Questions about a 53g set up

Hey all. My husband and I recently bought a 53g Marineland aquarium. I don't have it set up yet (at all) so I'm just spending time playing around with aqadvisor. I was wondering how this set up looks. I'm going for a few different kinds of fish. I love the idea of a bunch of colorful fish with dense foliage in the back and sides. If you could give me feedback on whether it works, any other tips, that'd be awesome. Tank dimensions are 36"wx18.25"dx21.8"h.

So. What I'm thinking is 2 angelfish, 3 dwarf gouramis, 14 fancy guppies, 6 panda cory catfish, and 5 kuhlI loaches.

I'm looking at an Aquaclear 110 filter, but have no clue on heater. Would I need 150 watt or 200 watt? Does positioning matter? I also don't have good lights yet. Suggestions? I'm not getting fish anytime soon, just buying the set up piece by piece as I get paid and/or its on sale.

For plants, I'm thinking water wisteria, Anubias nana, and maybe some Java fern and Amazon swords. I'm honestly just going by what I read was hardy and easy for a beginner to grow.

(Updated with plant information. Aqadvisor seemed fine with all of the above, but suggestions still welcome.)

 

As far as the heater goes I believe its 5-10watts per gallon. You can always get 2 and have them at both ends of the tank.
What kind of plants will you be growing? This helps us determine what kind of lighting to suggest.
I believe you need 6+ kuhlI loaches? I always suggest 8+ of the loaches and cory cats.
You want to be careful with gouramis since they can be territorial. You usually can't find females and my two males fought for territory. I don't suggest angels with gouramis because they're both territorial and you don't want to deal with that during angels mating. Some people have successfully had both so I'll let them chime in. I'll also let others comment on any stocking or temperature concerns.
I have caribsea super naturals sand. So far my plants have been fine in it. Didnt know there was a floramax version or I probably would have bought that. And not in white. I'll never buy white sand again.

 

Thanks! I updated the original post because I realized I missed a bunch of stuff.

 

I'm not sure about water wisteria but I have all the other plants. I'll give you what was suggested to me for lighting. You can look at a finnex stingray its about $50 and was told it's good for low/moderate light plants. The finnex planted+ and the finnex planted+ 24/7 are usually $110-140 however I got my 24/7 for $94 on amazon. Check for their sales! These lights are more moderate/high light. Besides design the difference is the functions. The 24/7 mode has white green red and blue leds while I believe the original has white and red. The 24/7 has more bells and whistles but both are good lights. They both give off about 60 PAR in a 20g. I found some handy fishshop reviews on all 3 lights on youtube.
Amazon swords will need root tabs. I use and suggest seachem florish tabs. I also use apI leaf zone for a liquid fert once a week

 

Thanks! The reviews on Amazon say the stingray isn't bright enough for an 18" tall tank so planted+ it is!

 

Thanks! The reviews on Amazon say the stingray isn't bright enough for an 18" tall tank so planted+ it is!

Wasn't quite sure what was in your budget

 

I'm buying it all as I can, and I'm not in any hurry to get it all started. I can be patient for the better light.

 

Yay you came like I asked you to! (I'm the guy from Reddit) I recognized your post. How's the tank coming along? For lights, the planted plus or the 24/7 plus are both awesome and have different pros and cons. If you're looking something purely to grow your plants and show your tank a bit, the planted plus is awesome for that. The 24/7 however is what I have. It's amazing! The remote lets you customize the colors you show your tank in, has nighttime mode, a 24/7 cycle that has sunrises and sunsets, and will grow low-moderate light plants. I have the same plants as you mentioned, and they would grow perfect in the 24/7

 

Yeah! Here I am! I've got my fish picked out (different from above, admittedly), my heaters and filter picked out, plants, substrate, light, I've got everything picked out now! I'm just waiting on paychecks.

 

Welcome to fishlore!

I would suggest upping your kuhlI loach population to 8-10 depending on the dimensions of your tank. What are the dimensions by the way? Kuhli's do better in larger groups and doing the minimum group will almost guarantee you won't see them much.

Also, angelfish and panda cories are not compatible as angels like temps at 79 degrees or higher while pandas require cooler water. You could replace the pandas with aeneus or sterbaI cories or just do a really large kuhlI loach population like 12-14.

Are your dwarf gourami's 1 M and 2 F?

Also just keep an eye on your guppies as in my experience angelfish like to nip at them and that will eventually kill them. Others have had better success with them though.

 

I keep changing my mind on the fish, though I've pretty much talked myself out of the angelfish in favor of more schooling fish. I also realized I can't get female gouramis anywhere nearby. What do you think of this?

ETA: I really don't have my heart set on anything except the loaches which I think are hilarious to watch, and the guppies which are gorgeous. I think the panda cories are adorable so I like them. Other than that, I love the colors of the gourami, and I love the motion of schooling fish. I'm definitely open to suggestions if someone can think of a better tank set up for me.

