newbie and need your opinions

HI all
I am a newbie and looking for suggestions on brands. I have done some research and I am thinking of buying a Seaclear 29 gallon or 30 gallon show tank. I am not sure about the power filter or heater, what are the reviews for Marineland Emperor and stealth heater? Or if there are better options please advice.

I am planning on 3 mollies, 3 cory and 3 tiger barbs

thanks
Babs

 

As far as I recall, the Emperor filters generally get really good reviews. I prefer the Whisper filters, mostly due to reliability and the fact that they are what I've always had. I think the Emperors use bio-wheels, which are pretty much the best as far as biological filtration from hang-on-back filters go.
The Stealth heater is (or was a few months ago) the Drs Foster and Smith customer favorite heater.
So both bits of equipment you are wondering about are pretty solid pieces of equipment, at least as far as those who purchase them are concerned.

If you're getting 3 mollies, make sure you either get all males, all females, or one male and two females (and prepare to deal with watching molly fry get eaten if you go the mixed gender route). If you get one female and two males, the males will pester her almost constantly, and the stress could make her very ill.
Otherwise, yours looks like a pretty good setup (I'm not a community expert, though, and I don't know if there's some problem between barbs and mollies)

 

The tigers have a reputation for fin nipping at tank mates. The preferred way to keep that under control is to keep them in groups of at least 6, which seems to result in their aggressive tendancies staying internal to each other, rather than spilling over to the other fish in the tank.

 

Hadn't thought of that.
Going with 3 mollies, 6 barbs, and 3 cories would put your tank at 33-39 inches of fish, depending on the kind of mollies you get. All of these fish fit pretty well within the guideline of "one inch per gallon" (which you seemed to already be aware of, as you had almost perfectly stocked the tank). A few types of dwarf cories might lower the amount by 3 more inches. (A few types of cory seem to only grow to 2 inches). Either way, this wouldn't be horribly overstocked, although it might be a bit cramped for the somewhat aggressive fish chosen.
Having broken several fishkeeping "rules" and gotten away with it, however, I've got to say that this tank could work out, even with the added barbs, and would be really neat if it did.

 

thanks for the input
I am thinking of the dwarf cory, which I can go to 2 instead I don't want to over stock that's way I I pick sets of 3.

I have read good reviews about the whisper

 

Sounds like a good plan. Do not go any lower than 2 on the cories. Like the others in your tank, they like to have friends around. My (single) cory died for no apparent reason. All anyone on the forum could think of was that he was too stressed from not having any other cories around.

 

another thought is to have 3 mollies and 6 barbs x the cory and go with ghost shrimp since they don't count in the numbers an inch

 

we have the visitherm stealth heaters now for all of the tanks and most have whisper filters, which are what we buy when we need a filter. 3 mollies and 6 barbs sound more doable and I think you'd have a better chance of a happy tank. although i'd still keep an eye on the barbs to be sure they'll play nice.

 

thanks for all the advise when I get my tank hopefully soon and it cycles I'll add the mollies first not sure if which sex I'll go with or 1 male and 2 females.

 

not sure how you feel about fry if you got males and females, but you'd most likely have the fry all (or almost all) eaten in that tank.

thanks for all the advise when I get my tank hopefully soon and it cycles I'll add the mollies first not sure if which sex I'll go with or 1 male and 2 females.