Trying to decide

[ajn81]

So I have this extra 10 gallon tank sitting out in my garage with lights and a filter, and I'm starting to get the itch to set it up. I was thinking that I may just want to go with a simple freshwater setup.

My question is, having little freshwater experience, what kinds of fish and how many can I put in a tank this size?

I like the idea of putting a bunch of smaller fish in there, like guppies or neons or something, but I'm not sure what fish and how many could be placed in a FW tank this size before the bioload is too much.

Anyone out there with freshwater experience that could give me some ideas?

[kjsreef]

You should try a nice fw planted tank. I was just at AW and they have some really nice display tanks that are fw planted (Amano style).

[rman]

you can't put a whole lot of fish in 10g... maybe some small little guys like 5-10 neon tetras.. cardinal tetras glow more but they are captive bred and not very hardy.

the rough rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon.

It also depends on what you like. I love the look of tha amano style FW tanks but would never keep one myself. If you want something fun to stare at, DIY a coralife 50/50 screw in bulb hood (about $7 for the bulb) and get 10 little neon tetras and a couple plants. I'd go half sand and half crushed coral. I have about 150lbs of sand for FW tanks. You'll only need 10 lbs but I'd almost pay you to take all 150 lbs. That would be a super easy maintainence tank. Weekly 10-15% water changes and keeping the substrate clean is pretty much all.
You can also try to find some really nicely colored fancy guppies, about 7 or 8 will do well in a 10 gallon.

[smirkis]

if u do a decent filtration setup (i know, its only a 10gal) but if u do a nice job on the filtration u can pack it up without having to worry about bioload.

neons n guppies don't use much on their own. feed very little, do ur biweekly water changes, and load it up with beauty. freshwater is hard to foul out. if it gets a hair cloudy on u do a water change n by morning it'll be fine again. i'm a huge freshwater head and have been doing it religiously since 1993 so i kinda figured out the bare minimum of things lol.

7-8 guppies in a 10gal will look like its completely empty. my neighbor across the street was not a fish guy, he bought 10 fancy guppies n within a year he had over 50+ and never changed his habbits. the tank was good for years. prolly unfair to the fish, but do what u want with it. jus don't stick a oscar/pacu/arowana/bichir/puffer or anything else that gets above a few inches

[ajn81]

Cool guys, thanks for the input. Right now I'm leaning toward getting like 6 neon tetra's.

I've never done a planted tank before, what kind of lighting do you need, and what would be good plants for a tank this size?

[rman]

lighting is simple, just go 50/50 and that's overkill already. Plants - I have no idea. I'm not so big into platned tanks. I've put plants in a 60 before and I liked it. I just go to the petstore and pick out what I think is cool. FW is super simple.

here's my old 60. bunch of rock and random plants. excuse the immense # of feeders... i forget what I had at the time that ate all those up.



i've got some cool wood (african root) and some other things you might be able to cram in the 10g. Let me know if you need anything... air pumps, etc. I used to have hoods but i think i threw them away awhile back.

[annanano]

So I have this extra 10 gallon tank sitting out in my garage with lights and a filter, and I'm starting to get the itch to set it up.

noooooooooooooooooo!

[rman]

noooooooooooooooooo!

lol you must be his wife. i was there last week after you guys went to fuddruckers. i was the brown feller in the bob marley sweatshirt

[ajn81]

lol you must be his wife

You guessed it, should have never introduced her to the board .

[seahorse_man]

you can't put a whole lot of fish in 10g... maybe some small little guys like 5-10 neon tetras.. cardinal tetras glow more but they are captive bred and not very hardy.

the rough rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon.

So I can have a 9'' trigger and a 1'' damsel in my 10g?

-Thanks

[rman]

"rough" rule of thumb. obviously 10 guppies is a lot different than say...2 5" cichlids. And that's for FW.

i've learned that in marine, you want roughly 3 fingers of fish per 10 gallons. Now whether that's 3 sumo fingers or of nicole richie's fingers, who knows.

[ajn81]

So I can have a 9'' trigger and a 1'' damsel in my 10g

I think I'll go with Jordan's plan.

[annanano]

You guessed it, should have never introduced her to the board .

Don't you guys think he should forget this freshwater business and focus on his reef tank? He doesn't even have any fish in there yet...

[SoCalBoo]

neons are more delicate than cardinals. if you like the look, go cardinals. just get an aquaclear 20. easy maintenance, good tri-filtration all the way around for not much money.

crushed coral will through your ph up, and if you are using SD H2O, could create high ph issues. if you wanted planted, you can do low tech plant soil substrate with about 1/2" sand over that, then 1/2" gravel over that. use low input plants - wysteria, crypts and vals will often do well in lower light and no CO2. then use floating plants - hornwort and frogsbit are good.

got to run, if you need more ideas, let me know.

[SoCalBoo]

If you like the look of a large school, you've got to go for micros...something like endlers livebearers. AW has a lot of micros in stock and on display. good place to start

As far as stocking, many rules of thumb, as others have posted. i've got a 10g planted tank with far more than 1" per gallon and it is thriving.