# Spontanious 40 gallon tropical tank.



## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

Had a 40 gallon tank going, held cichlids I bought off chichlid2010 ( gorgious fish, any time hes selling.. Buy em) they were big enough to go into my 90gal. 

This left me with a cycled estamblished, 7 month of run time set up. Its running a topfin 40 HOB ( it takes the whisper style cartrages) and a hush elite 25 HOB. 

We went out and bought a bunch of cheap tropicals from a pet box store, on boxing week. We have in stock..
3x black skirt tetras
2x red minor tetras
1x glow light tetra
4x jumbo neon tetra ( more to come)
6x zebra danio
4x scissortail rasbora
2x mollies ( those my wife bought) 

Its lightly planted.. But gunna become more so. Today Im gunna aquascape it... Or try.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

When it comes to stocking, tetras normally do better in larger shoals. If you do some research some species similar enough will shoal together, but not many of them.

as for going planted, good call  just remember its better to fill in the tank with as much plants as you think your final display will have, this will suck out the nutrients and not allow algae to get a foot hold. Replace plants for variety later if needed. Whenever i start a tank i get some dirt cheap or free fast growers and tons of java fern to start off and slowly remove them as i scape in more plants.

what kind of light fixture is on the tank (and is it the full tank lenght), and how high above the substrate is the bottom of the fixture. This will help determine if you have the right amount of the light to keep things balanced from the start


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

We lost 9 fish this week. ( thank goodness this box store has a money back policy) 

But Im confident I fixed it, no dead fish this morning, and a pair of danio's is doing the dance. Temps at 24 all levels are good. Nitrates were at 10ppm ( but still safe) so i did a WC, gravel vacuumed. I added cycle and aqua plus to the WC water. Changed all the filter media cleaned out the tubing on the filters. I suspect there was ammonia somewhere. 

Lighting. 1x 18" T8 coralife 10,000k and 1x aqua GLO 18" T8. 19" off the substrate, however. Its 3" shy on either side


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

The 1 glowlite was the only one left, the other red minor and two neons died so i didnt want to add more till I fix the issue. 

I want two more black skirts, 4-5 more neons, 4 more glow light.


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

I would kind of be worried about having changed out all the media if you r worried about ammonia. Maybe take some squeezings from the filter on your 90??


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

The thing is I have no idea what caused. Didnt loose a single cichlid, never changed a thing ( other than water etc ) nitrites are zero so now that I think of it, if ammonia spiked or was high, i should see more nitires? 

Who knows. Might have been the fish this store isn't really knowen for "high quality" but the fish ranged from $ .47 - $3.00. Maybe theres a reason why they were so cheap


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

it could have been d difference in hardness or even ph . they may have just got unpacked into the pet store tank then back into a bag and to your house as died of shock.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

in regards to your lighting, you are definately low light, you will need 4 bulbs of t8 at that height to be able to grow plants decently (even then thats low end of the medium light threshold), right now you will be in the range for java moss, anubias and java ferns mostly.

Pretty much its 4 t8s = 1 t5ho light with a fair quality reflector, like this:
T5 Full-Spectrum Lights - Lee Valley Tools

1 t5ho at 19" above the substrate would give you lighting sufficient for most plants, even many foreground species


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## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

As I stated before.... All levels were fine. Im not gunna worry unless another dies but so far so good!

Ya, i know itsnot the best lighting, that can be upgraded, so far I have 3 bunches corkscrew, cabamba and another one forget its name. Im not going to do a crazy high tech setup, maybe I'll grab an LED fixture down the road.


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## fishgal (Jul 20, 2011)

i kinda think adding 22 fish at the same time, even with an established tank is a little excessive IMO.


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