New to the hobby ?s

ttiger72

Hello...New here and to the hobby. I have a 29Gl tank that I have had up for about 2 weeks now. I bought a kit from Elite and have the Elite Hush 35 filter. First, I am cycling using Danios (please no comments - took the advice I got from Aquarium Adventures since I am new) Tank is doing fairly well, AA does water testing and told me this past Friday I was doing good. I also have 6 small plants in the tank. Found out that I have low iron in the tank (plants turning yellow) and added some chemical that contains chleated iron. I have 10 danios in the tank and two algae eaters (not sure what they are silver with a black stripe) because I have algae on my plant leaves, apparently these fish will only eat the algae and do a good job cleaning plants. Now on to my questions.

Can someone give me a recommendation on water testing kits?

Is the Elite Hush a good filter?

I am starting to think about stocking fish (numbers and kinds of fish) now and really am not sure what or how to plan since I am really new to the hobby. My wife wants colorful, I would like an Angel or two but not sure if my tank is big enough for them. Can someone give me some thoughts on what to look at? What would be good with the Danios? Also, can I put shrimp in there instead of plecos or loaches?


Thanks for your time.

soco1125

Hi there, ttiger72! Welcome to the "hobby". :)

I can't tell you a whole lot about your filter or test kits. I personally swear by bio-wheel filters and have never had any problems with test kits.

As far as your fish go, your algae eater sounds like a Siamese Algae Eater (Crossocheilus siamensis) which is excellent for algae control, but you might want to look it up on google to see if that's the case. I don't think angels would be a good idea for your tank because they really do good in numbers of 3 or more, and your tank would get overcrowded very quickly. I reccomend dwarf guramis (Colisa lalia) which are colourful enough for your wife and also have beautiful finnage like angels do. I think you both would be happy with these little fellows. If you go with smaller fish like these, you should have no problems if you wanted to put some shrimp in there. Ghost shrimp are available at almost every petstore and will eat leftover food and detritus on the bottom of the tank. I'm not sure how readily they breed in the aquarium. Cherry shrimp are available in some places (I bought mine online from a breeder) they are very good algae eaters and would probably not get enough to eat because of the competition with your algae eaters if they are in fact SAEs. Cherries will breed like crazy if they have enough cover and the water is clean.

I hope this has helped you out some. I know there are a lot of great people here who will gladly offer their input too.

Amphitrite

Hi ttiger72, welcome to fishkeeping and welcome to the forum :)

Zebra danios are a good choice for cycling the tank, as they are one of most hardy fish for doing so.

As for a test kit, I would recommend using a liquid one as these are more reliable than the strips.

The API master test kit is the one I use and I have always found it to be reliable. With this you will get tests for

Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH.

Hope that helps

Katherine

Lupin

Hi.

I would avoid the angels for a 29 gallons. Yes, you can have shrimps. Amanos and red cherries are great options. As for the mid level, try harlequin rasboras, diamond tetras, lemon tetras, beacon tetras, black phantom, red phantoms and emperor tetras.:) You have to cycle the tank before adding the fish.:)

ttiger72

Thanks for all the answers. Last night I sat down with my wife and we picked out a bunch of fish that we like. The question now is compatibility. We definitely want Clown Killifish, so what out the other fish would be good?

Boesemani, Praecox, Threadfin Rainbows
Blue Paradise, Dwarf Neon, Honey Dwarf, Licorice, Pearl Gouramis
Cardinal, Green Fire, Bleeding Heart, Long fin Congo, Royal Black Tetras
Tiger, Cherry, Green Finger, Panda Barbs

I know that we can't have all of these fish, but I think we have settled that we want Clown Killifish 100% if possible. Remember that we do have 10 Danios and 2 Siamese Algae eaters already. We are planning on stocking early Feb, provided the tank has cycled. We will add fish in pairs until we get to the proper number per species and then move onto the next species.

Lupin

Boesemanns will grow to almost 6 inches so they are far too big for a 29 gallons.:) Also Congos are out of the question with the threadfins in the tank. Congos are big reaching to almost 4 inches and with their jaws, they are likely to nip everyone. Congos can easily defend themselves from fin nippers so they do get a little aggressive. I've had them before and they grow quite big.

I'd narrow down the list.
Praecox, Threadfins
Dwarf Gouramis(I don't like them with the threadfins in the tank as they can be aggressive.)
Cardinals, Diamonds, Bleeding Heart
Cherry

I've never heard of 'Green Fire'. Avoid the tiger barbs. They will nip your threadfins.