VC 240L beginner freshwater

[VC]

Hello everyone! Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas.

Now that the busiest month of the year is out of the way, I can finally get back to the poor empty tank that's been waiting for some attention! Here's the empty tank:



And here are some goodies I have recently purchased:



Also waiting for some hardscape from aquarium gardens (thanks for the discount!)

[TropicalFishForums]

[Gingerlove05]

Looks like a good start (i have most of that in my cupboard lol)
What are you planning on keeping?

[VC]

Thank you. The Kleen Off ammonia has since arrived for the fishless cycle! I am also waiting for my siphon.

I am still in research / homework phase, but from what I've seen so far (I have soft water)...

Sterbai cory - ridiculously cute. These would be my 'must have' fish! How many would you recommend for a comfortable school (I was thinking 10-14?)

I intend to get a school of tetras for the middle layer. Rummy nose, lemon and cardinal apparently have similar water parameter needs to the cories. The rummies would be my preferred choice. Again, not sure how many.

One 'show piece' fish. I haven't gotten around to researching these properly yet so any recommendations are welcomed. Ideally I would like something that is hardy and peaceful, and would not need to be part of a school/group. I've heard certain gourami could be viable?

Please correct me if I'm mistaken!

EDIT: I also like the look of shrimp! Would these be viable in the above set up!?

[Catzilla]

Hi VC. Looks like a great tank.

I’m at a similar stage to you. Still setting up and thinking about fish. My tank is 265 ltrs but that’s 65 of sump. I have soft water too, so was also thinking about sterbai, a tetra of some kind, maybe green neons. I’d also love to keep shrimp but not sure how well they will fair in a mixed tank. I’ve done a lot of reading and so far I think my choices are either large types of shrimp, so they aren’t eaten. I’m unsure if they are suited to soft water but like amano or bamboo. I haven’t asked google that question as of yet. I’m sure I read that cherry red are hardy and do well in varied set ups. However, again that’s just google talking. Maybe someone else will be able to give some real world experience advice? I think with cherry if you’re able to add them pre fish they may settle in and after a few months make a small colony. However I’m sure when fish are added some of the shrimplets will be preyed on.

[plankton]

Sterbais and rummies would be a good choice as they can both take warmer water.
If your water is soft and acidic, then you could also look at blue rams as a "centrepiece" for the same temperature as a pair shouldn't be too aggressive in a bigger tank. Try to source either British or Dutch bred, they tend not to have the iridovirus that a lot of the others arrive with (due to the conditions they're bred in). Czech, German and Far Eastern farms tend to use the med baths.

[VC]

@catzilla

Thanks for the tip, I'll read up more on their specific conditions to see if they're actually feasible.

@plankton

Thanks for the suggestion. Would it be easy to source the types you've specified. Also not sure about the "shouldn't be too aggressive" part! 

[Stephen]

A nice shoal of rummy-nose tetra always looks good.
The sterbai cory are fine at 25C as are the rummy. A nice group of 9 or 12 cory would be good.
You could also add a nice group of cardinal tetra, the blue/red colouration always looks good, again they are fine at 25C.
As a feature fish then south American peaceful cichlids are good.
Bolivian rams (Mikrogeophagus altispinosus), Cupid cichlids (Biotodoma cupido) and Keyhole Cichlid (Cleithracara maronii) are all fine at 25C.

Just a thought
All the best

[VC]

Hardscape arrived today.

Also some very large buckets!

[Si4geckos]

Here's my 4ft 200 litre tank in December.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRi1h1ayFeM

Excuse the mess and lack of substrate, as the title suggests, I was emptying in and closing it down (to move house to my 574L tank!).

In the video I have about 25 stebai (some albino) 16 cardinal tetra, 2 yellow honey gourami, a normal honey gourami and a golden ancistrus pleco.

I have soft water. Kept the tank around 26C.

Honey gourami's (especially the yellows) make a great peaceful centre piece fish as they contrast the others so much. I've also just got a pair of electric blue balloom rams, but not sure how they'll do yet as they've only been in quarantine for 5 days.

Thought it's give you an idea of how it'll look. Where in the country are you? I could keep some sterbai eggs and hatch them for you if interested/close? Generally sell babies for £3 each if you buy a few. I have about 32 sterbai in my big tank now so I generally get eggs once a week.

