Hi, i just got a new tank and im trying to figure out what all i need as far as equipment and plants. the fish i would like to put in are the following:

5x Angelfish
2x Gourami (not sure on species)
8x Serpae Tetras
3x Clown Loaches
2x Spotted Rafael Catfish
1x Redtail Shark
1x Pleco???

I plan to go planted, im just not sure about what to get, this will be my first live plant tank. Also, any suggestions on my fish setup would be very helpful too, Thank you.


Andrew

You do know the Clown Loaches can get big. I would maybe opt for 4 YoYo Loaches (Botia almorhae). Also you may want to consider only one catfish as they also get kinda big-mine was about 6" or go with a small school of Corydoras cats. Also most plecos grow really big-mine is currently 13" and ruining my planted tank-a better choice woul be a Clown Pleco (Peckoltia vittata) which only grows to about 4".

If you want help with algae control try a small school (4-6) of Otocinclus cats which only grow to about 2". Also the addition of Malaysian Trumpet Snails will help keep the gravel clean and they will not eat your plants.

You have to remember the larger the fish the more waste it creates-more of a bio-load. Keeping the smaller species will reduce the bio-load in your tank.

A good choice for plants are Vallisneria, Amazon Swords and Anubias and/or Java Fern to attach to driftwood. Also Crystalwort (Riccia fluitans) can be used as a floating plant and is a good plant for using up excess nutrients.

You may also want to consider using a nutient rich substrate or mixing your bottom layer of gravel with Laterite-this will provide iron to the plants without adding it to the water column and hopefully reduce algae outbreaks. Also since you will be keeping some species that are bottom feeders your top layer should be sand or fine gravel to prevent injury to the fish.

If you plant heavily you can probably skimp on chemical filtration and worry more about biological and mechanical filtration-activated carbon can remove some needed trace elements. You will also want your filter return to reduce surface agitation so as not to reduce the amount of CO2 in the water-it is needed by the plants.

A good canister filter filled with mechanical filtration media and its output going to a FBF (Fluidized Bed Filter) would be a good choice. You may need to add a by-pass connection between the canister and FBF for proper flowrates-it all depends on the output flowrate of your canister filter as compared to the input flowrate required of the FBF.

OK cool, so for the filtration does a Eheim 2213 w/ a Rainbow FB300 sound ok? what about lighting? I was thinking a AquaSun T5 with a t5 Ocean sun light and t5 Floral sun light, should this be ok?

I have never used an Eheim filter and believe the flowrate is about 116 gph which might not be quite enough to power the the Rainbow FB300 (I own one and ended up running it off an old AquaClear 301). You can try the Eheim if you already own it and if you don't I would look for a filter with at least a 250 gph flowrate.

My personal opinion would be to use about 350 gph of filtration for a tank this size to give it enough turnover per day to be effective. You could use a barbed ball valve and a tee to connect your FBF.

Not familiar with the Aquasun light either but, T5's are a good choice and I don't see a problem there. For a freshwater planted tank stick with full spectum bulbs between 5,500K-10,000K (I use 6,700K bulbs) and a plant light if so desired-you can use 1 or 2 of each depending on the light fixtures capacities or use all full spectrum daylight bulbs.

Another handy item is atimer or two to control the on/off cycle of the lighting and keep it constant from day to day (trust me, it's easy to forget to turn your lights on and off or be able to do it the same time every day).