taking a step back.... some insight please

Andrewz00

many of you have read my woes in the http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...l-dying-40353/ post..... and some of you have so kindly offered your advice in the http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...-advice-40370/ thread....

im thinking, at this point do i honestly want to just replace the 45 with the 90? transferring the water and fish?

im learning a great deal on here, ive only been posting for a week... and am starting to think about changing from smooth gravel to sand to watch the corys.... im already set on bringing my tinfoil and columbian shark back to the LFS (unless one of you is local and would care for them?)... there is just so much to consider.

could i move the water, corys, pleco and baby tiger barbs..... add new sand instead of gravel.... and possibly live plants instead of fake? or am i crazy and i should just start completely fresh, cycle the new tank from scratch? ugh...sooooo much to think about!! these forums are the best/worst thing to happen to me! LOL

tanker

Do you have room for both? If it were me (I'm a newb) and I'd sorted out the issues with the 45 gallon, I'd want to leave my fish there where they are doing fine because moving them might stress them and cause new issues. (This might be a "newbish" and unfounded fear. Maybe cycling the new tank won't be a big drama because you've got your established filter to seed it from.)

If you've got room for both, you could set up the other one with sand for your cories, plant it up, then move them in after it's all set up and cycled and the plants are established. Even then, I'd still probably leave the cories where they are and get new cories for your bigger tank. Then again, you've successfully moved your cories before.....

In other words, I have nothing useful to say, but I appreciate your dilemma

iamntbatman

Well, what kind of fish are you interested in? A 45g is plenty big for a nice herd of corydoras, so you could easily build a nice community in there and get something bigger for the 90g (like cichlids or something). Or, you could move the cories to the 90g and just have a big community tank and still have the 45g for a different community or some other types of interesting fish. In other words, if you do have room for both I would definitely keep both tanks up and running and do something fun with both.

Andrewz00

ok, so unfortunately part of the problem is i dont have the room for both.... my ideal 90 gal would be a large community of small -ish fish (nothing nearly as large as my tinfoil) with some shrimp or snails or both? ive never had a planted tank before... can you plant in sand? i see people using eco-complete substrate to plant in.. do i need that? wow after keeping tanks for the better part of 20 years im such a newbe!!!

tanker

If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading the sticky threads at the top of the Aquatic Plants section. Lots of good info there.

Andrewz00

i have been reading everything i possible can, which is why im getting #1 excited! #2 adventurous and #3 confused!

i have sooooo many questions that i never even considered before today. and naturally, i want the best of my affordable price range.

if plants (preferable low maintenance) can be planted in home depot play sand, then i will add them eventually...

as far as fish, i would like to keep my corys as they have been with me for 7-8 years.... and whats left of the tiger barbs, and the pleco..... after that i would like to add about 12 more tigers.... and i dont know what else yet...

iamntbatman

Tiger barbs do limit you somewhat as they can be really nasty fin nippers so you can't really keep them with fish with long, flowing fins. A larger school would definitely help keep their aggression levels down.

You can plant in play sand. Angel079 has several planted tanks with a play sand substrate, if I remember correctly. I've done it myself, too (though I don't currently have any plants planted directly in sand).

Andrewz00

ok so currently im thinking all barbs.... different types....

4 Bronze Cory cats
7 tiger barbs
7 black ruby barbs
7 albino tiger barbs
7 odessa barbs
7 Chinese barbs
7 rhomb barbs
1 Common Pleco

although, i came home yesterday and found a skeleton of a pleco hanging out.... so i suppose i could remove that from my list....