Wow, great find.

For your substrate, I would go with very small gravel. Easy to clean, and very helpful to plants. In fact, you want to do a bit of research on Eco-Complete, which is a substrate made for FW plants.

If you want Kribs, you cant have odd numbers (unless it is all females). Two of the three would pair up and attack the lesser.

Two pairs of possible breeding cichlids could be very dangerous to your other inhabitants by the way.

And, all the fish you mentioned (Cories, Pleco, Kribs, Rams) are all bottom dwellers. I would get the pleco, 6 cories, and either a pair of Rams OR Kribs.
Some Tetras would look really nice in a planted setup. My favorite are Cardinal Tetras but these swim near the bottom. I also love Lemon Tetras, and these could be a good choice. Maybe a small Angel added in, and some Hatchets on the top.
If it were me, I would add:

-2 Kribs/Rams
-6 Cories
-1 Pleco
-8 Tetras of some sort
-6 Hatchets (with a tight hood; they are known to jump).
This, with all the additions of lush plants and driftwood, would be the ideal South American Biotope. Just make sure your lights are adequate, and your are good to go.

 

The stocking list Cody suggested is a good one. Make sure the pleco is one that stays on the smaller side like a clown, bristlenose or rubber lip pleco. I definitely wouldn't attempt two breeding pairs of dwarf cichlids in anything less than 90 gallons with tons of cover. Instead of the tetras you could also try some type of non-nippy barb or rasbora. You could also substitute any of the smaller non-aggressive loaches for the cories.

 

As far as cleaning the tank...is it glass or acrylic??

 

I thank you all, for all of the great input so far; it really is great and helpful. Incase anyone can answer me before I get a chance to look it up, what is eco-complete and where would I be able to locate it?

kym- the tank is glass

I know this will sound dumb, but I didn't think the kribs and the rams were aggressive so why would I not be able to have both. If not, could I go with a pair of one and a single of the other. Also, I have heard that rams are very sensitive to water conditions, are kribs as sensitive?

Also, could anyone let me know what to do about my filtration?

Again, a big thanks to everyone for all the great help!

 

I know this will sound dumb, but I didn't think the kribs and the rams were aggressive so why would I not be able to have both. If not, could I go with a pair of one and a single of the other. Also, I have heard that rams are very sensitive to water conditions, are kribs as sensitive?

These are both Cichlids. Though they may show peaceful behaivor most of time, when they breed, they will protect their fry in any way possible. They could beat each other to the death, and all the other fish, if they both have fry at the same time. This is because of their nature.

And for your filtration, I would suggest a Canister Filter if you are going to have plants.

 

For cleaning glass I'd use ½ cup of ordinary white vinegar dissolved in ½ gallon of distilled water.

I know blue rams can be sensitive. Another alternative are Bolivian Rams. I have them and haven't noticed they are sensitive at all. Not as "pretty" as the blues, but still a great fish.

 

I should obviously rinse it out really well afterwards right?

I know batman suggested either a clown, bristlenose, or a rubberlip. Could I use a Butterfly? I ask this because I have a clown in my daughter's 10 gallon and he is kind of disappointing because he never comes out and we never really get to see him. I was hoping for a more active and less skittish, and also peacful, plec for this tank. Also I was looking at a leopard plec, would that get too big?

 

Yes, rinse it VERY well.

I have a bristlenose who is only an inch and a half long. He's in a 100G with some very larger active tankmates and I see this little guy all the time. I've been trying to take a picture of him for about a week. When I have a camera I can't find him (of course) but other than that I see him daily.
I don't know anything about the butterfly or the leopard but I know others will!

 

Cody - Any reason why you suggest gravel over sand? I was just wondering because I have a buddy who has a 75 gallon, heavily planted, tank with play sand as his substrate with black gravel sparsely mixed in. He says that that is the way to go for planted substrate.

 

Sand tends to clump and leave anerobic spots; gravel on the other hand lets plant roots move through rocks and gain structure. It may just be an opinion.

However, I do beleive that Eco Complete and other plant substrates are sand. You can through some Malysian Trumpet Snails in the sand to keep it stirred.

 

Most of the substrates for planted tanks are like a coarse sand or fine gravel but they'll often have some larger pieces mixed in.

Kribs are much hardier than rams.

