Starting 100gallon! what fish? other advice??

Jwest

ok, so i should cycle it with plants and see where i'm at?

Byron

If you can, plant it well as soon as you're ready (no leaks, filter and heater working overnight, etc.).

A few fish can be added once it is well planted. But before doing that, decide what sort of community you want. No point in buying fish that will not fit in down the road. The fish should have very similar requirements in terms of water parameters in particular, and then obviously be compatible in their behaviours.

Initially, the pH is likely going to be high like your tap water. Only in time with fish and bacteria in the tank will this lower a bit, and with the plants and some wood. Depending upon your choice of fish, you may want to adjust the pH initially as I mentioned before.

Byron.

Jwest

It's so hard to pick fish =(.. I'm leaning towards gourami so i can get a school of cories and not worry about kribs or rams bothering them

als1996

Don't call yourself a noob, everyone has to get over a learning curve in this hobby.

Anyways, may I suggest to go for a biotope. Since the gouramis and rainbowfish are from Asia you can get maybe danios or other fish in the water parameters. As well you could just make a huge community tank or head over to a Amazon/South America biotope. You could be able to stock tons of tetras and corydoras. As well having a couple Discus swimming around as your prize fish. But, do whatever you like, its your choice. Now, for plants, easy ones are Java Fern, Java Moss, Anubias, water Wisteria, and amazon swords. My only suggestion is to have a co2 kit for the plants. You can read up on all the fish and plants in the Tropical Fish Profiles. Good luck with your tank.

Byron

This is nearly identical to your other post
Starting 100gallon! what fish? other advice??

and several of us have responded there. I can merge this thread into that one if you agree, Jwest. Having two basically identical threads will mean some may not contribute to one or the other which makes it harder for subsequent members to follow everything, and some may spend time responding twice.

Byron.

Jwest

go ahead and merge it. i accidently first put this in the wrong section and it got moved over.

Jwest

i'm having troubles with my diy wet dry, i was looking into getting either two Marineland Penguin 200 BIO-Wheel Power Filters, or either a Penn Plax Cascade Canister Filter. any opinions?

Byron

As this is aiming to be a 100g planted aquarium, with forest fish, I would without question select a canister filter. I don't know the make you mention, having never used it, so can't say good or bad.

I have Eheims on two tanks (70g and 90g) and a Rena XP3 on my 115g. The Eheims have a solid reputation for reliability and durability; mine have been running non-stop for more than 12 years with never an issue. The Rena XP3 is rated for your size tank, and I've had it a year now and like it. It is designed like the Eheims, which isn't surprising; if it works so well, why change it? Eheims are expensive, Rena les so; and Fluval less again and while many like Fluvals I have read stats elsewhere that Rena and Eheim are long-term better money.

Jwest

yikes. thats alot of money. i still need to buy heater too. i'm reading some pretty good reviews on the penn plax cascade canister filter and it's only a hundred. why would you recommend a canister for plants?

Byron

In a planted tank you don't want excessive water movement. Sufficient to maintain clear water and remove debris from plant leaves (which if allowed to accumulate slows down and even stops the exchange of substances through the leaves) but not so much as to prevent the exchange. Some plants assimilate nutrients via the leaves, and if the nutrients in the water are flowing past faster than the plant can assimilate them they are of little value. Plants assimilate carbon via CO2 quite slowly, slower than terrestrial plants, and as CO2 is frequently the nutrient that can become exhausted faster than others and it is a macro-nutrient, it is important not to set up filtration such that it will deplete the CO2 even faster. There is also the issue of oxygen; too much oxygen is detrimental to plant growth because oxygen binds with many nutrients such as iron and they become too large to be absorbed by the plants. Vital nutrients are thus not available to the plants, so nutrient deficiency results--all caused by too much oxygen through excessive water movement. This is why surface disturbance should be minimal, and this is often closely connected with the filtration method.

I mention all this in the articles "A Basic Approach to the Natural Planted Aquarium" at the head of the Aquarium Plants section along with various other aspects of planted tanks.