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I currently have a 21 gallon tank (tall) that has
4 glowlights (used to have 6)
2 lemons
4 guppies
3 peppered corys

I want to get a bigger tank and want to know what size tank would be suitable for the stock i'm planning on having. I want to have:

8 glowlights
8 cardinals or harilquin rasboras (which one would be better)
2 lemons (don't want anymore)
4 guppies (all males)
a pair of boilivan rams (would this be okay in my set up)
6 or more peppered corys
and some ottos

I was thinking of getting a 32 gallon tank i saw but am wondering if it will be big enough for those fish. Any advice would be appriciated

I'd probably go a little bigger and try to find a 40g or just get a 55 since 40s can be hard to find. That's alot of schooling fish for a tank that's only around 3'. With a 4' you'd definitely have space for the rams as well as all the schools you have planned.

I also have a few other questions about setting up my new tank:

1. what substrate would be the best to use in my tank for growing plants and also be good for my peppered cories. I found this http://www.fishkeepers.net/pondconnection/gc/getDetail.php?ID=558733 i think this looks like a good gravel for my plants but not sure if would be good for cories. If anyone has any experince with this gravel please tell me if it is really worth getting.

2. What are the best plants to use in my tank? I was thinking of just gettng some low to med. light plants. What are some good ones that are easy to look after??

3. If I get that gravel that is suppose to be good for plants and only get low-med light plants will i need to use ferts or a C02 diffuser or will they grow fine by themselves

Thanks for all the help and all advice is appriciated

As far as size, I think a 55 would be perfect. I have one, and am planning a similar stock without the guppies, but tetras of various sepcies, coys and rams.

Substrate: you want a small-ish rounded pebble if you're going to have corys. They will dig, and hurt themselves if you have edgy small gravel. So, get smooth substrate.

Plants: I just began my experiment with plants. I have anacharis and hornwort. I left the hornwort just float, it's so messy to try to plant so with them,s ubstrate doesn't matter. I also have anacharis, which was tucked into the gravel, but the Tiger Barbs nipped and nipped and now it's flaoting too. I will probably tie them to one end of my driftwood or to a rock, with fishing line. I plant to get an anubia or two, and plant them into the substrate. All three of these plants are supposed to be hardy, and don't require any terribly fancy lighting. I am installing a 15w lifeglo2 18" bulb in that tank later today. It's a 20g long.

Good luck I hope this helps.

Eco complete is great for plants. It's my favorite substrate and I rarely setup a tank a tank without it. Even when I'm not planning on having alot of plants. It works fine for all fish. The loaches just love digging in it. However EC is not handled like regular gravel. You treat it basically like sand. It doesn't compact or stir up and cloud like most sand but you can't gravel vac it. It has a variety of particle sizes from medium gravel to fine grain sand. It will look kinda like mud when you first add it and then settle out over a few days. Then the detritus will sit on top. You just run a gravel vac tube or hose over the top of the substrate to suck off the junk that has gathered on the top and then stir up as much of it as you can while sucking the dirty water out. It's not really difficult just different from gravel. If you want something that's the same as gravel but for plants then look into flourite.

Fertilizer will depend on what plants you choose and your water. With EC and other plant substrates you very rarely need root fertilizer but you may still need to add liquid or powdered fertilizers to the water. It depends on your tank and how heavily planted it is. How much light do you plan to have? That will determine what plants you can grow. The hardiest low light plants are java fern, java moss, anubias, and some crypts. These plants will grow under almost any conditions but don't grow fast and generally won't require any fertilizer.

Thanks everyone for quick response and great answers. I don't really have room for a 4' tank so if a went with a 3' tank would i have to alter the stock for the tank or would it be ok?? How much light should i have and how long do i leave the lights each day?? (Want to avoid algae)Also if i want bigger plants for the back or faster growing plants does this mean i will have to have a lot more light or can u get fast growing low-med light plants?? What is the best brand of lights to use??

Sorry for soo many questions but i want to make sure i do everything right this time! Thanks again for all the answers

A 40g breeder and a 50 are 36" long but can be hard to find. Plus the 40g breeders I did find were insanely expensive. I had to hold out until I found a used one. Otherwise the largest common 36" tank is a 30g long which would be rather crowded with 2 tetra schools, a school of fairly large cories, and the extra fish. Possibly if you went with a smaller species of cory or only increased the glowlights and then included a pair of rams without adding the 2nd school. I think adding all the fish you have planned though would be a bit much for a 30g and definitely rather full in anything smaller.

Considering the fact you already have peppered cories I'd just count out your 2nd school so stock with:
8 glowlights
2 lemons
4 guppies
6 peppered cories
2 bolivian rams

In a 30g tank. Preferably a 30 long because of the extra space on the bottom for the cories and rams.

For some reason I keep getting 37" when I measure my 40 breeder despite every site saying 36"... I wonder if I just have an odd sized tank.


Generally the faster the plant grows the more nutrients it needs and therefore along with everything else in the water the more light it needs. You can get a few fast growing medium light plants like hornwort and duckweed will survive most anything. Duckweed isn't called a weed for nothing though. Once you add it to the tank you can't get rid of it. There are also some fast growing stem plants that will do fine in medium light. What constitutes low medium and high light is arguable but generally you need at least 1wpg(30watts on a 30g) to grow the hardiest lowest light plants and around 2wpg is the line between medium and low light. Above 2wpg co2 is suggested because the plants will grow fast enough to use up all the co2 in the tank. Low light plants will grow faster in high light but if you put all low light plants in a high light tank they won't use the nutrients and algae will grow instead.