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Hey everyone!

Wow, I haven't been here in a few years! Great to see it's still up and running Things got a little busy after buying our house, having a daughter, and getting married!

Anyway, my 60 gal. (4' wide, 2' deep, 2'high) has been put away in a back room for a few years. When my JD's perished, I didn't have it in me to restock it while taking care of a newborn. I'm now starting to get the itch again, but I think I'd like to keep it simple and easy!

I've ALWAYS loved neons.. their colors and how they school so well! I'm sure my 3 yo daughter and 8 yo step-daughter would absolutely love watching them swim!

Here's my question (which I've asked many times before, I apologize) What would you recommend I stock it with! I'll probably need a new filter and new lights, I've never had live plants but thought that might be fun as well!

Let me know your stocking ideas! I still have that old piece of driftwood I used for years, as well as quite a bit of slate and I also have a bigger gravel for the bottom!

Thanks you in advance for your opinions!

I forgot to mention I also want to get a pleco! I had one for 5 of 6 years and I loved seeing him grow!!!

I've always been a huge fan of asian tanks, mainly because of barbs and clown loaches...but if you've got a hankering for neons I'd suggest:

24ish neons or cards depending on what looks healthier in your store

6-10 congo or diamond tetras as I have a feeling the younger ones will be more attracted to something a little flashy. Congos have nice tails without being morphed, diamonds, well, they're sparkly!

A school of corys, go with the smaller varieties so you can have a larger school.

That should leave you with enough room for a pleco as well (another reason to go with smaller cory varieties).

For now I'd steer clear of angels since they are neons natural preditor. If you do want to add them, I would suggest in a year after the neons are grown to their full size and have established themselves, and then only get angels as young ones, they may not go after them in that case.

Keeping the tank more lightly stocked will keep it lower maintenance, Tie some java fern onto the driftwood before you start cycling the tank and adding fish as it'll let it get a good hold on before it has to deal with the pleco. I'd say 3 or 4 good sized pieces should be fine, it'll start sending out babies which you can either toss, or put them in a floating fry tank or a net and let them grow a bit before tying them onto their own bits of rock or wood.

If you're not in a position to get more than 2 WPG over the tank, and do CO2 I'd stick with just low light plants like java fern, you really can't go wrong with it and it can overgrow the tank given time (in our case a week !).

I'd give everything you have a rinse off. If you haven't checked the tank for leaks yet you should before you get too many plans for it. Set it on some newspaper on the floor and carefully! fill it with water, don't let any drip. Mark the water level with a dry erase and let it sit for 24 hours. If the water level is the same and you don't see any water marks on the newspaper you'll be ok to drain the tank and set it up. Then test the filter to make sure it doesn't leak. You should be ok to use the same old gear so long as the filter doesn't leak anywhere. Once the tank has been set up and the filter running on it I'd repeat the 24 hour water level test. To be on the safe side I'd stick a bucket under the filter and don't start the test unless you can keep an eye on the tank for the first few hours at least.

Lightbulbs should still work, but if you want to have plants it won't hurt to buy new bulbs, look for 6700K daylight rated bulbs.

Driftwood should be fine, just give it a rinse off then resink it, rinse all the gravel and slate as well before adding it to the tank.

Hope that gives you some things to think about, you might want to consider placing the tank in a position where it could be viewed on both sides, short end against a wall for instance...might make it a little different for the little and not so little one. The older one is probably in a position where she could pick out some fish of her own, just make sure to do some research on them before buying if she picks out something you're not familiar with. Have her write down the names and show her how to find them in the Profiles section.

You will probably need new test kits to cycle the tank with, so once you know the tank doesn't leak, and the filter is running ok. I'd hit up your LFS with pen and paper to write down your own ideas, get a bottle of Cycle, a master test kit, and some java fern to start off with.


^_^

I haven't been on in years either and I was definitely happy to see the site still thriving!

This is making me want to go out and start a new tank

Hi mrsmonty,
Welcome back to the hobby!

Hi Nemo,
Please Do and let us know your progress.
Frank

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