can someone please help me select new fish for a tank that crashed...

[anonymous314]

...as a result of moving.
The only fish that survived were four espei rasboras.
I've waited a month for the bio-filter to re-establish itself, and am ready to start adding fish, the fish I want to have at the end are.
5 Fancy guppies. (2 male 3 female)
6 espei rasbora. (they look similar to harlequins, but are about the size of a neon tetra).
Those are the fish I'm sure of.
the fish I'm undecided on are, a school of four of either;
Corydoras habrosus, Corydoras pygmaeus, or Corydoras hastatus,
depending on which is the least delicate, does anyone have any experience regarding this?
Also, I would like to get a pair of ottos, but I'm not sure they could tolerate my tapwater (PH 7.6),
does anyone know thier PH range?
And last but not least, A pleco or ancistrus that is fairly hardy, good at cleaning algae, costs about 5-25 U.S. dollars, tolerates a ph of 7.6, and is 2"-3.5" (5-9cm)long.

So, does anyone have any suggestions for stocking order, and to help me decide on the cories, ottos, and pleco?
Thanks.
P.S.
Sorry about the long post.

 

[Lornek8]

How big is the tank?
Corys prefer larger schools of at least 6 individuals as do Ottos. Ottos can be a bit a touchy it depends a lot on how well they can accliamte when imported. Nearly all Ancistru get larger than 2.5-3" when grown.

 

[anonymous314]

How big is the tank?
Corys prefer larger schools of at least 6 individuals as do Ottos. Ottos can be a bit a touchy it depends a lot on how well they can accliamte when imported. Nearly all Ancistru get larger than 2.5-3" when grown.

Sorry, forgot to mention that.
The tank is 29 gallons (120 liters, maybe?)

 

[Lornek8]

Can easily get in all the fish you've mentioned with a school of 6 or more corys & a school of 6 or more ottos. Could also house nearly all Ancistrus species in that tank though the Common BN (Bushynose), Ancistrus cf cirrhosus is probably your best bet.

EDIT: For clarification, you can get a school of 6 or so of the Corys you've mentioned which are all quite small. Should have also mentioned that the c. harbrosus that i've got have provedn to be near bulletproof.

 

[anonymous314]

Can easily get in all the fish you've mentioned with a school of 6 or more corys & a school of 6 or more ottos. Could also house nearly all Ancistrus species in that tank though the Common BN (Bushynose), Ancistrus cf cirrhosus is probably your best bet.

EDIT: For clarification, you can get a school of 6 or so of the Corys you've mentioned which are all quite small. Should have also mentioned that the c. harbrosus that i've got have provedn to be near bulletproof.

Can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the five guppies are the ones I intend to buy, I'd like to keep as many babies as possible, maybe 12 guppies total?
Also, I think I'll leave off the ottos and get 8 cories, I relly like the look of
C. hastatus, have you had any experience with these?
I'm thinking about getting the red color morph of the common ancistrus.
And possibly an albino mystery snail, If you think there's enough room with 50% weekly water changes?

 

[Lornek8]

Sorry, I don't have any experience with C. hastatus.
Still not overly many fish for that tank. Your filter setup is at least as important, if not more so, than the amount or water you intend to change weekly. If your filter system is ill equipped to handle the biolload in the tank or is not setup to handle the right components than the water quality could still suffer between water changes.

 

[anonymous314]

Sorry, I don't have any experience with C. hastatus.
Still not overly many fish for that tank. Your filter setup is at least as important, if not more so, than the amount or water you intend to change weekly. If your filter system is ill equipped to handle the biolload in the tank or is not setup to handle the right components than the water quality could still suffer between water changes.

Thank you very much for all your help! :woohoo:
The filter is an aquaclear 30 gallon with fiber, carbon, and biofiltration.
I think I'll post a specific question about the cories in the cories section..

