My First Planted Aquarium

[BreeMarie]

Hello! I am thrilled to have found this forum. Not many people IRL in my life are interested in the obsession I've gained in the last couple months with aquarium keeping so I am hopeful I can nerd out here. I started my first planted aquarium about two weeks ago. 

Questions:
I am fish-less cycling and I've been doing research for my first fish to bring home. Is the following list too many for my 15 gallon Fluval Flex, which is only about 11 gallons of actual water space.

• 2 Honey Gourami  
• 8 Ember Tetra
• 6 Pygmy CoryDoras    
• 1 Japanese Trap Door Snail  

I've read that you should only bring home one species at a time. Is that true, if so how long between new additions do you typically wait?


 

Tank Info:

• Tank is currently two weeks old.
• I am fish-less cycling with fluval flakes
• Fluval Flex 15 gal Built in Lights and Filter 132GPH
• 40-50% water changes on Saturdays ( Trying to do two 25% changes in the next few weeks to combat newly found white hair algae)
• Substrate Seachem Flourite Black Clay Gravel and Seachem Flourite Black Sand
• Dosing Liquid Fert 2-3 times a week - All in One Liquid Fertizlier by UNS (Wish I would have found easy green before ordering it but I'll use what I got)
• 5 root tabs in substrate
• Dosed Seachem Flourish Advance and Stability for 7 days
• Running CO2 at about 50 BPM
• I switched to the Tetra test strips after seeing a video where Cory said the API brand were no good. Apparently my water is ALOT harder and with a higher pH than I thought it was. Next water change I am going to try using some distilled to balance it out. I ordered the API liquid kit off the website just to have my bases covered.
• I plan to add in some baby dwarf tears in the front to carpet.
• Yes, I am a dork with a spreadsheet. 😅
  
  

Edited September 13, 2020 by BreeMarie

[Aquatic Journal]

I think this stocking list should be fine! The plants should help keep the tank nice and clean.

The reasoning for adding one species at a time is just to slowly introduce fish. Your cycle can crash if it goes from 0 fish to 20 in one day. That would be too much fish poop for your beneficial bacteria to handle. I would just add them slowly and keep an eye on ammonia and nitrates. 

[ADMWNDSR83]

1 hour ago, BreeMarie said:

Hello! I am thrilled to have found this forum. Not many people IRL in my life are interested in the obsession I've gained in the last couple months with aquarium keeping so I am hopeful I can nerd out here. I started my first planted aquarium about two weeks ago. 

Questions:
I am fish-less cycling and I've been doing research for my first fish to bring home. Is the following list too many for my 15 gallon Fluval Flex, which is only about 11 gallons of actual water space.

• 2 Honey Gourami  
• 8 Ember Tetra
• 6 Pygmy CoryDoras    
• 1 Japanese Trap Door Snail  

I've read that you should only bring home one species at a time. Is that true, if so how long between new additions do you typically wait?


 

Tank Info:

• Tank is currently two weeks old.
• I am fish-less cycling with fluval flakes
• Fluval Flex 15 gal Built in Lights and Filter 132GPH
• 40-50% water changes on Saturdays ( Trying to do two 25% changes in the next few weeks to combat newly found white hair algae)
• Substrate Seachem Flourite Black Clay Gravel and Seachem Flourite Black Sand
• Dosing Liquid Fert 2-3 times a week - All in One Liquid Fertizlier by UNS (Wish I would have found easy green before ordering it but I'll use what I got)
• 5 root tabs in substrate
• Dosed Seachem Flourish Advance and Stability for 7 days
• Running CO2 at about 50 BPM
• I switched to the Tetra test strips after seeing a video where Cory said the API brand were no good. Apparently my water is ALOT harder and with a higher pH than I thought it was. Next water change I am going to try using some distilled to balance it out. I ordered the API liquid kit off the website just to have my bases covered.
• I plan to add in some baby dwarf tears in the front to carpet.
• Yes, I am a dork with a spreadsheet. 😅
  
  

First of all, @BreeMarie, I'm impressed at your thoughtfulness and planning... and this is coming from a guy that just did an entire theme tank around a picture bough at a yard sale!(You can see it in "Theme tank" under the photos tab.)  I also love the look of your tank!  I don't think you would be overstocked at all, but I would say bring them in slowly.  In my opinion, I would probably bring in 2 or 3 tetras to start, maybe in another week or two since I see your nitrate is present.  Allow those two a week or so to allow the bb to catch up with their waste, then bring in the rest of the tetras in the same fashion.  After that I, personally, would bring in the cories( I would bring those in all at once to keep the shoal dynamic), then the gouramis.  I would bring the snail in last once he has enough to feed on (Where I made my mistake!)  

That all being said, I'm relatively new myself, so take everything I've said with somewhere between a grain and a shaker of salt!  Looking forward to walking through this journey with you! 

[BreeMarie]

Thank you @Aquatic Journal! In my mind, I knew to keep testing the water indefinitely but it didn't register to test the water because of a fish addition specifically. That makes so much sense and I'm laughing that I didn't put the concept of the two together. 🤦‍♀️

Thank you @ADMWNDSR83! I wouldn't have ever thought to split up bringing home the ember school. According to my readings and Cory's content, they are a pretty hardy fish so I think bringing them home first makes a ton of sense and I appreciate the feedback on the order and why. I think that is what I'll do!! Your theme tank is wonderful. I love the koi angel fish. This is my first tank so I have a lot to learn before I go bigger but I'd really love to do a bigger tank one day for angel fish. They are majestic. However, I already can feel the multiple tank itch and already know my next one will be a low tech betta with growing edibles out of the top. I am obsessed with Foo the Flowerhorn's betta tank. I linked it below.

