Some 20 gallon setup questions

Jeff Varszegi · November 15th, 2009

Hi! I am setting up a second freshwater community tank, a 20 gallon tank that once held goldfish, for our four-year-old son and could use some opinons and pointers.

1. Which stocking plan would you personally prefer, and why?

My son chose the jelly bean tetras, but I think I could talk him into neon dwarf rasboras as a substitute. If you have other suggestions for small fish to liven up the tank, which will accept flake, please let me have 'em.

Option A:
5 Ladigesia roloffi (jelly bean tetras)
5 Boraras brigittae (chili / mosquito rasboras)
3 Danio aesculapii (panther danios) (these are small for danios, getting to around 1" full grown)
2 Corydoras pygmaeus (pygmy cories) (these get to around 1" full grown)

Option B:
2 sparkling gouramis (Trichopsis pumila)
5 (Micro)rasbora kubotai (neon dwarf rasboras) (a little smaller than the jelly bean tetras)
5 Boraras brigittae (chili / mosquito rasboras)
3 Danio aesculapii (panther danios)
2 Corydoras pygmaeus (pygmy cories)

2. I would like to place a single fish order to save on shipping, but don't want to add so much biomass at once. If the tank is completely cycled, mostly fishless (perhaps temporarily transplanting an algae eater and 1-2 others from our big tank, plus water and gravel, to help it cycle), what would you think of setting up a 10 gallon quarantine tank (with transplanted water from the big tank) and putting a good deal of the fish in there temporarily, then adding them to the 20 gallon a few at a time?

Any other suggestions on how to accomplish our goals with a single fish order? I don't want to skimp on shipping because I want to stress the fish as little as possible, which means I really only want to place one order if possible. (And yes, I've already checked and no stores in our area carry any of these fish.)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. Any help will be much appreciated.

peacemaker92 · November 16th, 2009

Hi Jeff.

About your stocking options, I'm not too sure so wait for more opinions or suggestions from other members.

What you can do about your single order is, you can order them one shot, but try to get your hands on a bottle of TSS (tetra safestart) where you can add all the fish at once after adding the TSS at the same time. It wouldn't hurt to add a few to your quarantine tank as what I heard, you can't add too many fish at once with the TSS. Hope my info helps.

Hope for more members to swing by and give their input. Good luck and keep us updated!

Jeff Varszegi · November 25th, 2009

(Thanks for your input. I did read it earlier but was waiting to post until we decided what to do.)

I looked, and no local stores had SafeStart, but I found something similar and dosed the tank. We wound up buying two longfinned white skirt tetras (named by my son Harold I and Harold II) and four different male guppies to get started (turns out my son loves them). I will wait to put in an order for the rest. Water condition is good for now, and we haven't had to run a separate tank.

Now my main worry is whether to wait for springtime for the fish order.

I will just wait for temperatures in the 50s or higher when the time comes, I guess.

The tank is all set up now. I will take pictures of both our tanks soon and post them. We don't have any real plants, but I think we did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

One thing I did for the smaller tank was, instead of reusing an old bubble wall we had, use a flexible bubble wand to create the look of marsh gas bubbling up in random places. I used tape to seal off sections of the wand, then put the wand in under the gravel bent into an S shape. The effect is similar to what you'd get with many small bubblers under the gravel seemingly placed at random. With our mangrove-root centerpiece in the tall 20 gallon, it looks pretty neat.

pepetj · November 25th, 2009

I like the two stocking options so much I can't pick one over the other. I guess I like most fish (every species has it own beauty).

If you do a fishless cycling with ammonia solution, feeding your tank with it daily (keeping it as close as possible to the 4ppm target) during the Ammonia Peak phase, and then aiming at 2ppm during the nitrate Peak phase, you should have a healthy, stable, and big enough colonies of beneficial bacterias to add all those fish at once.

I give this information based on my experience cycling FW tanks. I have fully stocked some tanks without any problems whatsoever. I wouldn't do this with SW.

Since you already have a 47gal running, I suggest you place there the filter (or at least as much filter media as you can) in it and seed it for at least two weeks (I usually seed mine for a full month in advance). In three or four days you'll have your new tank fully cycled (you might get it cycled from the start but it's not unusual to detect some ammonia and nitrates for a few days).

