Help Planning My Next Tank

[Smells Fishy]

I've got an empty 100L so if all goes well sometime in the new year I could start setting it up. Two things I have defiantly decided: No1 the fish, Dwarf Indian Puffer Fish and South American Puffer Fish, not sure on the number of fish yet. No2 its going to be heavily planted. The Madagascar Lace leaf and Banana Plant will be the main focus of planting. Other plants that take my fancy but undecided about are Nymphaea Stellata, Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides (Spadeleaf plant) and Hydrocotyle Vulgaris. I understand I will have to buy some sort of plant substrate. Is there any you can recommend for a plant substrate newbie? I think I will buy Tetra Planta Start for the root tabs or if you know/prefer of any better? Also of the plants I have listed if you have any experience of keeping them please share your opinion.

Cheers.

 

[alto]

sounds like an exciting tank

I think a group of Dwarf Indian Puffer fish would be terrific in this tank 🙂
Carinotetraodon travancoricus
Achieves a tiny adult size of only 1″ (2.5cm).
Try and keep water movement to a minimum as the species inhabits very still waters in nature.

Nathan Hill's PFK article
Despite their waspish nature to some other fish, they do enjoy the company of their own kind




OTOH the tank looks rather too small for long term care of Chelichthys asellus (South American Puffer Fish)
The maximum recorded length in wild specimens is 128 mm, but aquarium reports suggest 70 – 80 mm to be typical.
An aquarium with base dimensions of 120 ∗ 30 ∗ 30 cm or larger is required for long-term care.
This species naturally forms loose aggregations and can behave nervously in the absence of conspecifics. Ideally a group of 6 or more should be purchased.
I also wonder about suitability of keeping this much larger puffer with what would seem to be nicely snack sized puffers

Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides

One of my favorite plants (though no longer available locally) - I had the Tropica form, nice soft green color & seemed an "easy" plant.

Madagascar Lace - when it thrives it gets very big

. I understand I will have to buy some sort of plant substrate. Is there any you can recommend for a plant substrate newbie?

I really like Tropica's Growth Substrate & Aquarium Soil
George Farmer has done some very nice tanks with the Colombo product line

 

[Smells Fishy]

Thanks for the reply alto.

Yeah I think your right about the South American Puffers. I'll happily settle for the little Indian Puffers and aim for some even smaller baby Puffers if I can make them a nice home. For filtration I want something cheap but obviously good so maybe the Aquael Fan Filter 1 to save a bit of space. Those fish are only little anyway. I just read George Farmers article on a guide to substrates and I like the sound of Caribsea Eco-Complete the most. The article must be a bit out dated though because he said it costs £25 for 9kg and I've looked on Amazon and its £75.84 and £44.55 p&p! I would only ever pay that if I had money to throw away. I'll properly go with you and buy Tropica AquaCare Plant Substrate and mix it with Tetra Complete Substrate.

What plant fertilizer do you use? I use Waterlife Tropiflora every 2 weeks.

 

[alto]

Tropica AquaCare Plant Substrate

I think this may now be labelled at Tropica Growth Substrate (or the reverse ) - it's meant as a bottom layer ... you wouldn't want to mix it up as your surface substrate.


jonny.j has some recent posts on Eco-Complete - in another thread he mentions that he picked it up for ~22/bag (as I recall 😉 )

Amazon and its £75.84 and £44.55 p&p!

sometimes Amazon gives you complete bunk

I use Tropica liquid fertilizers - I like Tropica as a company & it's readily available (at one of my favorite shops 😀)

I suspect that as long as your plants are doing well, most fertilizers will suffice.