New 96L ./ 25 Us Gal. Tank

[Skinkins]

Greetings!

My first post on the forum!

I have a newly established 100 liter / 26 US gallon fish tank and I was hoping for some advice/confirmation on the fish i chose, based on the info/research from this forum and Internet in general.

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Tank info:
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80 x 40 x 30 cm / 31.5 x 15.7 x 11.8 inch ( i am from Europe so i hope i have calculated correctly )

96 Liter / 25 US Gallon

Using a "stock in-water" filter ( EHEIM ), stock heater ( Jager ) and lamps. ( EHEIM pack with all "hardware" included )

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I have done all the preparations ( to my best knowledge )

2 weeks of filtering with nothing but water and water conditioner.
10 days with live plants and light ( plants have grown 1/4 up in this time )

All-in-all water seems to almost crystal clear, and plants are feeling well. I had only a very few leaves dropped so far.
There are some white "spots" on the glass though, i presume it is due to calcium ( have a lot of it in the water here ) or due some bacteria. They are very few but are not easy to remove. Had to use a special hard rubber "brush" i bought in my fish store, and even then it was not easy to get rid of them. Not sure if i have to worry about it, as they do not seem to reappear anymore. I have used "Tetra AquaSafe" liquid, that, as i was told in the shop, will remove the calcium from the water.
I have not changed the water at this point since day one.

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The Fish:
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List of the fish i am sure i want to have ( not 100% sure about how many though ):

Guppy: 7 ( 4 female / 3 Male )
Platy: 5 ( 3 female / 2 Male )
Corydoras Loxozonus: 6 ( not sure if male/female ratio is important )

At this point aqadvisor.com rates my aquarium stocking at 74% with 18 fish.

I would love to have a single angelfish or a single gurami, but an angelfish puts me on 94% and gurami seems to be way too big for my tank...

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My Questions:
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Is my tank ready to be populated?
Are the 18 fish from my list a good combo/choice for my tank?
What bigger, single ( pair ) of fish i might add?

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I apologize for a long post with some basic questions in the end, but after reading numerous post on this forum, i though it is best to put all the info at once, so there will be a good overview of my situation.

I want to thank you in advance for the time you put in reading and possibly answering my questions!

( Great forum by the way! I would prefer a European one, as i have problems with reading inches and gallons, but this is by far the best place i have visited searching for the information on aquarium related stuff )

 

[Twinklecaz]

What Gourami did you go for? A Dwarf or Honey should be fine.

I may be wrong but I think Aqadvisor are a little on the "safe side". One of my stocking ideas puts me at 103% and everyone here said it was actually fine. What that website doesn't take into account is that some fish have a lower/higher bioload on the filter than others. I also may be wrong but I think they're a bit OTT about Guppies, I'm sure they don't grow as big as they seem to think (3 Guppies equals more inches than 6 Neons??).

Sorry I can't help you with the rest, you'll wanna wait for one of the experts for that but I deffo think you could go with the Gourami thing. I have a feeling your tank might be too small for an Angel though (mine too )

 

[Twinklecaz]

Actually, no, I'm being thick. I was thinking your tank is 80L.........it might be big enough for an Angel actually (best check though). Just beware they can bully other small fish.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Skinkins.
Unfortunately, you are not close to being ready to add any fish. You have gotten everything wet, which is a good start, but now you need to develop your filter's ability to process biological wastes. The way we do that will not be included in the aquarium kit literature. We call it cycling, as do most places you may visit. There is a good article on how it is done that you can reach by my signature links for fishless and fish-in cycling.
To me, your stock level, including the preferred angel, looks fine. If you choose to go with the gourami instead, you need to look up each specific species of gourami that you consider. Some gouramis can grow very large. I would not worry too much about aquadvisor's advice. It is slightly more useful than the inch per gallon rule, but only slightly more useful.

 

[Skinkins]

Thank you for taking time to answer me guys!


He-he i was actually 2 days away from populating my tank, but after reading "fish-less cycling" it seems i seems it will take some time... Pretty heavy reading, for me at least. Hope i understood it correctly.
Ammonia... Hmm. Well, the shop where i was going to buy my fish is huge, has its own mini-zoo and such, so i hope they got this ammonia thing. I might be lucky to get some "frozen" bacteria instead.
Not sure if my plants will be ok, as i have already planted a lot at this point.

I am happy to hear that my choice of fish was good!
I was aiming for a single male Pearl Gourami as my "tank boss", i have seen somewhere that minimum tank size for it is 80 L ( not sure if that is true, since some places it was 250 L ), but that does not leave much space for the rest of the fish...

I will read more about gourami while preparing the water. Hope, it will not be too much trouble if i post some test readings here, when i feel that the water is close to be ready.

Thank you once again for your time and quick response! You have probably saved some fish lives!

 

[OldMan47]

You will not find ammonia in a local fish shop. Instead you need to look for it in a home supply type shop. I have been told that Boots or Homebase in the UK carries it or, I know from personal experience, Ace / True Value in the US carries it. It will be listed as a cleaning product, not a product for enhancing the biological activity of a fish tank's filter. Ammonia that we are looking for is sold as a janitorial product for cutting through grease, such as you might want on a good glass cleaner. A typical fish shop employee will look at you as if you have lost your mind when you tell them you want ammonia. They sell tons of products designed to remove ammonia from tanks, and make a tidy profit on those products.
The fact that it has other uses than cleaning is outside the experience of the folks who actually sell it.

 

[Wills]

Hi looks like you have some good advice above but just too add my two cents.

With livebearers in smallish tanks (dont get me wrong 96l is a decent size) I would only keep males to avoid babies, as fun as babies are you will quickly be inundated with babies which will effect the bio load of the tank - with 7 females within a two weeks you would have 84 babies..... then the following few weeks an other 84 (thats taking an average of 12 babies per batch and their survival chances. Some places will say that the males will fight a little with no females present but since you would have 7 male guppies for example the aggression from each fish will be spread out to the point where it is not an issue in my opinion.

As for a feature fish in there as said there are a few gourami that are suitable, I wouldnt go for the pearl as they do get quite big and when kept in too smaller tank you can tell as they dont grow properly. But things like dwarf or honey would be okay as would my favorite the orange thick lipped gourami which I think is just stunning And much more peaceful IMO than some of the other fish.

Wills

 

[Twinklecaz]

Wills, how big does the OTL get? I saw some and they're nice but I don't know if it's a feasible idea for me for my tank (I'd only get one).

 

[Twinklecaz]

Bum, I just looked them up - 10cm! Might be a tad big for my tank. Honey it is!

 

[Wills]

Wills, how big does the OTL get? I saw some and they're nice but I don't know if it's a feasible idea for me for my tank (I'd only get one).

What size is your tank? 10cm is about 4 inches so a pretty big one most seem to stay around 3 inches which is closer to 6/7cm

Wills