Stocking a 37g TopFin Bubble Wall

[carligraceee]

Hey guys! I purchased my 37g tank today! I will be splurging and getting a tank stand as well, tomorrow. I just set it up as much as I could, I will be filling it with water and starting the cycle tomorrow (I got liquid ammonia today, pure ammonia hydroxide). Anyways, I would like to know if my stocking choices sound plausible and compatible, if not (or, even if it does sound good), what are your guys' best recommendations for my tank? My tank is completely empty right now, I still need to purchase some natural substrate and plants. I will also get maybe two decorative pieces but I like the show stoppers to be the fish.

Stock I had in mind:
5 livebearers (4 mollies and 1 platy)
2 Guoramis (golden or dwarf, not sure what is available to me where I am)
1 Bristlenose pleco
5 nitrite snails
3 amano shrimp


Tons of planted plants and floating plants as well!


I was planning on doing a silent cycle. However, this morning, my mom made the decision to just go and buy the tank (I bought the tank, don't worry). She said she didn't want to buy anything else yet and to just start the cycle so here we are, doing a fish-less cycle!

Any and every recommendation is important to me. Thank you guys, you guys have done so much for me since my first 10g tank in December!

 

[Circus]

Do you know your ph and gh? On your list you have both hardwater (mollies/platy) and softwater fish (gourami).

 

[carligraceee]

Do you know your ph and gh? On your list you have both hardwater (mollies/platy) and softwater fish (gourami).

I have soft - moderately hard water. I have to adjust this with Rift Lake Salts (thanks to Slaphppy7) and will do that after my cycle finishes. So I will have hard water for the mollies since they are very established and have given me an abundance of fry and I don't want to break them up.

Do you have any recommendations for hard water centerpiece fish?

 

[Slaphppy7]

I have soft - moderately hard water. I have to adjust this with Rift Lake Salts (thanks to Slaphppy7) and will do that after my cycle finishes. So I will have hard water for the mollies since they are very established and have given me an abundance of fry and I don't want to break them up.

Do you have any recommendations for hard water centerpiece fish?

Must have been someone else who recommended the salt, I've never heard of that one before, and as a practice, I never try to manipulate ph/gh/kh levels in my tanks, and don't recommend it....rather, stock with fish that will do well with the tap ph we already have...

 

[Circus]

If you are going for very hard, you could make it an African cichlid tank, but they are very aggressive. This is going to sound odd, but if you have several regular sized mollies, you could get one large sailfin Molly, they get about 5". Or perhaps a male swortail with opposing colors of your mollies.

 

[carligraceee]

Must have been someone else who recommended the salt, I've never heard of that one before, and as a practice, I never try to manipulate ph/gh/kh levels in my tanks, and don't recommend it....rather, stock with fish that will do well with the tap ph we already have...

If you are going for very hard, you could make it an African cichlid tank, but they are very aggressive. This is going to sound odd, but if you have several regular sized mollies, you could get one large sailfin Molly, they get about 5". Or perhaps a male swortail with opposing colors of your mollies.

Oh I must've remembered wrong!
I am going to be adjusting the hardness if I can, however, I did buy some coral rocks that help raise pH and hardness for freshwater/marine fish. I will see how that works. I have yet to experience any issues with the hardness and pH (anything visibly wrong with my fish).

I really don't want to get rid of my fish. I will if it is the last possible option and nothing else works. It just really breaks my heart for them since they have become friends and created a family.

If I can get my hardness up, do you guys have any hard water recommendations that can act as a centerpiece fish? I was looking at Discus and Red Tail sharks as well but am not sure about their hardness yet.

 

[carligraceee]

If you are going for very hard, you could make it an African cichlid tank, but they are very aggressive. This is going to sound odd, but if you have several regular sized mollies, you could get one large sailfin Molly, they get about 5". Or perhaps a male swortail with opposing colors of your mollies.

Okay so I did some research and it says that Pearl Guoramis can be in harder water?

Would that work?
Or are there any kind of cichlids that would do well in my tank with my current stock?

 

[carligraceee]

If you are going for very hard, you could make it an African cichlid tank, but they are very aggressive. This is going to sound odd, but if you have several regular sized mollies, you could get one large sailfin Molly, they get about 5". Or perhaps a male swortail with opposing colors of your mollies.

Okay so I did some research and it says that Pearl Guoramis can be in harder water?

Would that work?
Or are there any kind of cichlids that would do well in my tank with my current stock?

My stocking idea:
1 platy
4 mollies
2 pearl guoramis
1 bristlenose pleco

AqAdvisor says I have plenty of filter capacity!

 

[FF_Member146894]

if i was going to do a tank with high hardness and pH, i'd do a shell dwelling cichlid tank. i've thought about it in the past, but i've never actually done it. you don't need to be a master aquascaper to create their tank, either - perhaps just a few large rocks, white sand, a lot of shells, and a couple of tall plants in the background. you also don't need to buy a lot of them because they'll end up breeding in good conditions. you can also add a top-dwelling species to make the tank seem less empty.
you'd need to rehome or leave your livebearers in a separate tank, because it would look weird having them in an african cichlid tank, and besides, they'd probably be eaten eventually.
this idea could make a very interesting tank. much, much cheaper than having a high-tech planted-type setup, too.

 

[carligraceee]

if i was going to do a tank with high hardness and pH, i'd do a shell dwelling cichlid tank. i've thought about it in the past, but i've never actually done it. you don't need to be a master aquascaper to create their tank, either - perhaps just a few large rocks, white sand, a lot of shells, and a couple of tall plants in the background. you also don't need to buy a lot of them because they'll end up breeding in good conditions. you can also add a top-dwelling species to make the tank seem less empty.
you'd need to rehome or leave your livebearers in a separate tank, because it would look weird having them in an african cichlid tank, and besides, they'd probably be eaten eventually.
this idea could make a very interesting tank. much, much cheaper than having a high-tech planted-type setup, too.

My only thing is I really don't want to rehome my livebearers... mostly because my mom is 100% against it.

Any other ideas? That one would be so great if I was starting with a clean stocking slate!

 

[emeraldking]

I have soft - moderately hard water

If these are your conditions, I just don't see why you can't keep those desired fish you've mentioned. They should be fine in there...

 

[Slaphppy7]

If these are your conditions, I just don't see why you can't keep those desired fish you've mentioned. They should be fine in there...

+1 to this

 

[carligraceee]

If these are your conditions, I just don't see why you can't keep those desired fish you've mentioned. They should be fine in there...

My problem is I want to try to change the hardness of my water to hard for my livebearers. I haven't noticed anything wrong with them due to the water hardness but I don't want to risk it so I have been looking for hard water centerpiece fish. I think I settled on pearl guoramis but am still iffy on it.

 

[emeraldking]

My problem is I want to try to change the hardness of my water to hard for my livebearers. I haven't noticed anything wrong with them due to the water hardness but I don't want to risk it so I have been looking for hard water centerpiece fish. I think I settled on pearl guoramis but am still iffy on it.

If there's anything wrong with those livebearers living in the current water conditions, then I'd leave it like this.
The point is, I've got over 80 tanks overhere with livebearers in it. The conditions are ranging from soft till moderate hard water. And they've been doing okay for years.

 

[carligraceee]

If there's anything wrong with those livebearers living in the current water conditions, then I'd leave it like this.
The point is, I've got over 80 tanks overhere with livebearers in it. The conditions are ranging from soft till moderate hard water. And they've been doing okay for years.

Oh really??

Thats really good news, could I go with soft-moderately hard water centerpiece fish as well??