I have been super lucky to not have any cloudiness but I think that is because I so super heavily planted and I rinsed my substrate for at least half an hour in the front yard. My neighbors probably thought I was crazy, being crouched over a 5 gallon bucket for so long literally flooding the front yard into the street. They already think I'm weird cause I put a huge bird cage with my bearded dragon in it out in the front yard every weekend so what's another weirdo thing. 🤣

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by BreeMarie

[ADMWNDSR83]

For what it's worth, my vote is a picture of the bearded dragon is needed in the other pets thread under the Off topic general category!

[Alison]

My lfs recommend building the tank from the top down since the bottom dwellers can be a bit more sensitive to water quality than the others. They advised I take it slow and wait at least two weeks between introductions to allow the tank to adjust to the new additions. So I second advice that was already given.

I also second needing pictures of this bearded dragon.

[BreeMarie]

Thank you @Alison! That is interesting to think of it top down for order. I'm curious to do some research on why bottom dwellers are sensitive. That will work out really well because my carpeting dwarf tears come in today and I'd like to get them super established before I bring in the bottom dwellers anyways! I'm still trying to figure out dosing CO2 at the right levels consistently so I may still wait a good month before I even start with the first tetras just to be super careful to avoid gassing them. 

I will definitely share pictures of my beardie in the other pets channel and tag you guys so you can see her! 🙂 

[ADMWNDSR83]

1 minute ago, BreeMarie said:

Thank you @Alison! That is interesting to think of it top down for order. I'm curious to do some research on why bottom dwellers are sensitive. That will work out really well because my carpeting dwarf tears come in today and I'd like to get them super established before I bring in the bottom dwellers anyways! I'm still trying to figure out dosing CO2 at the right levels consistently so I may still wait a good month before I even start with the first tetras just to be super careful to avoid gassing them. 

I will definitely share pictures of my beardie in the other pets channel and tag you guys so you can see her! 🙂 

I was too big of a scaredy corycat to mess with co2, I went with all gassless plants!  Once again, I applaud your bravery 😄

[BreeMarie]

Thank you @ADMWNDSR83! I initially was not going to do CO2. I didn't want to get overwhelmed by the hobby. However, by the time I had picked out all of the plants I wanted I realized that since I was wanting to heavily plant and do carpeting in the foreground (because I was so inspired by so many of the aquascapers on youtube) that I would need to do CO2 whether I liked it or not. 

So I wanted to start small.  I'm starting with the little small flu-val kit that I hot rodded with a bubble counter and a glass diffuser. I think a lot of newbies do the fluval kit despite alot of people saying that it was more hassle than its worth. Which is technically true because I have to manage it manually daily. 

I'm still researching different options for my final set up cause I kind of want to do inline with the whole selinoid and regulators and stuff but for now I'm keeping it simple and doing it manually to give myself time to do more research. 
 

[ADMWNDSR83]

Beasty!  I just went with MicroSwords so they will spread by runner and eventually for a nice little grassy carpet in front of my swords and jungle val in the back. 

[Leo2o915]

22 hours ago, BreeMarie said:

Hello! I am thrilled to have found this forum. Not many people IRL in my life are interested in the obsession I've gained in the last couple months with aquarium keeping so I am hopeful I can nerd out here. I started my first planted aquarium about two weeks ago. 

Questions:
I am fish-less cycling and I've been doing research for my first fish to bring home. Is the following list too many for my 15 gallon Fluval Flex, which is only about 11 gallons of actual water space.

• 2 Honey Gourami  
• 8 Ember Tetra
• 6 Pygmy CoryDoras    
• 1 Japanese Trap Door Snail  

I've read that you should only bring home one species at a time. Is that true, if so how long between new additions do you typically wait?


 

Tank Info:

• Tank is currently two weeks old.
• I am fish-less cycling with fluval flakes
• Fluval Flex 15 gal Built in Lights and Filter 132GPH
• 40-50% water changes on Saturdays ( Trying to do two 25% changes in the next few weeks to combat newly found white hair algae)
• Substrate Seachem Flourite Black Clay Gravel and Seachem Flourite Black Sand
• Dosing Liquid Fert 2-3 times a week - All in One Liquid Fertizlier by UNS (Wish I would have found easy green before ordering it but I'll use what I got)
• 5 root tabs in substrate
• Dosed Seachem Flourish Advance and Stability for 7 days
• Running CO2 at about 50 BPM
• I switched to the Tetra test strips after seeing a video where Cory said the API brand were no good. Apparently my water is ALOT harder and with a higher pH than I thought it was. Next water change I am going to try using some distilled to balance it out. I ordered the API liquid kit off the website just to have my bases covered.
• I plan to add in some baby dwarf tears in the front to carpet.
• Yes, I am a dork with a spreadsheet. 😅
  
  

You can add more at at time you careful with feedings and don’t Over feed i would recommend looking at getting Fritz zyme seven that will also help you out when you add more fish or even better if you get the Fritz turbostart 700 will cycle it even faster. Hope that helps and the stocking list should be fine specially with plants in it 

[BreeMarie]

Thank you for the tips @Leo2o915! I'll definitely look into those products!

[Leo2o915]

9 hours ago, BreeMarie said:

Thank you for the tips @Leo2o915! I'll definitely look into those products!

Anytime they both are really good can’t go wrong with Fritz 

[BreeMarie]

I got this awesome up close shot of a snail that must have hatched from hitchhiking eggs on a plant. This thing is a third of the size of my pinkie nail. I've seen a few snails and lots of eggs that I tried to clear out before they over took the tank. I call all of the snails in my tank 'Gary'.

I took a video of him. He is cute and gross. 🤣

Edited September 25, 2020 by BreeMarie