Hello,

I am new this particular forum and quite excited. Wonderful information on it. I wanted to ask about what are good site or stores to buy supplies for an aquarium. Currently I have a 20 gallon tank fresh water tank with 2 fish, both gouramis, one gold and one blue. I was thinking of doing a redo of my entire tank. All my plants are old, several years old and I would like to get new ones and spice up the tank. (I just recently graduated and finally have a job to spend some money on things!)

Well I had a couple of questions:
1. What is a good site to buy aquarium supplies such as plants, decorations and what now? (I stated this before)
2. What are some new fish that will be okay to put with my gouramis? I usually only put those because they look the healthiest out of the fish at Petco.
3. Is it possible to put 1 or 2 live plants in there? I would like that very much?
If you could help me with that, it would be awesome. Thank you very much.

Hello and welcome to the community!

1.Right here is a great place to get plants.Live ones that is.Also if you like driftwood,there is someone on here selling that too,so browse the site and find the area titled Freshwater sales and look around there.All the sellers have a feedback score so you will know if they are good sellers or not.

2.You can get a nice school of rasboras or tetras to go with the gouramis.

3.You can indeed have live plants!It just depends on your lighting and substrate as to what type!

Please share pics of your setup,the gouramis sound pretty!

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Thanks for helping me out. When you say schools of rasboras or tetras, how many fish do you mean? Second, I am not sure what the lighting is, it is the light that came with the tank. I do realize that is not very descriptive, but i will try to look for more information. Also I seem to be developing a black mold on my fake plants in the aquarium. Do you know of any way to removing that, that doesnt include rubbing it off with a sponge which I have been doing. As well, what are the pros/cons of driftwood. Is it just floating on the top of your tank, is it good for your fish, does it make your tank healthier? Thanks for the help.

No problem!

A school would be about seven or more,for them to be secure.In a 20 gallon with the two gouramis,i would do seven of one of the types.Also keep an eye on those two gouramis you have,they are territorial,like bettas.One may harrass the other.

Stock lighting,most likely is a flourescent bulb,about fifteen watts,so that would be low lighting.With light this low you can grow things like java fern,java moss,anubias nana,cryptocoryne wendtii and a few other select plants.

Benefits of driftwood,is its a great natural decor,and the fish seem to be happy with it.Many will leech tannins and turn the water brown,but boiling it,doing waterchanges and carbon in the filter will help that.It poses no issues to fish though just many people dont like yellowish water.

The black mold is most likely algae building up,and the only thing you can do really is wipe it off,or go live plants to soak up the extra nutrients.

Do you per chance know your water params,and have cycled the tank?

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

In a 20g you could do 7 Lemon Tetras with your 2 gouramis. Lemon Tetras are very pretty!

Fish LOVE live plants! Gouramis enjoy the shade they provide (if you let them grow tall and drape over the top of the water) and will even build bubble nests in them. Most fish like to swim and hide in plants, and pick them over to eat any pieces of food that get stuck on them or even bits of algae growing on them.

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I get most of my fish supplies from fosterandsmithaquatics.com. Seem to have the best overall prices and they have free shipping pretty often,

Should I think about getting new lighting? Would I be able to get better plants, and if I do go for better lighting, what would you suggest that is considered "good" lighting. How exactly do you order driftwood, online here? I am not entirely sure what drift wood is as well.

Would you recommend something like this for driftwood?
Freshwater Aquarium Decorations: Mopani Driftwood, Swahala Driftwood

Going for plants, would something like this be good?
Aquatic Plants for Freshwater Aquariums: Aquarium Plant Pack - Standard

Mopani is a great choice.Good lighting will be something plants can use.If you have a strip light,most common are the ones that come with the tank.That will be a T8 bulb,most likely.In that case just find a bulb that has a Kelven rating of 6700,or close to that.Anything that says its for plants should be good to use.

If you dont mind the cost going into a T5 NO light would be a great investment.

That plant package should do ok for regular lighting.

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Sounds good. I the lamp that came with my fish tank years ago. I will look to see if i can change it. Do you know where is a good place to buy the light or should I just go with the one from the aquarium site given before. Thanks. Looks like Ill go with that plant assortment. Do you know what particular requirements are for the plants like dirt/rocks? All I have is the rock that I got originally with my tank and nothing more. Thanks.