 

The issue I see with that stock is your longfin danios (and maybe your rosy minnows not sure about them) like water a little bit cooler than the dwarf gourami and kuhlI loach (kuhlI loach is doable but it's at their extreme). And to get close you'd need to keep the danios in their max temp which isn't ideal. You'll either need to rethink the dwarf gourami and kuhlI or rethink the danios and maybe the minnows depending on their temp requirements. Something like a school of cherry barbs would make a nice replacement for the schooling fish.

 

I can do without the danios and minnows. I'll look into the cherry barbs. Do they get nippy at all? I read that barbs can get aggressive.

 

Welcome to the forum and glad you're here. congrats on the new tank. Cherry barbs are very peaceful with other fish. The males are red and the females a golden brown with a stripe down their side. Instead of the dwarf gourami take a look at sunset thick lipped gouramis. They get to be 4 inches. and are extremely peaceful with each other and other fish. I have a male and a female. they also swim all over the tank. The males and female are just about the same color. Another smaller but very peaceful gourami is the honey gourami which can be kept in a group. Another one to look into is the pearl gourami , also a peaceful type and gets about 5 inches I think. Alison

 

Ah! So many colorful options! Thank you!

 

You're welcome. Alison

 

I will suggest the pearl gourami. The only thing is they do not enjoy being with zippy fish and some kinds of danios are fast moving. So check that out. The pearls are very nice and generally peaceful. Just only get one male. I have 1 male and 3 females and I really enjoy them. have fun!

 

Thanks! I will check out the pearls.

Okay. What do you guys think of this set up?

 

I'm not too sure the pearl will work with the panda corys and otos since there is a temp incompatibility there. I think the lowest I would put a pearl in is at 76 and that's too high for the panda corys and otos I believe.

 

said the temp should be between 75-80 for all the fish in the list, but I will do more research. Thanks!

 

They don't take into consideration the temp needs of each individual fish. You would need to find temp compatible fish and stock accordingly.

 

Oh. It's told me before when fish had incompatible temperature ranges so I thought it would be fine. It looks like the low end of the gourami range and the high end of the cory do overlap by a couple degrees, but if I need to figure out something different, I can do that. What do you suggest?

 

You can do a cory like aeneus which have a wider temperature range and come into 3 different color variants - albino, bronze, green. There are other warmer water corys like duplicareus, adolfoi or oiapoquensis.

Are otos a must have on your list? I think the one you have is the one that requires cooler temps but not sure. @TexasDomer may have other suggestions.

 

They are not a must. I'll probably take them out in favor of more loaches.

 

They are not a must. I'll probably take them out in favor of more loaches.

Yeah you did have a lot of bottom dwellers!

 

I know. Lol. I fell in love with the loaches, my husband loves the catfish.

 

If your husband likes catfish take a look at porthole catfish.

 

I figured it out. I'll just put the gourami in a little sweater. Lol!

 

That's cute!

 

You could switch out the Pearl gourami for another fish? Your other fish are temp compatible. What about some honey gouramis (you can do a small group) or a dwarf gourami (single male, or M/F pair)?

Make sure you get all male guppies so you're not going to be overrun and overstocked with fry. Personally I'd also reduce the number of guppies.

 

Why reduce the number of guppies, out of curiosity?

 

Why reduce the number of guppies, out of curiosity?

They're not schooling fish, so they'll be all over your tank and will be quite distracting from the other species.

 

Oh! I didn't realize they weren't schooling fish. *feels dumb* okay. What would you suggest?

 

Idk which are temp compatible, but a type of tetra would look good!

 

Tetras it is! They've got so many neat varieties!

 

Oh! I didn't realize they weren't schooling fish. *feels dumb* okay. What would you suggest?

No worries! Everyone doesn't know something.

What about this:
9x KuhlI loaches
7x Panda cories
6x Otos
13x Cherry barbs
4x Male guppies
1x Dwarf or 2-4x Honey gouramis
8x Scholing species (lots of options: lemon tetras, neon tetras, danios, black neon tetras, glowlight tetras, etc.)

Personally I'd pick either the cories or the kuhlis and increase the school, but you can do both if you want.

 

What temp will you be keeping the tank? I'll help narrow down tetras!

 

I second not putting danios in with your current stock as well, because, as well as the fact that they might be a little annoying to some of the other fish, their temp requirements differ as well with some of the other fish (angels are one of those fish).

 

What temp will you be keeping the tank? I'll help narrow down tetras!

Probably 76-78 for the gourami, so if anything in there looks good for tetras, narrow away! I'm currently looking at

11 kuhlI loaches,
13 cherry barbs
4 male guppies
3 honey gouramis (if I can find them)
1 dwarf gourami (if I can't find the honeys)

+whatever lol

 

You could do a nice school of Cardinal tetras or bleeding heart tetras