New Community Tank -Roma 90

[fishy55]

Hello There, I am new around here and am just about to get into fishkeeping . I have just ordered the Fluva Roma 90 which has the following dimensions: 60cm long, 35cm wide and 45cm high.

I have also ordered an API mastertest kit and small stone dorset pea gravel, have purchased household ammonia (£1.99 - Homebase) to do fishless cycling when the tank arrives, and driftwood is soaking in a new "fish" bucket. But I do have a few questions I was wondering if anyone out there could help me with.

1. What Fish? - Ideally I would like some for the bottom, middle and top - anyone got any suggestions of fish to cover all levels that live together well. I was thinking of going for more small fish rather than less bigger ones. I quite like the idea of panda corys for the bottom and that is why I went for the small gravel.

2. Filter - The tank comes with a Fluval 2 internal filter, which looking it up separately the U2 states that it is for aquariums up to 110litres and is 400lph. Per aqadvisor this is not enough to support the tank at 90% stock levels - therefore I assume two filters could be used, if I did this would I need to fishless cycle both or could I put the second one in once some of the fish have already gone in?

3. Plants and decorations - I want it to look as natural as possible hence the driftwood and pea gravel - but do fish prefer real plants as I was going to go with silk and get used to looking after fish before plants as well.

4. Water. Per the local water companies website my water is "moderately hard". What does this mean to fish, is it possible to change it as many of the fish I have looked at seemed to favour "soft and acidic"?

5. Air pump. Are these necessary? What size would I need to run one ornament or a bubble ring/curtain type of thing - could I just get a small one or does the tank size affect what size air pump I need?

6. Have I forgotten anything?

Thank you for reading this.

Fishy55.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome along! Sounds like you are on a fantastic track to getting started especially with the water tests Stick with the fishless cycle it just is the best option

Before you start forget Aquadvisor or what ever it is called. It is useful but flawed and you will get better advice and more opinions from this forum and its not hard to find help here when you need it

Filter wise, bigger is always better but that filter will be adequate its roughly 4x turn over in your tank which is fine for your stocking levels with smaller fish. If you can afford to go bigger for example an external filter that would be great but as said no probs with the current one.

For decor, its upto you plants wood rock plastic its down to how you want the tank to look. With the substrate, get to Argos and buy a bag of play sand cant go wrong and sand is the ideal substrate for cories

Water, a lot of your fish will be farm bred so will be used to what ever water the farm raised them in which is usually fairly neutral so they will adapt to your water. They do for most other UK members

Air pump, I would get a powerhead to increase aeration if thats what your thinking about. The bubbles dont increase the oxygen in the water, its when they pop at the surface and let the gas exchange. So if you get a powerhead like a koralina nano or koralina 1 it will ripple the water and do a better job than the air pumps I would go for the nano powerhead though because the tank is reasonably small compared for the turnover, their actually designed for marine tanks so have massive turnovers of like 1900 liters per hour for the 1 I think the nano is about 900 per hour but its not bad If you can find similar smaller unbranded ones on ebay go for it as well

And finally the most important part, the fish Righty so more small fish with panda cories and all levels covered. 90 liters is roughly 23 US gallons a little over but call it 23. Im not working to the inch per gallon rule because it does have flaws but it does give you a rough guide mark as to what can be suitable, also when stocking a tank I think its important to meet the fishes schooling requirements whilst balancing it against the stocking of the tank. So I would suggest something like -

2 x Laetacara Curviceps - or similar dwarf cichlid, small gourami would fit this slot as well as a pair of feature fish.
6 x Marbled Hatchets - if you want surface fish if not this number could be taken into mid water fish
7 x Ember tetras - or similar small bodied tetra
7 x Panda Cories

Or you could do a larger "micro fish" tank with pygmy fish so something like

6 x Sparkling gourami - non schooling, intelligent but not aggressive individual fish
10 x Chilli Rasbora - bright red small schooling fish, quite a tight schooler as well so it will stick together lots in the tank
10 x Pygmy Corydora - few species of cories that stick to a small size of around or under an inch or so

Just a few ideas for you, obviously you have more common fish options like platties and guppies but these other fish are by no mean rare or uncommon but I think look more natural in my opinion. But as always fish keeping is quite subjective

Hope thats helped a bit

Wills

 

[fishy55]

Wills

Thanks for your reply.

Fishy55

 

[fatheadminnow]

to TFF, fishy55!!!!

-FHM

 

[K-Holed]

I'm a big fan of the two foot tank. It always seems like a nice managable size. I'd second dwarf cichlids, they have great personality and character. You could also have a look at the smaller plecs (not the common ones, they get huge). Alot of the smaller tetras would be fine in a tank that size too.

 

[Wills]

Wills

Thanks for your reply.

Fishy55

No probs let me know what you decide to go with