 

[Lornek8]

Should be okay provided you watch the guppy production.
I'm not a big believer in filter ratings as its based more on flow rates than anything else. Thus, filtration might be a bit on the light side. The fish you've mentioned aren't overly "dirty" fish, well except for the guppies, so with the stocking levels, type of fish & water change routine you're talking about I think you should be okay.

 

[anonymous314]

Thanks again.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Will it be a planted tank? if you can get healthy plant growth it makes the tank parameters much more stable, and reduces the chance of a crash (plants are very effective at taking up NH3). I'd agree with the filter comments as well, I like a massively oversized sponge filter as an internal filter, or a large capacity external.

cheers Darrel

 

[anonymous314]

Hi all,
Will it be a planted tank? if you can get healthy plant growth it makes the tank parameters much more stable, and reduces the chance of a crash (plants are very effective at taking up NH3). I'd agree with the filter comments as well, I like a massively oversized sponge filter as an internal filter, or a large capacity external.

cheers Darrel

Yes, it will be a fairly well-planted tank.
Also the aquaclear filters have a flow rate that's quite a bit higher than the filter rating, this one is adjustable from 75-115 GPH. :thumbup:

 

[Lornek8]

Yes, it will be a fairly well-planted tank.
Also the aquaclear filters have a flow rate that's quite a bit higher than the filter rating, this one is adjustable from 75-115 GPH. :thumbup:

One of the biggest misconception regarding fiters is that flow rate dictates how big a tank or how many fish you can stock in a tank. Well, it does to a point but only if there is adequate media. What I mentioned about filters previously and what Darrel was also alluding (I thnk) to is the fact that there is no "standard" which filter manufacturers must meet to rate their filters for a particular sized aquarium. Usually a filters rating simply is in relation to how many tank turnovers their filter can perform. In the case of your Aquaclear, you're looking at approximately 3x - 4x per hour. This is the level that Hagen feels is adequate to filter a tank (all filters have flow rates in excess of thier rating, as a filter rated for 30 gallons with 30gpm flow would probably be either very inefficient or very large). However, nowhere in their literature does Hagen state how they come upon this rating. Is it for a dozen tetras in that particular tank?, is it a foot long Oscar?, 200 goldfish? there is really no way to tell. In my experience (over 30years) filter ratings tend to be overblown when you look at an average stocked tank. To illustrate this, look at a filter like the Penguin line, their media consists of a disposable filter floss cartridge with some carbon within it and possibly some plastic grating they call bio media. Compare this to an Ehiem canister rated for the same size tank which may hold liters of filter media and logic tells you that something just isn't right somewhere. Aquaclear is pretty good but just a warning, take filter ratings with a grain of salt. My 37gallon tank has filtration rated for a total of 300 gallons+ and I could probably do better with more.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm away from home, and I have limited WWW access, but Lornek has made the point I was trying to make.

What is important is the combination of the amount of biological filter media, and the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of the system (basically how "dirty" the water is).

Fish like Oscars will create a high BOD, so need the combination of lots of biological filtration and highly oxygenated water. If you look at the filter capacity of even a good internal (say a Rena 4 or extended Eheim aquaball) it is tiny, the same problem occurs if you pack a big external with fine media, the water flow is reduced and all the oxygen used up in the filter, before the nítrification process is completed.

You need the combinatión of oxygenated water and biological media, if you have a big capacity external with high flow speed through the media, or best of all a wet\dry trickle filter it gives you the necessary filtration capacity to deal with the BOD.

cheers Darrel

 

[anonymous314]

To illustrate this, look at a filter like the Penguin line, their media consists of a disposable filter floss cartridge with some carbon within it and possibly some plastic grating they call bio media.

I had a penguin filter and I Hated it...:wb:
Aquaclear is in another league altogether IMO, probably not a high-end filter but probably in the medim-high range, I think.
The filter medium is about 2"(5cm) x 4"(10cm) and about 6"(15cm) thick, with a bottom-to top flow.