10 Gallon Tank: My 10 Gallon Tropical Community

[metal_fish]

Hey folks been years (serious) since I've been online! But, I'm back in the fish game and couldn't be happier.
My Ten Gallon Tank started from the Top Fin Tropical Starter Kit from PetSmart.
I paid $65.00 dollars for it and wouldn't do it again... so here's a quick review.

Filter: The TopFin Filter rated at 80 G.P.H is more suitable for anything smaller then a Ten Gallon tank IMO, Its a decent filter but does not include any biological filtration. I upgraded to a Penguin 150 Bio-Wheel to fix this.

Hood & Light: The hood is great and it seems to be built by Perfecto but I'm not sure. The light is incandescent. The lighting is poor and produces a lot of heat. I replaced the bulbs with some 13 watt Sylvania Compact Florescents 8 bucks for two at walmart. (LOVE THEM)


Heater: Marineland Neptune, is the heater included It seems like great quality and I love it except that it doesn't have a temp gauge It's set at 76 degrees in the middle and you can adjust it lower or higher but then have to wait and check the thermometer to see were it is set.

Net, Supplies and Instructions included were great! I was really surprised that it had a decent guide on the nitrogen cycle.

After buying the tank I made the mistake of buying TopFin colored gravel, This gravel is awful the color washes off after you rinse it and is sharp and ugly what a waste of having to re-Gravel my aquarium and spend more money on gravel. I went with Deep River From Petco It's excellent.

I stocked it (after the nitrogen cycle) with:
3 Neon Tetras
3 Zebra Danios
1 Green Cory
1 Peppered Cory

I am planning on adding one maybe two more fish and I cannot decide what to get yet.

Here's the Tank.



Here's one of the Neons


I love Danios!


Peppered Cory


I would have liked to get 20 or 25 gallon long but wasn't able to find one in my price range! But it won't be long before I post about my second tank
Edited for language (abbreviations) not acceptable. Ken

[peacemaker92]

Welcome back to Fishlore!

Nice tank Imo, I'd add at least 2 or 3 more neons. It maybe a bit overstocked, but if you keep up with your water changes, then it should be fine

[metal_fish]

Originally Posted by peacemaker92

Welcome back to Fishlore!

Nice tank Imo, I'd add at least 2 or 3 more neons. It maybe a bit overstocked, but if you keep up with your water changes, then it should be fine

I've considered that, is there any tetras that would school with the neons? (besides neons) I'm hoping that a bigger filter and more frequent water changes will help the slight overstockness.

[Lucy]

Welcome back!

[peacemaker92]

You could go with Rummynose tetras? I have 9 of them in my 55g and they school well with my neons and my glowlights

[Tony G.]

Welcome back!
I know lucy has Glolights with her (neons or cardinals, sorry i can remember!) and they school together.

Looks good too! Do the regular bulbs fit in the tank's hood?

[metal_fish]

Originally Posted by Tony G.

Do the regular bulbs fit in the tank's hood?

They fit very well and is much less expensive way to have some flourescent lighting.

[bolivianbaby]

Welcome Back!

I know you've added your new substrate, but for future reference, I've found the Petco brand of colored gravel to not fade (bleed) at all. I even have the black and red in some of my aquariums.

You could add two male guppies. If you keep up with your waterchanges, you should be safe.

[metal_fish]

I bought an baby Albino Cory at the LFS yesterday and I think that will be all the fish I'm adding unless one more neon tetra wouldn't hurt will it?

[JBird86]

nice tank, you could add another tetra or two, like others have said, if you keep up with changes and testing it should be okay; I'd go ahead and grab one or two more tetras since they do best in a school

[metal_fish]

I know they are supposed to be kept with a minimum of six neons, beacue they are schooling fish however, i thought i would buy three and then buy more if they seemed shy or had any sign of being uncomfortably. They stick by each usually but it seems like a lot of the time they will be at either ends of tanks swimmin around alone.

My options are:

A)Keep my current tank stock the way it is.

B)Sell the three neons or give them away, and get 3 zebras
Or Vice Verse and get 3 more neon's


I like Both options and cant decide.And what kind of fancy danio's are there?