What Are Your Tanks Like Now, And If You Could Start Them Over What Would You Change?

I have a 75 gallon community I've had up for about 9 years, and I've been thinking about what I would do differently if I knew everything I do now when I started the tank. What tanks do you have, and how would you change things if you could do it again?

I'll go first.
My 75 gallon currently has:
1 standard colored Bristlenose Pleco (Ancistrus sp.)
12 Panda Corycats (Corydoras panda)
11 Gold Tetras (Hemigrammus rodwayi)
7 Black Neon Tetras (Hemigrammus herbertaxelrodi)
10 Cardinal Tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi)
10 Harlequin Rasboras (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)
1 male Honey Sunset Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
1 male Bolivian Ram (Mikrogeophagus altispinosa)

If I could start over from the beginning, I would get a different type of Corydoras species that was hardier and could do better in warm water - such as SterbaI Corycats. Pandas can't handle temperatures of 78 or higher, and are more sensitive to water quality than other varieties of Corydoras, both of which are because Pandas come from cool mountain streams. Getting a different type of Cory means I could have a higher overall temperature, which in turn means I could do German Blue Rams instead of the Bolivian Ram. I love the intelligence and peacefulness of my Bolivian, but German Blue Rams are almost impossibly beautiful, and I would love to get a regularly colored German Blue Ram and an Electric Blue Ram instead of a Bolivian Ram. I'd also choose not to get the Black Neons, which are a third tetra species I just didn't end up liking in the aquarium as much as I thought I would, and would get 7 more Cardinal Tetras instead to allow for a more impressive school. And while I love my Bristlenose and his amazing algae eating capabilities, he blends in so well it is hard to spot him in the tank, so I would like to get a Bristlenose that is a different color - optimally a Lemon Bristlenose or Super Red Bristlenose, which would be expensive but would turn the largest fish into the tank into a show stopper with his coloring, and since they live 12 years I think it would be worth the investment. The Harlequins, Gold Tetras, and my sweet Honey Gourami I wouldn't change at all, though, I'm happy with the group sizes and how they go in my tank. I'm especially happy that I got the brighter, more orange Honey Sunset variety of T. chuna.

As far as decor goes, this aspect at least I was able to redo recently, so I'm pretty happy with that. Nice smooth sand, plenty of hiding spots, everyone seems happy with it.

 

Wow, your tank is beautiful love your set-up. Are those real plants?

 

No, none of them are real. I decided since I was already balancing the needs of so many species of fish that I didn't want to consider the needs of various live plants in addition to that. I did look pretty carefully for realistic looking fake ones, though.

 

No, none of them are real. I decided since I was already balancing the needs of so many species of fish that I didn't want to consider the needs of various live plants in addition to that. I did look pretty carefully for realistic looking fake ones, though.

Yeah you did a great job organizing them and making them look real.

 

You have a very pretty tank. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures on this computer, nor can I put them on here. I have a ten gallon snail and shrimp tank, as well as a still stocking 40 gallon breeder. The ten gallon I have had for almost two years now, I started out with a betta and nerite snails. After my betta passed away, I switched to nerite snails, along with amano and dwarf blue shrimp. For this tank I would say I wish I started out with more live plants, and did more research on plants before I added them. As it is I am currently adding more and more plants to the tank to make it nice for the baby shrimp.

For my 40 gallon breeder I have been stocking it for basically a year. Right now it has kuhlI loaches, diamond tetras, and snails. The final stocking will be kuhlI loaches, diamond tetras, snails, pearl gourami, celebees rainbowfish, and queen Arabesque pleco (L260). I do regret the positioning of my largest piece of drift wood. I'm thinking now it would looked nice in the center. Problem is the kuhlI loaches have made it their cave, so I don't want to move it and disturb them lol.

 

I have my 65G. There are a couple of things I regret. My Neon Tetras. I love them but they are a little bit plain. I would have originally got Rummynose Tetras. I think they are beautiful and pretty. I also wouldn't of ordered 2 Bolivian Rams online. It turns out that they were both males and fought constantly. I had to move one of them to another tank and they take up space in there.

 

I only have one community tank. Immediately after cycling I filled it up too hastily with fish on sale and now I am bored with it in well under a year, so now I need to re-home fish. I purchased a school of lemon tetras which I love, and a school of blackskirts I could live without. Bulletproof fish but they don't wind my watch. Too much overlap of the schools. The lemons school properly. I also added two small schools of cory cats. Should have bought one. One is the bronze cory. Another bulletproof fish but I am bored with them. Easy to fix but I have to give some fish away for no good reason. Everybody is very happy and healthy so it's just me being bored. A large tank is way too much work to not be excited about it.

 

Good thread I have a 120 gallon juwel vision bow front with a mad mix of cichlids and bottom dwellers which works for me that I wouldn't change,
Stock:
6 silver dollars
3parrot fish
2 synodontis decorus
1 common pleco
1 green severum
1 albino red fin shark
1oscar
Il re-home if and when I have to.

I also have a 55 with:
2 firemouth
9corys mixed up but soon to be rectified. (Removed)
6 columbian red fin tetra
And a standard red fin shark



under said 55 is the fry tank with about 8 convict fry, would have been more but I had a miss-hap, but I learnt, they are purely for enjoyment, all my fish are for enjoyment. I also have a 32g reef tank
currently still under maintenance from a recent upgrade. To answer the initial question, no changes its all been a learning experience and still is.

 

I'm pretty happy with all my tanks atm, but if I could start my main tank over, my 55, I would go for a biotope instead of the assortment I have in there now. I don't even know which zone I would choose, but I think all the fish would be happier in bio-specific tanks. Plus it would get rid of so much stocking worry.

Also, I would get regular skirt tetras instead of glo. I wanted one school of glo fish in a community tank of regular fish, so I got the tetras. However, one little danio had ended up in the tetra tank at the lfs, and then was sold to us with the tetras. I didn't even realize he was a different species at first. Once I did I got him a school and I like them more than the tetras. But I now have 2 schools of glo fish and it's a little too much unnatural neon for me.

I did try adding regular zebras to the school thinking they'd school. Oddly, they did not, and all the regular zebra danio died one by one, leaving only the glo. On the brightside, the tank is flipping gorgeous with only the blue light on lol