Take it slow.
First let me say welcome to TFK!
I'm looking to stock my just set up 75 gallon tank and have been looking at different fish to put in it. I am planning on doing live plants which I will be buying to plant Wednesday and was wondering which plants would be good in such a large tank. Looking for something that will be dense for portions of it and a good floating plant too.
Good floating plants are usually something like Pennywort, Water Sprite, Wisteria even. Those have worked well for me.
Anubias serves as a good slow growth plant for a midgrown corner plant.
A main foreground plant you could pick a sword or crypt or some kind.
For background an Onion plant or Corkcrew Vallis would do well. Maybe even some Hairgrass. If you like Driftwood you could always get moss to attach to that.
Anyways, the fish I have been thinking about are:
Neon Tetra
Bolivian Ram
Turquoise Rainbowfish
Silver Hatchets
and some type of Corydoba.
Those fish sound great together. I have neons, bolivian and corys in my 29.
Termato.Net
I would say you should have like 30+ Neon tetras because they look beautiful in HUGE schools
3-4 Bolivian Rams
and the rest you can decide based on stocking choice. That's my opinion.
My measured tap water and tank pH is 7.4 and I think the temperature needs to be around 77 for this combination?
I keep my tank between 77-78 degrees. Don't let it get above 80 because the Bolivian will not like it at all.
Also, I'm not sure which fish to put in first since I'm just putting plants in and doing "plant cycling" with my live ones... maybe just the tetras for a while til things settle down?
Thanks everyone! I know it's a lot of questions....
Do you have another tank set up that you can seed this tank with?
This is important and can save you a lot of time.
First I would put in the Neons. Get like 10-15 of them to initially get it going . THen you can go back and add another 10 (don't do more than 10 at once just to not throw the balance off. Some people might suggest less but I think 10 in a 75 is fine. 15 to start out with is fine i think too).
I would add 15 Neon Tetras. Cycle the tank. Once stable (you read 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite for 2 days) add 10 neons a week until you hit the # of neons u want.
Then add the corys.
Then the hatchets
THe last fish to go in are the Rainbowfish and then the Bolivian Rams.
Although the guide says this about neons: Care Level: Easy. Does well in a slightly more narrow range of water parameters and shouldn't be used to cycle an aquarium.
Read more:
Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi) Profile
I think that out of all the fish you picked the neons will be easiest to cycle with as you can keep track of them easier and their small. Also if you don't have too many and plants it shouldn't be a problem...and if u keep up with water changes.
If you just do 10-15 in a 75 gallon you should be fine. Ofc assuming plants as you are getting.
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Before you do anything, let us know if you have another tank set up.
Do you have any water testing kits?
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In all honesty cycling the tank with the neons wont be good for them. You might not be thinking about it now but those fish will have problems because Ammonia and Nitrite are toxic to them.
I fish in cycled 1/2 my tanks before I learned and my fish are still paying for it with poor immune system. My water is now clear and perfect but the fish had the damage done to them.
You can always cycle a tank first and then put the fish in. You could always but that start up bacteria stuff.
The easiest most inexpensive way to cycle a tank is to have an already established tank. Take ornaments, wood, rocks, some gravel, some sand, and the filter from that tank and put it in new tank. It will seed it with bacteria jump starting your cycle. I cycled my 5 gallon betta tank in 3 days this way.