New Tank - New Start

[Fishy_7]

OK, Went to Pets at Home on Saturday to look for a small tank and came home with an Arcadia Arc - 35 litre. Handy that they happened to be doing a 10% off day as well

My intention is to try to get a good set-up to successfully keep a pair of Rams (a Brstle nose plec and maybe a small shaol of Cardinal Tetras), with live plants. My thoughts are:

Substrate - ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia II
Filter - Eheim Aquaball 2208
Decor - as much bogwood as poss.
Lighting - 2 x Arcadia Arc Prds (22W total)

I am hoping to keep the water as soft as I possible - which will be a challange as the water in my area is as hard as old nails. Therefore, I intend to use RO Water from the fish store. However, I have not had any experience with RO water I have heard that the water chemistry is subject to wild swings? Another alternative is to use water filtered through conventional kitchen filters to reduce a lot of the hardness.

Any comments will be welcome!! I have the tank but nothing else at this stage.

 

[vinylman]

IIRC, Bristlenose Plecs are big waste producers, so probably not a good idea for a tank that small. Cardinals are best introduced to a tank that's cycled AND matured (a good four months). Remember, too, that the more Bogwood you have, the more water displacement there'll be, making your tank even smaller (volume-wise).

 

[Fishy_7]

Ah yes - displacement! Good point

Maybe I will substitute the plec with a couple of small corys.

Anyone give me some pointers regarding RO Water? Is it best to have 100% RO or say 50%? If 100%, do I need to add anything to it to make it more stable?

Thanks.

 

[vinylman]

Ah yes - displacement! Good point

Maybe I will substitute the plec with a couple of small corys.

Anyone give me some pointers regarding RO Water? Is it best to have 100% RO or say 50%? If 100%, do I need to add anything to it to make it more stable?

Thanks.

Hi Fishy,

I should imagine if you cut tap water and RO water 50/50, that would be a good start, just so you can measure what it does before you actually do it for real (in the tank). TBH Corys like their own kind - the more the merrier, at least four, I'd say. Why not try for a group of three or four Otos. I know they can be problematical, but once the tank's cycled, take a look in your LFS and see how they look there. If they look plump-ish and well fed, then you can be reasonably sure they've started eating again after their journey to the shop. That, I'm sure, is why some people lose Otos early on - they simply haven't been eating properly after being transported to the LFS. All I would say is to take longer to acclimatise them than you would 'ordinary' fish. A bucket would be best; put them and the bag water in the bucket, then just add half a cupfull of tankwater to the bucket every ten minutes or so,
but take an hour/hour and a half to do it. If you start with plump Otos straight from the shop, I don't think there'll be any problem.