My thread in tank logs 'Tank Evolution' probably has lots of info and better pictures if you want to know more.

Also I've kept some crystal red shrimp alive in with all those fish too. Only adult sized ones. I have a sepearte tank I use for breeding the shrimp. Hope that helps.

[VC]

I actually really like the simple layout of that tank. Hopefully mine will look something like that as I am going for low budget, low maintenance plants.

The fish are all great too. I'm in Manchester - thank you very much for the offer! I'm taking things very slowly so not sure when I'll actually get to the adding fish stage! But if you still have lots of Sterbai when the time is right I'd be interested.

The honey gourami are cute - are they all one gender? I did like the look of the blue dwarf gourami but read they are commonly susceptible to a virus. So honey it is!

Thanks for the shrimp heads up too. If they were to get eaten would it be the gourami that does it?


Now to research the plants! Aquarium gardens, here I come!

[Si4geckos]

I actually really like the simple layout of that tank. Hopefully mine will look something like that as I am going for low budget, low maintenance plants.

The fish are all great too. I'm in Manchester - thank you very much for the offer! I'm taking things very slowly so not sure when I'll actually get to the adding fish stage! But if you still have lots of Sterbai when the time is right I'd be interested.

The honey gourami are cute - are they all one gender? I did like the look of the blue dwarf gourami but read they are commonly susceptible to a virus. So honey it is!

Thanks for the shrimp heads up too. If they were to get eaten would it be the gourami that does it?


Now to research the plants! Aquarium gardens, here I come!

I'm in Manchester (Oldham/ Saddleworth area). I generally sell the sterbai at least 2/3 months of age and they do well in a slightly more established aquarium. I'd get the tetras and gourami first, then go for the sterbai once any bugs have been ironed out and your filters, etc are all running well. Don't know where in Manchester you are, but fish shops worth visiting are Abyss aquatic warehouse in stockport, maindenhead aquatics in ashton (my local one- both are expensive, but maidenhead generally has nice quality and abyss a good range) and if you fancy a journey out, Pier aquatics near Wigan I think, is amazing! Have some proper rare stuff.

All my honey gourami are male. Had a female, but she sadly died after breeding. She was a beaut too. They look drab as anything in the shops, but totally change colour at home and settled. They're amazing colour-changing fish when they put their breeding display dress on. Tried dwarf gourami twice but neither last more than a few weeks.

In terms of shrimp, if they can fit them in their mouths, any fish will eat a shrimp. Not seen it happen though and no fish seem to pay any attention to them. I've read if they grow up in a tank with them from a young age, they just get used to them. If they've not seen one before, they could be overly 'exploratory' and end up hurting the shrimp. They do hide pretty well in my big tank and seem to survive ok.

Here's a video of my old tank with plants and more gourami in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqXHnNc5U8

As you can see, the amazon sword on the left got a bit out of control. Everything else in there is a basic, low light, no CO2 plant, planted in plain sand with a couple of root tabs. I never saw the need for expensive substrate and loads of additives and CO2 systems. But each to their own....

[VC]

Thank you for the tips! That’s very helpful.

This morning I washed the sand. Actually blasted with the hose is probably more appropriate! I did this 10 times and the water is running clear when I tip the bucket. The sand also settles quickly after agitation by hand so I think first washed batch is good to go!

Quick question: I can just add this in and then dechlorinate once I’m ready to fill up tank and start filter, right? Or should I add some to washed sand bucket?

[VC]

I have 'pimped' my Fluval 306 filter. All mechanical filtration pads at the bottom (coarse and fine pads), two trays of filter media and carbon removed. Attached to tank, hope it's all tight enough. Twas very fiddly!



I have added the cleaned sand. Water is slightly cloudy but I guess it needs time to settle. Hope it's worth the back ache!



And now I have my hardscape (from Aquarium Gardens) soaking in the buckets. Shoutout to the buckets for being so useful. 

I'm glad I am soaking it though since the driftwood has dirtied the water in the bucket.

[plankton]

Just use the conditioner after you've set it up and filled it.
You'll need to condition for the whole volume, so don't waste any prior to that.
The "dirt" from the wood is the tannins, which act as an antiseptic for fish, so don't worry about that.

[VC]

Yeah I had a look at some of the tannin related posts on here. Lots of people who like them!

I did find a stowaway bug though. Released him/her outside.