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

iloveengl · November 25th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Varszegi

I looked, and no local stores had SafeStart, but I found something similar and dosed the tank. We wound up buying two longfinned white skirt tetras (named by my son Harold I and Harold II) and four different male guppies to get started (turns out my son loves them). I will wait to put in an order for the rest. Water condition is good for now, and we haven't had to run a separate tank.

Be very careful and keep a close eye on your parameters. TSS is the only product on the market right now that properly cycles a FW tank. The other products do not contain aquatic bacteria, so when it drowns, you risk a cycle spike.

My only suggestion to your stocking list (btw sparkling gouramis are adorable!) is adding [at least] one more, if not four more, cories. They are sociable creature and are so much happier with more buddies.

Can't wait to see those pics!

Jaysee · November 25th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Varszegi

Hi! I am setting up a second freshwater community tank, a 20 gallon tank that once held goldfish, for our four-year-old son and could use some opinons and pointers.

1. Which stocking plan would you personally prefer, and why?

My son chose the jelly bean tetras, but I think I could talk him into neon dwarf rasboras as a substitute. If you have other suggestions for small fish to liven up the tank, which will accept flake, please let me have 'em.

Option A:
5 Ladigesia roloffi (jelly bean tetras)
5 Boraras brigittae (chili / mosquito rasboras)
3 Danio aesculapii (panther danios) (these are small for danios, getting to around 1" full grown)
2 Corydoras pygmaeus (pygmy cories) (these get to around 1" full grown)

Option B:
2 sparkling gouramis (Trichopsis pumila)
5 (Micro)rasbora kubotai (neon dwarf rasboras) (a little smaller than the jelly bean tetras)
5 Boraras brigittae (chili / mosquito rasboras)
3 Danio aesculapii (panther danios)
2 Corydoras pygmaeus (pygmy cories)

2. I would like to place a single fish order to save on shipping, but don't want to add so much biomass at once. If the tank is completely cycled, mostly fishless (perhaps temporarily transplanting an algae eater and 1-2 others from our big tank, plus water and gravel, to help it cycle), what would you think of setting up a 10 gallon quarantine tank (with transplanted water from the big tank) and putting a good deal of the fish in there temporarily, then adding them to the 20 gallon a few at a time?

Any other suggestions on how to accomplish our goals with a single fish order? I don't want to skimp on shipping because I want to stress the fish as little as possible, which means I really only want to place one order if possible. (And yes, I've already checked and no stores in our area carry any of these fish.)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. Any help will be much appreciated.

First off, you'll need more than a few more pygmy corys. They really need a larger group - moreso than regular corys - so I would look into getting 8. Also, depending on the species, they may not be the bottom dweller you are hoping for. The habrosus variety stays on the bottom more than the pygmaeus, which tends to swim around like a school of tetras. The habrosus is also much hardier.

I would get a few more danios, since they are an actively schooling fish.

The fish you've chosen for a 20 are all good choices as they stay small. However, I would limit the number of schools in the tank to 3 and add a dwarf gourami or something as a centerpiece fish.

If you are doing a fishless cycle, then you can simply add larger quantites of ammonia to build up the bacteria colonies. Because the 20 is a new tank, it IS a quarantine tank. It would still be a good idea to set up the 10 though, and split the fish up. OR, even better - put all the fish in the 20, and have the 10 ready for anyone who looks sick. It is imperative though, that the 20 is cycled and that the colony is built up in preparation for the arrval of your fish.

As for the 10 - You don't need to transfer any water - there is no benefit to the cycle. Moving gravel over isn't a bad idea, but IME it is not needed. The majority of the biological filtration occurs inside the filter. So, if your 20 in cycled, all you need to do is cut some of the media off (from the 20) and put it in the filter of the 10 and add fish.

I buy a lot of fish online - in the end, it's cheaper than going to the LFS.

Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads
Thread	Fish Forum
Some questions about tank setup :)	Freshwater Beginners
Setup tank (many questions)	Saltwater Aquarium Setup
Question: A few questions about tank setup	Freshwater Beginners
75 to 80 Gallon setup questions.	Freshwater Beginners
2 Questions about my new setup	Freshwater Beginners

Fish Forum Thread Tools
Show Printable Version