool effect.
 
Thanks to all here for the help!

 

[the_lock_man]

Rainbows are shoaling fish, best off in a group of at least 6, imo.