A stocking question... (pics)

[endrasgarden]

I just setup a new tank. It's currently cycling. I have been doing some serious research and I would appreciate some advice. Here's the tank:

It's 37 gallons and measures 30.25in x 12.5 in x 22.75in. I've been trying to determine what kind, and how many fish I can put in here. I've tried getting advice on the web and much of it has been conflicting. I did some calculation.

using the formula 1 inch of fish for every 12 inches of surface area (30.25x12.5) / (12) = 31.5 (rounded) inches. I then averaged that with the amount of gallons in the tank using the formula 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water (31.5 +37) / (2) = 34.25. So I figure I can put that many inches of adult fish in the aquarium. I get conflicting reports for the max size of fish.

I would like to do cichlids of some type. I was thinking maybe a couple of male fire mouths, a male blue acara, and a green severum, and a smaller pleco (or some other algae eater.) I was also considering doing an angelfish tank. Any suggestions?

Also I used some superbac to hasten the N2 cycle. ANybody ever used this?

What should I put in there? Thanks in advance.

*GOLDFISH*

-C

 

[Pure]

Welcome to the tank. I commend you on doing your research prior to purchasing.

You can't stock cichlids by the 1inch per gallon rule. You have to account for territories and most male SA/CA cichlids will either take up half of your tank for territories. The larger ones like the firemouth that will still fit in this tank will take up all of it for a territory and not tolerate other fish in their area.

In this tank you have enough room for 1 fire mouth. The other cichlids you listed get too large. Even a firemouth is going to be a tad bit cramped.

You want to do smaller cichlids. Look into apistos, there's many that would do well in this tank. Also German and Bolivian rams would do well. You could keep a mated pair of convicts, Honduran red points, rainbow cichlids. You may be able to keep 2 males of the rainbows and the Hondurans, but only if you don't have any females. Any one of these fish pairing up with a mate would be bad news for the other tank mate. There are many more that will fit. You just need to keep reading. There are also some Africans that would do well in this tank but outside of shellies or kribs I can't offer much input.

 

[DesignsOnYou]

Also, unless you're adding something for the bacteria to feed on, like fish, pure ammonia, a dead shrimp, or something else, your tank isn't cycling. The tank just up and running, even with the superbac in it, is not cycling unless ammonia is being introduced, which then turns into nitrite, and then nitrate. Here's a link to the SuperBac website, there's a section in the FAQ that talks about adding fish. I haven't used it, but it seems that BioSpira and TurboStart are the only ones that seem to actually work, although you will hear people swear that almost all of them either do or don't work, based on their personal experience. Something else to consider is that even adding fish in now might not fix the problem, because the bacteria has probably already died with nothing to feed on. This means that you would need to either add in more bacteria or do a fish cycle or a fishless cycle the normal way. Your tank looks great, I hope you have fun with your stocking.