as for water hardness, i am on a well, but we have a water softner
Tynk wrote:
dave349 wrote:
hey im a newbie here, and i'm thinking of starting a new community in a
45 gallon tank i was given quite awhile ago but has been sitting around
for a few years. i have a couple ideasfor species for the tank, but not
sure how many, and also what other types would be good.

- bala shark (at least 2, i know they like to be in pairs)
- freshwater angelfish
- some type of pleca (i don't know much about these but i heard they
eat algae, correct me if i'm wrong please, alsomore info on them)
- and maybe another type of Cichlid

thanks in advance for your help,

David

Hello David.

Well, for a 45g tank you're not going to be able to have any Bala
Sharks, especially 2 with other fish. They simply get too large.
Angelfish would be fine, but "another type of Cichlid" would be
something like a Blue Ram or Bolivian Ram,or maybe a Severum. Angels
are Cichlids, but most cichlids aren't fine with Angels.
As for a Pleco, again...be careful on the type you buy. Many are
omnivores and aren't going to work too hard on algae control. Also, the
common ones get HUGE and a 45g tank is too small for a fully grown
common Pleco.
For algae...check out the Bristle nose Plecostomus. Nice fish, stays
relatively small and does a nice job on algae.
They also look pretty cool with their freaky faces. I have one on my
75g and he/she does a great job. Better than any other type I've had in
there that were herbivores.
Now, iff you go with Rams as your "other Cichlid"...your water would
need to be soft. They do not fair well in hard water. I learned this
the hard way twice.
Silly me thinking they would adapt like Angelfish do to harder water.
Not the case.
Now since you have an empty tank, you'll need to cycle it.
This means the nitrifying bacteria colony need to start in order to
maintain the health of the tank, and covert harmful ammonia to nitrite
and to nitrate.
The best way to do this is fishless cycling. That means without harming
any fish to get the cycle going. This can be done more than one way.
The easiest way is find a product called Bio Spira. Not all shops carry
it, so it may be hard to find. It's the greatest though. It will
actually cycle your tank in 24 hours and then you can fully stock a
tank right away. A really amazing product.
Forget about other cycling product out there, as they have the wrong
bacteria in them....such as Cycle, Bio Zyme, Stress Zyme, etc. They all
say they cycle the tank, but they really aren't.
Now if you can't find Bio Spira, you can use a method which uses
household ammonia.
(there are directions for this way that must be followed. If you need
them ask)
Another great way is to "seed" the tank. This is done by taking an
amount of gravel from a healthy, established tank (such as from a
friends house), but I wouldn't recommend getting it from a pet shop.
Too many diseases / parasites run in the tanks. It would be asking for
trouble to start with.
Always remember when stocking a new tank to do it slowly. A couple fish
at a time, a couple / few weeks apart is fine. The bacteria colony have
to have time to adjust their numbers to keep up with the new bio load.
Do your weekly changes (20 % is good) and do vacuum the gravel as well.
Don't worry about vacuuming the gravel during the cycling period, as
the bacteria are sticky and adhere to every surface in the tank, and on
all sides of each piece of gravel.
They secrete a substance that's as sticky as glue, so they're not going
anywhere during a cleaing. They also do not float about in the water,
so don't believe any of the myths about not changing water vacuuming
durging the cycle period.
Being partial to Angelfish and Bettas (retired breeder.....for now) I'd
go with 4-5 small Angels and let them grow out. = )
Good luck and welcome to the hobby.
Stick around and ask many Q's!