New to Forum, Planning my comeback into the hobby.

[Api]

Hey Guys,
I have been keeping and breeding fish for probably close to 20 years, but my being in the military has put a stop to my tanks over the past few years. I am currently deployed, but planning my tank set up to get me going again when I get home. I have to keep it to 1 small tank for now (my wife is sick of taking care of my tanks when I am away). It is going to be a standard 36", 30 Gallon tank. I will be building the set up around Apistogrammas. I haven't decided on the species yet. I have bought from apistodave in the past and they were all amazing!! Now I just have to pick the actual fish I want and get all my facts straight.

Anyway, here is my dilema right now. I am trying to figure out how high tech my set up is going to be. I wanted to do a planted aquarium, almost a biotype aquarium. But, if Apistos don't really care much for bright light, should i just go simple with low light plants that will survive in the Apisto water requirements and not worry about T-5 HO lights and CO2 injection? Is the lighting really an issue, or am I overthinking it all? I had a 75G planted tank in the past, so I have all the equipment. I would just have to change the arrangement for a smaller tank.

As for the fish, the main piece is probably a trio of whicever species of Apistos I decide on. I want a small school of maybe pencilfish or cardinals. How about harlequins?, it's been a while, i don't remember thier requirements. I will have a few otocinclus for the plants, and maybe some small corys.

So anyway, long enough post.. I would really appreciate any feedback on what people think is the best way to go,l or any ideas. If I'm off base with anything, let me know. I get to the point that I read so much I get myself over thinking every detail.

Thanks,
Chuck

 

[Mike Wise]

Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of people who can help you here. Since the tank you plan to set up is not going to be for breeding, any of the fish and plant system should work. I'm very low tech, plant-wise, so I can't help you here.

 

[ed seeley]

Welcome! I've kept and bred dwarfs in high tech planted tanks. Just design it so the plants will provide cover from the lights and get it nice and established before you add the cichlids and they will be fine. I'd go with the pencilfish and otos but any shoaling species will be fine. For effect I'd get one large shoal rather than two or three smaller ones.

 

[Api]

Thankfully I am better at keeping fish than I am this computer stuff. I have tried to reply twice to this already and lost my post both times...

Ok, so to sum up what I had replied..Thank You for the reponses. I have chosen to go with the fully planted "high tech" approach. This is what I wanted to do anyway, so I'm glad i got some posastive feedback. Since this is the only tank I will have, I will be able to give it some good attention. I want it to be somewhat of a show tank.

So as far as the substrate goes, I used Flourite last time but after reading more about it, sounds like maybe the pieces were too large for the Apistos to move around as they needed to. So, is sand really the way to go? I could use a layer of fourite for the plants, then a layer of sand for the fish. Or has anyone used Eco Complete? Is that a smaller size and more suitable for the apistos?

I have raised Caucs and Agassizii in the past, but I may want to try something different this time. The blue variation of the Agassizii looks pretty nice. So now I have a direction and I will start researching the plants that will give me good coverage and shelter, and exactly what fish I want to have. I definately will go with one larger shoal of fish as apposed to several types. I love the look of a nice school of fish interacting in the tank.

Again, thanks for the input.

Chuck