Tank Upgrade Ideas

[swaylight]

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to the tropical tank world. It's been about 2 months. But have read several books cover to cover and researched almost everyday since.

I was given a 2ft tank (mirrabello) (60x40x40) not sure if anyones heard of it as it's apprently about 8 years old and they don't make them anymore. I managed to fill this up quite quickly due to being over excited after seeing my partners dads aqua one 350's set up.

So some info on my tank that is now set up. (will add a pic or two at the end)

I filled the tank with 1.5 inches of tetra plant complete substrate and then put 5kg's worth of black sand ontop. I have 4 plants (although believe ones not taking) the tank was cycled for 2 weeks. As I had the original duetto pump which i found had a crack in so i went and brought a brand new fluval U2. I also introduced a small/medium sized piece of bog wood, 5 white stones and a rock that me and my girlfriend picked from the top of mount snowdon. The tank looks great but feel it looks a little crowded and not many hiding places for my fish.

After the two weeks I added 6 zebra danios which all seemed to do fine for the first week so i decided to add 6 cardinal tetras and 2 japanese algae eating shimps. After another week I added 6 guppies (2 female 4 male) Plus also a baby red tailed black shark. All was fine untill last week when i noticed one danio's tailed had gone and had a white cotton ball on it's tail. The next day this died but since then everything has been fine.

Anyways after having my tank set up and running for 2 months I decided that i wanted a slightly bigger tank. Which I brought yesterday it's a 3ft fluval tank (100x40x40) What i wanted to ask was for some ideas, on setting up this tank as i want my fish to be very happy living here. I also want to add a few new fish once the tank is up and running and they are settled into there new home. So...

1) What plants could i put in? (I don't want it to be a heavy planted tank but want there to be places for them to hide) Also been told that some plants can flower underwater?
2) Decor in the tank? (I want the tank to look natural but with some focal features.
3) Would my fluval U2 be ok for the size of my new tank? (100x40x40)
4) What other fish could I put in my tank? (that won't get eaten)

Any thing you would like to know please don't hesitate to ask me.

Regards

Dean

(P.S struggling how to add pictures at the moment)

 

[CezzaXV]

Google aquascaping - I did and it gave me loads of ideas for tank layout and features. There's some really quite clever stuff out there that you could try to emulate if you fancied it.

 

[fluttermoth]

1) What plants could i put in? (I don't want it to be a heavy planted tank but want there to be places for them to hide) Also been told that some plants can flower underwater?

All these plants are easy for beginners and don't need special substrates, CO2 or fertilizers; vallisneria, Java fern and anubias (both of those need tying onto rocks or wood, as the rhizome rots if they're planted normally), Amazon swords and pygmy chain sword, cryptocorynes and some mosses; I like Christmas moss rather than Java moss, as the Java always looks a mess, but it is easy.

2) Decor in the tank? (I want the tank to look natural but with some focal features.

Best thing I've found is to put in a lot of plants (you can get cheap collections on Ebay; some will die off, but the others will spread out) and then a few, fairly smooth rocks (but not limestone) and a nice piece of bogwood. Put your nicest rocks and wood roughly a third of the way along the tank, rather than in the middle, or it can look a bit unnatural.

3) Would my fluval U2 be ok for the size of my new tank? (100x40x40)

It will do for the moment, as long as you don't obverstock, but you should look at upgrading to something larger fairly soon.

4) What other fish could I put in my tank? (that won't get eaten)

It's so hard to advise stocking, as there are so many fish to choose from! It's a good idea to have a look round your LFS and write down the names of anything you like the look of so you can go home and research them (and ask on here); not all shops will tell you how big things really grow...
I would get more cardinals, as those sorts of fish always look better in as large a shoal as you can find room for, and you desperately need to either take the feamle guppies back and have all males, or up the amount of females so there are two females to every male; male guppies are sex mad and can harass the females to death if there aren't enough of them.