New Hobbyist And New (sortof) Tank

Hey Guys,

My wife and I have had a 10 gallon tank for a year now (her birthday present). Presently have it stocked with 4 neons, a guppy, and 3 salt & pepper corys. I just picked up a 50 gallon tank as an upgrade. Got a smoking good deal on it (it came with everything including stand for less than the cost of a canister filter). Now being new, I've already made a couple mistakes (all super minor). I mixed up the second and third stages in the canister (will be fixing shortly) and have fluval ammonia remover in the filter (which after reading isn't exactly the greatest thing to do when trying to cycle a tank).

Our plan for the 50 gallon is to create a community aquarium. Our current stocking ideas are as follows:
5 Neon tetras
5 other tetras (haven't picked yet)
6 salt & pepper corys
5 Fancy Guppies
1 Bristlenose Pleco

Right now I have a Fluval 304 canister filter for the aquarium and still haven't quite wrapped my head around the best configuration for the filter media. I have it set up as follows:
Pre-filter: basic foam inserts
Stage 1: Dense foam filter
Stage 2: Fluval Biomax
Stage 3: Fluval Carbon

Is this a good setup? Any suggestions? I haven't begun the cycling yet, and am still a little uncertain on a few things.

Cheers!
Chris

 

Sounds good. My advice is guppies are live breeders and you could end up with hundreds in your tank. I’d stick with the tetras. Maybe 3 schools of 8 of the smaller size tetras. Next I would get rid of the carbon all it does is remove odor and if there’s meds in the tank it will remove them. Add more biomax or matrix or any of the other stuff used to hold bb. Check out the pondguru on utube for info on setting up a canister filter.

 

I haven't begun the cycling yet, and am still a little uncertain on a few things.

Cheers!
Chris

while it's good to have stocking ideas as you cycle, getting your cycle started and stabled is the top priority for you at the moment

what are you planning on using to cycle? do you understand the basics? don't be shy, we're happy to help on this forum.


in terms of your planned stocking, I strongly urge you to have more of less schooling species than having tiny schools of more species. pick 2 schooling species and get 10-12 of each. the smaller the full grown fish gets, the more you can have depending on what country you're in, you could get a bunch of chilI rasbora, celestial pearl danio, etc.

compatibility of the fish is down to aggression and temperature for the most part. you want at least 1* either side of any species min/max temp. too low, and you compromise immune systems and they can get sick and you lose your whole tank. too high, and they have shorter lifespans.

decide on the fish you absolutely want, and then design your community around that fish species' care.

 

I'm looking at doing a fishless cycling and gradually introduce the fish when the ammonia and nitrites return to zero. I will probably start the cycle after I fix the filter composition.

I've never had a tank this large so stocking was best guess based on what we liked and researched compatibility. We already have the neons and (female only) guppies so we don't have a population explosion. The corys were recently added to our 10 gallon to help keep the tank cleaner. Availability of fish isn't much of an issue. I'm in eastern Canada so there's plenty around.

 

Sounds really interesting! I personally think you have more options than what you put on the list.

 

Sounds really interesting! I personally think you have more options than what you put on the list.

Definitely up for suggestions! We haven't 100% decided on anything yet.

 

Definitely up for suggestions! We haven't 100% decided on anything yet.

On my canister filter,

TOP - Filter Floss (I use Polyester Stuffing from my local Walmart)
MIDDLE - Bio Media of your choice
BOTTOM - Coarse Foam (mechanical)

And I agree with the other get 2 types of tetra and get more of each type 10-12
Fancy Guppies should be fine if you planning on getting all males, so you won't get any problem on overpopulating your tank.

 

In that size tank maybe you could do a pair of pearl gouramis as a center peice fish.

 

Here's pics of my current 10 gallon set up and the 50g. I will be replacing the fake plants in the 50 gallon with live plants after I get the aquarium mostly cycled. My guppy also thinks it's a neon and schools with them.