29 Gallon Office Tank. Ideas?

So the first, second week of April i’m going to set up my 29 gallon office tank.

I have the tank pretty much set up in my mind. Starting from the bottom up, eco-complete covered with a course sand. 150 watt heater (temp depends on recommendations), sponge filters/airpump (importing cycle), stock HOB, Beamworks 30” light (can’ remember model but has built in timer and comes on to blue LEDs, than white), replacement glass lid.

Will be moderately planted, supplemented with Excel and Flourish.

So for stocking. Open for suggestions. Goal is some type of corys at the bottom. 1 type schooling fish and a show type (single/pair).

Please include temperature.

I couldn’t find the stocking forum so i’m thinking this will get moved there

 

My 29 gallon office tank currently houses seven male paradise gourami. They do work nicely in well planted set ups. No heater needed so long as the office has a/c and stays above 55 and under 80.

But another 29 I ran for a while was my 'orange tank'. A trio of lyretail swordtails (1 boy 2 girls) were the centerpiece. Lyretail males can't reproduce so no worries of livebearer overpopulation. I had bronze (both normal and albino) corydoras on the bottom and a single super red bristlenose to accompany them. Silvertip tetras for the school. Although you could probably do lemon tetras instead. A couple tiger nerites to round it out and so I had a planted tank with bright flashes of orange amongst the green. Beautiful effect.

 

Substrate?

I want to stock lightly so I only have to do one wc weekly and want help from my plants to help fulfill this goal.

I like the variety of the second recommendation with 3 species plus nerites. A gold mystery would also be a good conversation piece.

 

Substrate should be a sand for corydoras and plants. Enrich any root feeders with root tabs. Super easy and low maintenance. I did it once a month if that. I used black diamond blasting sand (bdbs) as I liked how the orange popped against the black, but you could also get pool filter sand if you wanted white. Both are cheap economical options that work great.

I did water changes on my orange tank every other week. It was well to heavily planted and even at two weeks my nitrate readings were still 0. The key is getting the plants in and going before you fully stock the tank. Get the substrate in, fill with water, plant and then add root tabs and if you are instantly cycling with media from another tank add one group of fish (I added my swordtails first but the tetras would also be good as a first fish) and then wait another couple weeks before adding the next group of fish.
Oh amd a fast growing floating plant is a great nitrate sponge. All plants are but those especially are great. Dwarf salvinia or hornwort or guppy grass or duckweed (not my preference there) wil all eat nitrates and grow super fast. You just pull out and toss as you end up with more than you want in the tank.

 

I too have a 29 gallon I just setup and getting ready to cycle. I am wanting Corys, and after talking to and reading others with experience with Corys, I am finding out that different Cory species have different water temperature requirements, some get larger and others don't. Just FYI about Corys to keep in mind, unless you already know all this and have the Cory species you want already picked out.

 

Here is an idea:
1x Pearl Gourami
8x Cardinal Tetra
8x Harlequin Rasbora
8x Albino/Bronze Cory
You can mess around with the numbers a little bit if you want.
Edit: I forgot to add that this would be an awesome stocking because of the different colors of all the fish. Pearl Gouramis are incredibly stunning and very graceful fish.

 

Nakatu,

I have BDBS in 3 of my tanks but it really shows “dirt.” Meaning mostly decomposing vegetation. One tank is eco-complete covered with black flourite, capped with BDBS. This was going to be my fall back substrate but i’ve seen some kool looking mixed substrates like brown and white that looks attractive on line. My other 2 BDBS tanks have organic potting mix under the sand and I want to avoid that in my work tank because I took 2 weeks to cover with sand to leach the tannins out of the potting mix and don’t want to do that in a tank in my office. My plan is to Just set up one Saturday and begin stocking on Sunday. I appreciate the input.

C-rain,

I was going to base my Cory selection on the temps of the other fish. I have sterbias, Pygmy and peppers in separate tanks. I like them all but the sterbias school The tightest. Please let me know what you stock your tank with.

Abby,

That would give me a great center piece fish and a species of Cory I don’t already have. And I really want cardinals BUT can’t find them locally, or at least recently. I went to 2 lfs’s last weekend and both had 100s of neons and no cardinals. And I really want cardinals. I will research stocking temps and if they are compatible, see if the lfs can order cardinals. I have them ordering German blue rams for another tank and will see how that works out.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

 

id do something like;
1 angelfish
20 cardinal or rummynose tetra
10 adolfoi or sterbaI cories

honey gouramis are a cool option too, or a single dwarf gourami.
you could also do some bolivian rams or a pair of apistogramma.

 

btw if u can't get cardinals, neons and bolivian rams work well together temp-wise.