New Set Up

[tropicanada]

Hey hows it going,
i just got a 40 gal. tank in my house. got the water cycled ( learned the hard way about this process)
gravel decor filters ect.
 
i have 4 angels and a rubber nose pleco in it now.
i like the angels and want to gear the tank more around them.
with the addition of two more angels,(read they prefer that)
i want to start adding real plants instead of fake ones, should i switch to sand or keep the gravel ?
how would i start the process of adding the plants in the tank.
 
what other fish are compatible with the angels ?
are bloodworms bad to feed on an every feeding bases ?
 
last question for now, i bought sinking pellets for the pleco and havnt seen him touch any of them, and have caught the angels a couple times at them, is this normal ?
 
new to the hobby a fascinated by it, any help is appreciated cheers, ill get a couple pics up asap

 

[Ninjouzata]

to the forums! Hope you  enjoy it here.
 
May I ask how you cycled the tank? Just want to double check
 
What are the dimensions of your tank? I ask because angels need the tank to be a certain height to grow properly.
Most people put 6 juvenile angels and wait for a pair to form, then re-home the other 4.
 
It's up to you if you want sand or gravel. Certain fish like corydoras & loaches prefer sand so if you want these in the future you want to switch.
 
Imagine you'll want to start with some easy plants such as swords, anubias (attach to driftwood or rocks), java fern (also attach), crypts, stems (anacharis, bacopa, wisteria, camboba).
The crypts and swords would appreciate root tabs which you just push into the substrate. They last a few months. I also find vallisneria an easy plant and think watersprite is too.
 
Fish that are compatible with angels would be ones that don't fit in their mouths (meaning no neon tetras), and ones that won't nip their flowing fins.
For a pretty, and tight schooling fish, rummynoses are quite popular. I've heard it's iffy keeping these with angels as they're streamlined and not the biggest fish. It could work though if you raise them together.
 
Something for the bottom may be like I mentioned earlier, cories or loaches. Cories are very peaceful and certain loaches, like khuli loaches, are also peaceful.
 
Bloodworms should only be fed as a treat really, perhaps once a week. The rest of the time you'll want to feed a good quality flake or pellet.
 
What sort of sinking pellets did you get for your pleco? Is it algae or shrimp pellets? It may take your plec some time to realize that it's food. Do you have wood in the tank btw?
It's normal for the angels to go after that food, I think. I know one of my angels will eat anything I drop into the tank
 
Something you can try putting in for your pleco is zucchini. Boil it for 5 mins and then drop into ice cold water to 'blanch' it first, which will make it sink. They also appreciate other veggies but that is the only one I've tried so far.
 
Glad you're enjoying the hobby, hope I was of some help, and really looking forward to your pictures.

 

[tropicanada]

hey thanks for the reply.
 
with the water, ( long story short) the girlfriend went out to get some stuff for me while i was setting up the tank and ended up buying 2 angels, the pleco and a ropefish,
unfortunatly the fish where in the bags with the top opened for a few hours waiting for the water to come to temp and get safe results on the test strips.  Once i got them in the tank the first night everything was good, same with the next morning. come home from work and the tank is like filled with brown water.  I did a 70 percent water change the third day, re did the water, i left the fish in the water while dpoing this. once done the water was still a little foggy, so i did this 3 times again. since the last time everything seems to be perfect. my test come out good, clear water.
The ropefish however did not make it threw this, when we took it back to the store ( cause they test the water, i wanted to make sure im doing it right) they told us that there whole shipment of ropefish where iffy and had lost 5 o them in the store them self. so i was a little happier to hear it wasnt completly my fault.
since then i added another 2 angels, and am planning on getting 2 more within the week. i would have bought all four the last time but they where all the same colours.
 
for the bottom, im kinda thinking about doing a sand and gravel tank, ive seen a couple, i love the look of it. maybe like a  sand shore into the gravel or something. is this a bad idea to do ? it dosnt seem to common, i was guessing people just dont want the extra work with water changes ?
 
as for the plants im gunna evuntually choose 2 out of amazon sword, java moss, water sprite and java fern. i just wanna do a little more research on them. is there any extra work required in taking care of live plants  ? can they last out of water when doing water changes ?
id like a exotic plant if possible, maybe with colour ? is there such thing ?
 
yeah ive seen some interesting suggegestions for angel pairing. i think when i redo the tank i wanna recreate the habitat there use to, so i wanna find fish in the same area as well. once the angels make a par, is it bad to keep the others in the tank ? how will i know if i got a pair ? right now with the four of them, they stick around the same generally area as each other, but they are always in the same pairs, does that mean anything ? or are they just really comfertable in a 40 gal tank with no one to share with but my rubbernose pleco.
 
ill deff grab some flakes today then, the pleco has some Nutrafin Maz sinking pellets, ideal for all bottom feeders. it says that there tablets with earthworm meat. the ingrediants say shrimp and other fish product so im assuming there not algae ones.
 
i bought a peice of driftwood, and it wont sink or stay down once i get it down, so next time i change the water im going to tie it down to mybubble wall. loll when i was reading threw forums and reading people saying they feed there fish veggies i thought it was like, fish lingo or something not actuall veggies haha. i work in a kitchen so thats a plus for bothe the fish and me haha
 
i took some pictures with my phone and tried uploading them from my mobile internet, but said they were to big, so bare with me, ill transfer to the computer soon.
 
thanks again, sorry for the noob novel

 

[Ninjouzata]

It doesn't sound like you cycled the tank Have you read THIS?
 
Can you give the dimensions of your tank in Length, Width, and Height please?
 
You can do the bottom like you said, it's just hard sometimes to keep the sand an gravel separated. When done right it looks lovely!
 
It depends on what plants you get if they need extra care or not, such as amazon swords being heavy root feeders you want to put root tabs in for them.
They'll be fine when doing water changes.
 
If you want a plant that is a color other than green you normally need very high lighting, co2, and ferts. I'd recommend against this until you get the hang of things.
 
If the angels pair up, when breeding they can get very territorial and may injure or even kill the other angels. So yes it can be bad to leave the others in the tank.
I'm not sure how to tell you if you know you have a pair..I think they'd be together all the time, and you'd see one lay eggs and the other fertilise them?
 
You want algae wafers for your pleco, though my bristlenose likes algae wafers and shrimp pellets so you can put in both if you like.
 
You can tie the driftwood down to a piece of slate if you like, I don't know if the bubble wall would be able to keep it held down. Guess it depends on what size the wood is.
Aha nope no lingo with the veggies! Just some of them like carrots you may want to boil to soften them.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

to the forum.
 
A few problems....the first of which is that you unfortunately did not cycle the tank, read the link that Ninjouzata gave you (also found in my signature), it will tell you all about cycling.
Second problem, you're testing with a test strip. Unfortunately, these are wildly inaccurate it would be best if you buy a liquid test kit that tests for ammonia and nitrite (pH and nitrate are also helpful). The API Freshwater Master Test Kit is what I, along with most of the users on this forum use to test our tanks with. It is one of the cheapest, reliable test kits out there. 
 
Sorry for the short reply....I'm multitasking at the moment, I'll add more later.