The 20 gallon adventure

bubbles1

Okay so I recently bought a 20 gallon high aquarium. I got it Sunday and managed to finally make it visible because my black was awfully dirty and I was told to not clean it... Big mistake.. After like 20 water changes it cleared up ALOT, it's now in the beginning of the cycle after a few days. I read a lot of things online to help cycle. I raised my the temp,I have a bunch of floating Hornwort, a small container full of sand and gravel from other tanks, and I put my other filter media from my ten gallon in my tank for about a day... And it made a big mess so I took it out... I was reading to do all these things online to help cycle.. Is there anything else I should do to help cycle quickly? I did an ammonia test today and I have about .25 ppm so it's not ready yet.

I was wondering I plants are okay to be planted during this stage? I have soe rotala rotunifolia, baby tears and dwarf hair grass waiting to go in it, is it to toxic and a bad idea to put in?

Also I bought a 2 bulb 24 inch coralife light fixture, that came with two bulbs, both 6700 k 65watt... Does anyone know what light rating these would be? High? Low?

I also tested my ph and it came out around 7.6.. Is this to high? I was wanting tetras would these paremeters be bad? Should I get some buffer?

I'm not sure what I actually want to stock in this tank yet... I would kinda want like some bottom dwellers like cories, some nice school of something little and I like thick schools and where they stick really close together.. Any idea for some good species? And also perhaps some kinda centrepiece fish like a Keyhole Cichlid, ram or angelfish maybe... Any help on stocking?

Thanks for all help bubbles

jentralala

Plants are good to put in while it's cycling, they help suck up any extra ammonia/nitrite/nitrate :) I'd go ahead and plant.

As for stocking, params, light, I don't really have much of an idea there. I'd wait for someone more experienced. My only comment would be to avoid an angelfish. Angels should be kept in either groups of 5/6, which requires a 55gal minimum, preferably a 75gal. If not in groups they should be kept in a proven mated pair which requires somewhere around either a 29 long or larger. They also can't be kept with anything else in the tank, they get a bit touchy when they breed from what I've heard :)

I'm sure someone with more experience will come along to help, I hope you keep us updated on the tank! New tanks are so exciting :D

bubbles1

alright thanks! i just planted them all! ill post a pic of the tank soon its at the very beggining stages.. i really wanna go slow with this tank, i dont have all my decor yet because during boxing week there was none :P i got an empty 20 gallon high for like 15$, my light that was origanally 200$ for 100$ and the guy siad it was a really great light for plants it even has a fan and two light switches for each bulb, and i got a 20-30 galon heater and a 30 gallon filter all like 50% off it was a great dea! and so i snagged some plants as they were 75% off aswell.

ya i was pretty sure someone would say that.. it was worth a shot angels are amzing!

my planning on stocking would just be based around this:
a large school of Tetras or rasbora or barbs or rainbows - i just really want some nice schooling behavior in my tank, not like strict schooling only but somehing the always stay in a group or a shoal together, i had a group of 10 harla rasbora and they never schooled, alot of people said thy schooled and ive seen it myself but in my tank they never did, someone suggested because they were happy and not scared so there was no need to school. but anyways love schoolig :P

next id want some small algae control like for example a small colony with shrimp if compatible, or like two siamese algae eaters or otto's maybe

also id want my school of corys... i just love corys, and my store has a huge variety of ones ive never heard of so ill want to get a really nice species.

and lastly the centerpiece. i was thinking some small cichlid. like keyhole, ram, flag cichlid, even dwarf pikes , or perhaps a single sajica? or even just something that sticks out ALOT and has an interesting behavior.. like maybe a Dwarf Puffer or a trio of nice swordtails like the Koi swords? or maybe a pair or trio of sailfin mollies?
im up to all suggestions!

ps. i have neon tetras and apistogramma in my other tank so none of those ;)

oh and lastly can anyone give my suggestions for some really nice aquatic plants?

thanks for all help!! bubbles.
thanks for all help