Need Stocking / General Suggestions...

[StagnantSun]

So my old 38 gallon (36l x 12w x 20h) has been given a scrub and holds water . I did break one of the hinges on the removable hood, though, so this might be a good chance to upgrade my lighting! The strip light part of the hood is fine, but it's just a measly 24" 20w daylight fluorescent housed in a 35" piece of plastic. Perhaps I should get a glass top, upgrade the lighting and keep the 24" light for a moonlight? It's been a while since I did any of this though, so I don't know what my options are for upgrading. I don't plan on adding anything particularly hard to grow, since I don't want to work with CO2 just yet. Mostly just mosses & java fern so excessive lighting might actually be unwanted.

I'm leaning towards Flourite Black Sand as a substrate. Already have a good supply of driftwood that's been soaking to get rid of any creepy crawlers that might've made it home while it was in the garage and some Pacific beach pebble that's ready to be siliconed into some hide holes.

Cycling is going to be aided by a friend with some established filter media. Still need to decide on a type of filter, though.

I planned this out by looking at what my possible stocklists would require. I'm down to two plans, each with a lot of wiggle room. I want loaches, my roommate wants colorful.

Plan 1-

Male Betta
6 x Khuli Loach
Possible other tankmates?

This would probably be a very calm (almost dull?) tank. Some sort of small cory group might give it more life, but how would they do with Khulis?

Plan 2-

2 x American Flagfish
3 x Dojo Loach
Possible other tankmates?

I guess this tank is on the cool end of tropical. It might be painfully calm as well, since both species tend to hide from what I've read. Possibly add some Endlers? There's supposedly an accomplished Endler breeder that sells to LFS's around here. Would they just end up as food for the Dojos though?

Again, I'm really really open to suggestion. I still have the whole environment to set up and cycle, so it's going to be quite a while before I get close to buying any fish.

P.S. - If a Starlight Bristlenose Catfish & Celestial Pearl Danio group would fit into any of those plan, well, that would just be Christmas.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum StagnantSun.
You will be fine with 20W of light over a 38 gallon tank if you are only growing java fern and java moss. I have grown java moss using nothing but the light that leaks into a tank from a northern exposure window when I had no tank light at all. The moss just kept right on growing but the light was so low that no algae would grow in the tank. Your present arrangement is definitely low light but a low light tank can be delightful.
Since you have access to mature filter media, you will cycle in about a week once you actively start growing your filter clone. For a tank that size, I would use either a nice Rena XP2 or any comparably sized external (canister) filter. Place the mature media in the bottom, the inlet side of the water flow path, of the filter so that the colony can easily spread to the rest of your filter. Then treat the tank as a fishless cycle and monitor it for an early completion in a week to 10 days.