This is the best way to think about aggression: problems arise when you mix two aggressive fish. Non-nippy tetras, hatchets, rasboras, danios, etc are all pretty passive fish. They're also fast swimmers. If your rams or kribs breed, they'll chase fish like these away, and the fish will get away because they're so fast. It's a good mix. However...say your kribs have fry and the ram wanders nearby. The ram isn't fast but is aggressive. Instead of leaving, he might decide to stay put and fight back. Then, you've got injured or dead fish. Cichlids can be aggressive towards other cichlids even when they're not breeding. I tried mixing a German blue ram with my female kribensis in a 29g tank and the krib attacked the ram right away. She would have killed it if I hadn't removed her. The male krib is in that tank now, and he certainly doesn't like the ram but this ram is passive enough that he just avoids the krib most of the time. So, to sum it up, if you've got a potential breeding pair problems are guaranteed if you've got any other dwarf cichlid in there. Even if you don't have a pair, problems are a definite possibility if you've got more than a single dwarf cichlid.

Note that this doesn't apply only to cichlids. I have a dwarf gourami that's somewhat beligerent and will sometimes get in scraps with my kribs, but he generally knows when he's lost and backs off before any damage is done.

 

All of this information is great and extremely helpful, thank you all so much. I could not find any place near me that has any Eco-Complete, so I was wondering if I could use this stuff I found at petsmart. This stuff is called Seachems Flourite Plant Substrate. If I can use it, would it be okay to go with one 15lb bag of it and mix in some regular very small gravel? Oh, and speaking of the substrate, should I put something under the substrate to protect the glass from the rock-work I want to do? Like a grate from a flourescent light fixture?

I think I am gonna go with the kribs, I just think they will be a better match for me. I think the rainbows are the best looking ones. Does anyone keep any other breeds of kribs that are as visually appealing. Also, I like all of the suggestions for my stocking list so far. Does anyone else have any other suggestions they would like to add for a plec, bottom dwellers, mid-level dwellers, and top-level dwellers? I just would like to hear some more opinions.

Thanks again.

 

Flourite is very good if I remember correctly. The 15lbs+ small gravel should work, but over time the sand would sink to the bottom.

You can use something on the bottom of your tank. I have eggcrate under my sand in my reef tank, for just in case the live rock falls. You could have the same setup.

 

cody - what do you mean by eggcrate?

 

It is a plastic flourescent light cover/diffusion thing... Basically small plastic boxes all put together. You can usually find it in large sheets in the lighting section at Home Depot or Lowes. Here is a picture.
http://www.collins-consulting.org/orchids/eggCrate.jpg

 

Aside from the kribs:
-Pleco: 1 clown, bristlenose, or rubber lip pleco (or another variety that stays small, but these three are the most common and least expensive of the smaller plecos)
-Bottom dwellers: 8 cories, a dozen kuhli loaches, or a half dozen zebra loaches
-Mid-level: a school of a dozen small schooling fish. Any of the smaller tetras, barbs, or rasboras would work well. You could also cut the school size down some and add some livebearers, like 2 male 3 female platies or guppies or 1 male 2 female swordtails. Or you could leave out the schooling fish altogether and double those livebearer numbers.
-Top level: 6-8 hatchets or smaller danios (zebra, leopard, blue, glowlight, etc)

The stocking there is a little on the heavy side, but as long as you have adequate filtration and are good about doing water changes it should be no problem. Everything I listed aside from the pleco are all fish that are very light on your bioload.

 

I was kind of thinking about adding a school of Forktailed Rainbows. I just could not find anything about what part of the tank they inhabit. Has anyone ever had any, are they lively and hardy?

 

From another forum I found this post:

Although most sources say they spend most of their time around the middle and top of an aquarium I find that they spend most of their time virtually everywhere when kept in a large group. Mine seam to rarely school together though

 

I have always used regular play sand in my planted tanks. I just put some root tabs in the sand in the beginning. Also make sure you rinse out the sand before putting it in the tank. If not it will leave a suspended haze that will not come out too easily. My most successful planted tank I also had medium sized gravel in the tank to give it a little more substrate. Although, my gravel sunk to the bottom of the tank, leaving the sand on top (others have said sand sinks to bottom). My friend swears by "Eco Complete" plant substrate. He has been pretty successful too. Just make sure you have enough lighting in there for the plants to grow, and to keep the algae away. Good luck.

-Matt